CARLSBAD, California, April 24, 2026, 06:56 PDT
- MaxLinear stock jumped at the open in the U.S., with first-quarter results coming in ahead of expectations.
- The chipmaker is projecting revenue between $160 million and $170 million for the second quarter.
- Management pointed to a surge in optical data-center products, citing demand from AI infrastructure as the driver.
MaxLinear Inc. shares surged roughly 67% early Friday after the chipmaker projected second-quarter revenue far ahead of Wall Street targets, pointing to stronger demand for chips used inside AI data centers. The stock climbed to $57.30, up over $23 compared to Thursday’s close.
Why does it matter? MaxLinear is pushing to get investors looking past its slump in broadband and ongoing legal battles from a botched acquisition. The company’s betting on a new pitch: optical data-center connectivity. In simple terms, these are the chips and products that let servers, switches, and optical modules blast through more data, faster—a priority as cloud giants scale up their AI infrastructure.
MaxLinear posted a 43% jump in first-quarter revenue, reaching $137.2 million. Adjusted earnings landed at 22 cents a share, outpacing the 18-cent consensus and $134.6 million in revenue analysts had been looking for, according to FactSet figures cited by Investor’s Business Daily.
MaxLinear expects June quarter revenue to land between $160 million and $170 million. That midpoint—$165 million—beats the $137.1 million analysts were looking for, IBD reports.
“Q1 marks the start of a multi-year growth phase for MaxLinear, led by accelerating momentum in optical data center connectivity,” Chief Executive Kishore Seendripu said in the company’s release. Infrastructure revenue surged over 130% and, according to Seendripu, now stands as MaxLinear’s largest end market. MaxLinear, Inc.
During the earnings call, Seendripu pointed to a 136% year-over-year jump in infrastructure revenue, crediting production ramps for optical data-center platforms. MaxLinear, he added, has raised its 2026 optical data-center revenue goal to a range of $150 million to $170 million, citing customer orders and clearer program ramp timelines.
PAM4 DSP chips—digital signal processors using four-level signaling to push more data across optical links—are the main focus here. MaxLinear says its Keystone platform is now seeing increased adoption by major hyperscale customers, those big cloud players rolling out massive AI computing systems.
Steven Litchfield, the finance chief, told analysts he expects sequential growth across all four end markets in the second quarter. Most of that lift, he said, will likely come from infrastructure and data-center products. Litchfield added that a shift in product mix toward 800G and 1.6T offerings should give gross margin a boost—even as input costs climb.
Stifel wasted no time, bumping its MaxLinear price target up to $49 from $34 and sticking with a Buy call. The firm credited March-quarter gains mostly to data-center optical interconnects within the infrastructure business.
Roth/MKM bumped MaxLinear up to Buy from Neutral and hiked its price target sharply to $60 from $18, pointing to momentum in optical infrastructure and what it called “significant multi-quarter growth visibility,” Investing.com noted. Needham’s Quinn Bolton also shifted to a Buy call with a $60 target, TipRanks reported. Susquehanna’s Christopher Rolland went to $45 from $30 on his target but stuck with Hold. Investing.com
The field is crowded. MaxLinear, in its regulatory filing, pointed to Broadcom, Marvell, and Credo as key merchant semiconductor competitors. Some optical-interconnect clients, it noted, are module manufacturers with the option to source components internally. That keeps design wins both crucial and, at times, precarious.
Risks remain. MaxLinear reported a GAAP net loss of 52 cents per share for the first quarter, and its latest filing highlights threats from competition, heavy reliance on a few customers, tariffs, export controls, and the ongoing legal fight with Silicon Motion. A delay in AI infrastructure buildout, losing a key customer, or fresh margin pressure from bigger competitors—all could erase Friday’s gains in a hurry.
MaxLinear has tweaked its credit terms with Wells Fargo and a group of other lenders, pushing the maturity on its revolving credit facility out to March 2028 from the prior June 2026 date. The available capacity jumps by $30 million, now totaling $130 million. So far, MaxLinear hasn’t tapped the facility.
