New York, Feb 6, 2026, 13:06 (EST) — Regular session
- Tower Semiconductor shares jumped in U.S. trading following a fresh Nvidia-related disclosure.
- Filing details development of 1.6-terabit optical modules leveraging silicon photonics, aimed at AI data centers.
- Investors look to the February 11 earnings for clues on timing, demand, and margins.
Tower Semiconductor Ltd shares jumped almost 9% on Friday, pushing higher after the Israeli contract chipmaker revealed new details about its partnership with Nvidia on data-center optical modules. The stock climbed 8.9% to $140.53, moving within a range of $128.96 to $140.88.
What grabs investors isn’t just one product cycle; it’s the direction of spending. Silicon photonics relies on light, not electrical signals, to transmit data — a tech the industry leans on as AI workloads ramp up data flow between chips inside data centers.
Tower said the project focuses on 1.6-terabit (1.6T) data-center optical modules built for Nvidia networking protocols. This segment of the AI infrastructure operates behind the GPUs but can still determine the speed at which systems perform.
Chip stocks headed a rally on Friday following a sharp tech sell-off, with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index climbing 4.6%. Broadcom, AMD, and Super Micro stood out as some of the top performers in the sector.
In a Form 6-K filing—a disclosure tool for foreign private issuers reporting key events—Tower claimed its silicon photonics platform offers “up to double the data-rate” compared to earlier solutions. CEO Russell Ellwanger said the company was “proud to deliver” high-speed technology tailored for data-center and AI needs. Nvidia networking exec Gilad Shainer highlighted the “exponential growth of AI” as fueling demand for faster, scalable networking.
Tower withheld commercial details, production figures, and any timeline for volume manufacturing of the 1.6T modules. As a result, the short-term effects on revenue and margins remain uncertain, despite investor enthusiasm for AI infrastructure-linked plays.
That same scarcity of detail works against the stock as well. If adoption lags or clients delay rollouts, the gains could evaporate fast—particularly in a market that’s been volatile over AI spending forecasts.
The next major milestone is coming up. Tower will release its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings on Feb. 11, followed by guidance for the first quarter of 2026 during the same 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time call.
Investors will want details in that report: exactly how much photonics work is shifting from engineering into actual orders, what the impact on capacity loading looks like, and if AI-driven demand is making up for weaker areas elsewhere.
