Q1 2027 Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd Earnings Call

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session where we request that you please limit yourselves to one question only. At that time, if you have a question, you will need to press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dan O'Neil, Treasurer and VP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session where we request that you please limit yourselves to one question only. At that time, if you have a question, you will need to press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dan O'Neil, Treasurer and VP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Speaker #1: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session.

Speaker #1: We request that you please limit yourselves to one question only. At that time, if you have a question, you will need to press star, followed by the number 1, on your telephone keypad.

Speaker #1: If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star 1 again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dan O'Neil, Treasurer and VP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Speaker #2: Good afternoon. Thank you all for joining our first quarter of fiscal 2027 earnings call. Today, I am joined by Bill Brennan, Credo’s Chief Executive Officer, and Dan Fleming, Credo’s Chief Financial Officer.

Dan O'Neil: Good afternoon. Thank you all for joining our Q1 fiscal 2027 earnings call. Today, I am joined by Bill Brennan, Credo's Chief Executive Officer, and Dan Fleming, Credo's Chief Financial Officer. During this call, we will make certain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties discussed in detail in our documents filed with the SEC. These documents can be found in the investor relations portion of the company's website.

Dan O'Neil: Good afternoon. Thank you all for joining our Q1 Fiscal 2027 Earnings call. Today, I am joined by Bill Brennan, Credo's Chief Executive Officer, and Dan Fleming, Credo's Chief Financial Officer. During this call, we will make certain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties discussed in detail in our documents filed with the SEC. These documents can be found in the investor relations portion of the company's website.

Speaker #2: During this call, we will make certain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties discussed in detail in our documents filed with the SEC.

Speaker #2: These documents can be found in the Investor Relations section of the company's website. It is not possible for the company's management to predict all risks, nor can the company assess the impact of all factors on its business or the extent to which any factor or combination of factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement.

Dan O'Neil: It is not possible for the company's management to predict all risks, nor can the company assess the impact of all factors on its business, or the extent to which any factor or combination of factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Given these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed during this call may not occur, and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated, implied, or inferred.

Dan O'Neil: It is not possible for the company's management to predict all risks, nor can the company assess the impact of all factors on its business, or the extent to which any factor or combination of factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Given these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed during this call may not occur, and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated, implied, or inferred.

Speaker #2: Given these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed during this call may not occur. Actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated, implied, or inferred.

Speaker #2: The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this call, to conform these statements to changes in the company's expectations or to actual results.

Dan O'Neil: The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this call to conform these statements to changes in the company's expectations or to actual results, except as required by law. Also, during this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we consider to be important measures of the company's performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are provided in addition to, and not as a substitute for or superior to, financial performance prepared in accordance with US GAAP.

Dan O'Neil: The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this call to conform these statements to changes in the company's expectations or to actual results, except as required by law. Also, during this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we consider to be important measures of the company's performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are provided in addition to, and not as a substitute for or superior to, financial performance prepared in accordance with US GAAP.

Speaker #2: Except as required by law. Also, during this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we consider to be important measures of the company's performance.

Speaker #2: These non-GAAP financial measures are provided in addition to, and not as a substitute for or superior to, financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

Speaker #2: GAAP. A discussion of why we use non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations between our GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures is available in the earnings release we issued today.

Dan O'Neil: A discussion of why we use non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations between our GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures is available in the earnings release we issued today, which can be accessed using the investor relations portion of the website. I will now turn the call over to our CEO. Bill?

Dan O'Neil: A discussion of why we use non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations between our GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures is available in the earnings release we issued today, which can be accessed using the investor relations portion of the website. I will now turn the call over to our CEO. Bill?

Speaker #2: This can be accessed using the Investor Relations portion of the website. I will now turn the call over to our CEO. Bill?

Speaker #3: Thanks, Dan. And thank you, everyone, for joining our first quarter of fiscal 2027 earnings call. The first quarter was another strong quarter for Credo.

Bill Brennan: Thanks, Dan. Thank you everyone for joining our first quarter fiscal 2027 earnings call. The first quarter was another strong quarter for Credo. Revenue reached a record $479 million, increasing 10% sequentially and more than doubling year-over-year. Non-GAAP gross margin was 68%, and non-GAAP net income exceeded $236 million, up 140% year-over-year. Credo has been growing at a pace that very few semiconductor companies have achieved, all while expanding profitability. At the heart of this growth is seven consecutive quarters of triple-digit year-over-year growth. We continue to see outsized growth in fiscal 2027, with our optical business growing at the fastest pace. AI infrastructure investment continues to grow rapidly. Cluster sizes are increasing, data rates are moving higher, and connectivity requirements are becoming more challenging. As these systems scale, connectivity is about much more than bandwidth.

Bill Brennan: Thanks, Dan. Thank you everyone for joining our first quarter fiscal 2027 earnings call. The first quarter was another strong quarter for Credo. Revenue reached a record $479 million, increasing 10% sequentially and more than doubling year-over-year. Non-GAAP gross margin was 68%, and non-GAAP net income exceeded $236 million, up 140% year-over-year. Credo has been growing at a pace that very few semiconductor companies have achieved, all while expanding profitability. At the heart of this growth is seven consecutive quarters of triple-digit year-over-year growth.

Speaker #3: Revenue reached a record $479 million, increasing 10% sequentially and more than doubling year over year. Non-GAAP gross margin was 68%, and non-GAAP net income exceeded $236 million.

Speaker #3: Up 140% year over year, Credo has been growing at a pace that very few semiconductor companies have achieved, all while expanding profitability. At the heart of this growth are seven consecutive quarters of triple-digit year-over-year growth.

Speaker #3: We continue to see outsized growth in fiscal 2027, with our optical business growing at the fastest pace. AI infrastructure investment continues to grow rapidly, cluster sizes are increasing, data rates are moving higher, and connectivity requirements are becoming more challenging.

Bill Brennan: We continue to see outsized growth in fiscal 2027, with our optical business growing at the fastest pace. AI infrastructure investment continues to grow rapidly. Cluster sizes are increasing, data rates are moving higher, and connectivity requirements are becoming more challenging. As these systems scale, connectivity is about much more than bandwidth. Reliability, power efficiency, signal integrity, telemetry, and serviceability all matter. We also believe AI infrastructure will become increasingly heterogeneous.

Speaker #3: As these systems scale, connectivity is about much more than bandwidth. Reliability, power efficiency, signal integrity, telemetry, and serviceability all matter. We also believe AI infrastructure will become increasingly heterogeneous.

Bill Brennan: Reliability, power efficiency, signal integrity, telemetry, and serviceability all matter. We also believe AI infrastructure will become increasingly heterogeneous. There will not be one architecture, one protocol, or one physical medium that is chosen for every connection. Future AI systems will combine optical and copper interconnects across different reaches, protocols, and topologies, with customers choosing the right technology to optimize their architecture. This is where Credo shines. While network reliability remains Credo's North Star, our ability to innovate, execute, qualify, and deploy across the wide range of customers' needs is core to our differentiation. Our focus is on helping customers bring clusters up faster, maximize processor utilization, and maintain reliable operation at scale. Our portfolio now spans connectivity from millimeters to kilometers with solutions across optics and copper. Let me walk through each of these areas in more detail. Starting with AECs.

Speaker #3: There will not be one architecture, one protocol, or one physical medium that is chosen for every connection. Future AI systems will combine optical and copper interconnects across different reaches, protocols, and topologies.

Bill Brennan: There will not be one architecture, one protocol, or one physical medium that is chosen for every connection. Future AI systems will combine optical and copper interconnects across different reaches, protocols, and topologies, with customers choosing the right technology to optimize their architecture. This is where Credo shines. While network reliability remains Credo's North Star, our ability to innovate, execute, qualify, and deploy across the wide range of customers' needs is core to our differentiation.

Speaker #3: With customers choosing the right technology to optimize their architecture, this is where Credo shines. While network reliability remains Credo's north star, our ability to innovate, execute, qualify, and deploy across the wide range of customers' needs is core to our differentiation.

Speaker #3: Our focus is on helping customers bring clusters up faster, maximize processor utilization, and maintain reliable operation at scale. Our portfolio now spans connectivity from millimeters to kilometers, with solutions across optics and copper.

Bill Brennan: Our focus is on helping customers bring clusters up faster, maximize processor utilization, and maintain reliable operation at scale. Our portfolio now spans connectivity from millimeters to kilometers with solutions across optics and copper. Let me walk through each of these areas in more detail. Starting with AECs. AECs remain our largest business and continues to grow. We now have deep relationships with five hyperscalers, and our engagement with neo cloud customers continues to expand. Within our existing customers, we continue to see increased AEC penetration as deployment scale.

Speaker #3: Let me walk through each of these areas in more detail. Starting with AECs, AECs remain our largest business and continue to grow. We now have deep relationships with five hyperscalers, and our engagement with NeoCloud customers continues to expand.

Bill Brennan: AECs remain our largest business and continues to grow. We now have deep relationships with five hyperscalers, and our engagement with neo cloud customers continues to expand. Within our existing customers, we continue to see increased AEC penetration as deployment scale. Higher data rates provide another growth vector with the transition to 200G per lane, 1.6T ports ahead. AECs have always been a system-level product for Credo. We provide the complete solution and optimize the silicon, firmware, manufacturing test, and system qualification together. Our system-level approach has been fundamental to our differentiation since we created the category. As AI clusters get larger, the value proposition remains straightforward. High reliability and low power for short-reach connectivity, where both become increasingly important at scale. We continue to see a healthy growth trajectory for AECs, driven by deeper penetration with existing and new customers and with increasing bandwidth in next-generation clusters.

Speaker #3: Within our existing customers, we continue to see increased AEC penetration as deployments scale. Higher data rates provide another growth vector, with the transition to 200-gig per lane 1.6T ports ahead.

Bill Brennan: Higher data rates provide another growth vector with the transition to 200G per lane, 1.6T ports ahead. AECs have always been a system-level product for Credo. We provide the complete solution and optimize the silicon, firmware, manufacturing test, and system qualification together. Our system-level approach has been fundamental to our differentiation since we created the category. As AI clusters get larger, the value proposition remains straightforward. High reliability and low power for short-reach connectivity, where both become increasingly important at scale.

Speaker #3: AECs have always been a system-level product for Credo. We provide the complete solution and optimize the silicon, firmware, manufacturing test, and system qualification together.

Speaker #3: Our system-level approach has been fundamental to our differentiation since we created the category. As AI clusters get larger, the value proposition remains straightforward: high reliability and low power for short-reach connectivity.

Speaker #3: We're both becoming increasingly important at scale. We continue to see a healthy growth trajectory for AECs, driven by deeper penetration with existing and new customers, and by increasing bandwidth and next-generation clusters.

Bill Brennan: We continue to see a healthy growth trajectory for AECs, driven by deeper penetration with existing and new customers and with increasing bandwidth in next-generation clusters. Now turning to optics. Our optical business is progressing very well and includes optical DSPs, silicon photonics PICs, and ZeroFlap optical transceivers. Our optical DSP business delivered record revenue in Q1. Revenue included deployments across our 50G and 100G per lane solutions. We see a long tail for 800G ports, even as we begin the transition to 1.6T solutions.

Speaker #3: Now, turning to optics. Our optical business is progressing very well and includes optical DSPs, silicon photonics PICs, and zero-flap optical transceivers. Our optical DSP business delivered record revenue in Q1.

Bill Brennan: Now turning to optics. Our optical business is progressing very well and includes optical DSPs, silicon photonics PICs, and ZeroFlap optical transceivers. Our optical DSP business delivered record revenue in Q1. Revenue included deployments across our 50G and 100G per lane solutions. We see a long tail for 800G ports, even as we begin the transition to 1.6T solutions. At 200G per lane, customer engagement with our 1.6T DSP is strong across both fully retimed and LRO solutions. Our first 1.6T DSP revenue remains on track for later this fiscal year. During the quarter, we also recognized our first silicon photonics PIC revenue following the DustPhotonics acquisition. Our initial wins are in 800G and 1.6T optical transceivers, and we expect these products to ramp throughout the year. More importantly, silicon photonics PICs add another important technology to our optical platform.

Speaker #3: Revenue included deployments across our 50-gig and 100-gig per lane solutions. We see a long tail for 800-gig ports, even as we begin the transition to 1.6T solutions.

Speaker #3: At 200 gig per lane, customer engagement with our 1.6T DSP is strong across both fully re-timed and LRO solutions. Our first 1.6T DSP revenue remains on track for later this fiscal year.

Bill Brennan: At 200G per lane, customer engagement with our 1.6T DSP is strong across both fully retimed and LRO solutions. Our first 1.6T DSP revenue remains on track for later this fiscal year. During the quarter, we also recognized our first silicon photonics PIC revenue following the DustPhotonics acquisition. Our initial wins are in 800G and 1.6T optical transceivers, and we expect these products to ramp throughout the year. More importantly, silicon photonics PICs add another important technology to our optical platform.

Speaker #3: During the quarter, we also recognized our first silicon photonics PIC revenue following the Dust Photonics acquisition. Our initial wins are in 800G and 1.6T optical transceivers, and we expect these products to ramp throughout the year.

Speaker #3: More importantly, silicon photonics PICs add another important technology to our optical platform. We now optimize the DSP and PIC together and combine them with our firmware, telemetry, and pilot software.

Bill Brennan: We now optimize the DSP and PIC together and combine them with our firmware, telemetry, and PILOT software. This level of integration creates opportunities to improve reliability, power, signal integrity, and diagnostics. It also positions us well as scale-up architectures move toward Near-Packaged Optics. We are seeing increasing customer activity around NPO for scale-up networks with confirmed design wins expected to begin ramping in our fiscal 2028. As part of the Open CPX MSA consortium, we will bring many of the advantages of today's pluggable ecosystem, including telemetry, interoperability, and serviceability. Our opportunity here includes both optical components and complete system-level solutions. This is an important evolution for Credo. We have historically been very successful solving connectivity problems at the semiconductor and AEC system level. We are now applying that same approach to optics. Our ZeroFlap Optics business continues to progress.

Bill Brennan: We now optimize the DSP and PIC together and combine them with our firmware, telemetry, and PILOT software. This level of integration creates opportunities to improve reliability, power, signal integrity, and diagnostics. It also positions us well as scale-up architectures move toward Near-Packaged Optics. We are seeing increasing customer activity around NPO for scale-up networks with confirmed design wins expected to begin ramping in our fiscal 2028.

Speaker #3: This level of integration creates opportunities to improve reliability, power, signal integrity, and diagnostics. It also positions us well as scale-up architectures move toward near-package optics.

Speaker #3: We're seeing increasing customer activity around NPO for scale-up networks, with confirmed design wins expected to begin ramping in our fiscal 2028. As part of the open CPX MSA consortium, we'll bring many of the advantages of today's pluggable ecosystem.

Bill Brennan: As part of the Open CPX MSA consortium, we will bring many of the advantages of today's pluggable ecosystem, including telemetry, interoperability, and serviceability. Our opportunity here includes both optical components and complete system-level solutions. This is an important evolution for Credo. We have historically been very successful solving connectivity problems at the semiconductor and AEC system level. We are now applying that same approach to optics. Our ZeroFlap Optics business continues to progress.

Speaker #3: Including telemetry, interoperability, and serviceability. Our opportunity here includes both optical components and complete system-level solutions. This is an important evolution for Credo. We've historically been very successful solving connectivity problems at the semiconductor and AEC system level.

Speaker #3: We're now applying that same approach to optics. Our Zero Flap Optics business continues to progress. Zero Flap Optics combines optimized optical hardware, pilot software, and switch-level SDK integration to continuously monitor link health and identify and mitigate when link instabilities become likely.

Bill Brennan: ZeroFlap Optics combines optimized optical hardware, PILOT software, and switch-level SDK integration to continuously monitor link health and identify and mitigate when link instabilities become likely. The objective is to improve cluster bring-up time and long-term network availability, both of which deliver significant financial advantages and end customer outcomes. Production shipments are underway, and we expect additional customer ramps during fiscal 2027 across both 800G and 1.6T with both hyperscalers and neo clouds. With DSPs, PICs, and ZeroFlap Optics, we now address much more of the optical link. That changes the opportunity for Credo. We sell components where that is preferred by customers, but more importantly, we also integrate those components with hardware, firmware, and software to deliver a complete optical transceiver with unprecedented system-level reliability.

Bill Brennan: ZeroFlap Optics combines optimized optical hardware, PILOT software, and switch-level SDK integration to continuously monitor link health and identify and mitigate when link instabilities become likely. The objective is to improve cluster bring-up time and long-term network availability, both of which deliver significant financial advantages and end customer outcomes. Production shipments are underway, and we expect additional customer ramps during fiscal 2027 across both 800G and 1.6T with both hyperscalers and neo clouds.

Speaker #3: The objective is to improve cluster bring-up time and long-term network availability, both of which deliver significant financial advantages and improved outcomes for end customers. Production shipments are underway, and we expect additional customer ramps during fiscal 2027 across both 800G and 1.6T, with both hyperscalers and NeoClouds.

Speaker #3: With DSPs, PICs, and zero-flap optics, we now address much more of the optical link. That changes the opportunity for Credo. We sell components where that's preferred by customers, but more importantly, we also integrate those components with hardware, firmware, and software to deliver a complete optical transceiver with unprecedented system-level reliability.

Bill Brennan: With DSPs, PICs, and ZeroFlap Optics, we now address much more of the optical link. That changes the opportunity for Credo. We sell components where that is preferred by customers, but more importantly, we also integrate those components with hardware, firmware, and software to deliver a complete optical transceiver with unprecedented system-level reliability. Taken together, the momentum across DSPs, PICs, and ZeroFlap Optics keeps us firmly on track to deliver more than $600 million of optical revenue in fiscal 2027.

Speaker #3: Taken together, the momentum across DSPs, PICs, and zero-flap optics keeps us firmly on track to deliver more than $600 million of optical revenue in fiscal 2027.

Bill Brennan: Taken together, the momentum across DSPs, PICs, and ZeroFlap Optics keeps us firmly on track to deliver more than $600 million of optical revenue in fiscal 2027. Now turning to retimers. Our retimer business also delivered record revenue in Q1. Growth was primarily driven by scale-up deployments using our Screaming Eagle retimer at 100G per lane, and with our Blue Heron retimer beginning to contribute at 200G per lane. We continue to see opportunities for the Toucan retimer as PCIe Gen 6 adoption increases, and for Screaming Eagle and Blue Heron across Ethernet and UALink. Scale-up architectures are developing quickly, with customers making different choices around protocols, topology, and connectivity. Our ability to support multiple protocols allows us to successfully participate across these architectures. Now I will discuss two important emerging growth areas.

Speaker #3: Now, turning to re-timers. Our re-timer business also delivered record revenue, primarily driven by scale-up deployments using our Screaming Eagle re-timer at 100 gig per lane, and with our Blue Heron re-timer beginning to contribute at 200 gig per lane.

Bill Brennan: Now turning to retimers. Our retimer business also delivered record revenue in Q1. Growth was primarily driven by scale-up deployments using our Screaming Eagle retimer at 100G per lane, and with our Blue Heron retimer beginning to contribute at 200G per lane. We continue to see opportunities for the Toucan retimer as PCIe Gen 6 adoption increases, and for Screaming Eagle and Blue Heron across Ethernet and UALink. Scale-up architectures are developing quickly, with customers making different choices around protocols, topology, and connectivity.

Speaker #3: We continue to see opportunities for the two-can retimer as PCIe Gen 6 adoption increases, and for Screaming Eagle and Blue Heron across Ethernet and UA Link.

Speaker #3: Scale-up architectures are developing quickly, with customers making different choices around protocols, topology, and connectivity. Our ability to support multiple protocols allows us to successfully participate across these architectures.

Bill Brennan: Our ability to support multiple protocols allows us to successfully participate across these architectures. Now I will discuss two important emerging growth areas. We also continue to make progress with both Active Electrical Cables, or AECs, and our OmniConnect Gearbox solutions. Our AEC solutions use micro emitters to combine many of the reliability and power advantages of copper with reach of up to 30 meters. Customer engagement continues to increase, and we plan to demonstrate AEC solutions at OCP in October. We remain on target for initial revenue in fiscal 2028.

Speaker #3: Now I'll discuss two important emerging growth areas. We also continue to make progress with both active LED cables, or ALCs, and our Omni-Connect gearbox solutions.

Bill Brennan: We also continue to make progress with both Active Electrical Cables, or AECs, and our OmniConnect Gearbox solutions. Our AEC solutions use micro emitters to combine many of the reliability and power advantages of copper with reach of up to 30 meters. Customer engagement continues to increase, and we plan to demonstrate AEC solutions at OCP in October. We remain on target for initial revenue in fiscal 2028. We are also seeing strong engagement around our OmniConnect innovation. Our OmniConnect SerDes and Weaver Gearboxes address the fan-out issues that come with increasing memory bandwidth and capacity requirements of next generation AI architectures. This is especially relevant for inference, where memory capacity, bandwidth, packaging, and cost are becoming increasingly important architectural constraints. We believe OmniConnect solutions can represent thousands of dollars of Credo content per GPU, with revenue beginning in fiscal 2028.

Speaker #3: Our ALC solutions use micro-emitters to combine many of the reliability and power advantages of copper, with a reach of up to 30 meters. Customer engagement continues to increase, and we plan to demonstrate ALC solutions at OCP in October.

Speaker #3: We remain on target for initial revenue in fiscal 2028. We're also seeing strong engagement around our Omni-Connect innovation. Our Omni-Connect 30s and Weaver gearboxes address the fan-out issues that come with increasing memory bandwidth and capacity requirements of next-generation AI architectures.

Bill Brennan: We are also seeing strong engagement around our OmniConnect innovation. Our OmniConnect SerDes and Weaver Gearboxes address the fan-out issues that come with increasing memory bandwidth and capacity requirements of next generation AI architectures. This is especially relevant for inference, where memory capacity, bandwidth, packaging, and cost are becoming increasingly important architectural constraints. We believe OmniConnect solutions can represent thousands of dollars of Credo content per GPU, with revenue beginning in fiscal 2028.

Speaker #3: This is especially relevant for inference, where memory capacity, bandwidth, packaging, and cost are becoming increasingly important architectural constraints. We believe omni-connect solutions can represent thousands of dollars of Credo content per GPU, with revenue beginning in fiscal 2028.

Speaker #3: In conclusion, Q1 was another strong quarter for Credo, and customer engagement across the business remains very strong. AECs continue to grow as we expand with existing customers, add new customers, and move to higher data rates.

Bill Brennan: In conclusion, Q1 was another strong quarter for Credo, and customer engagement across the business remains very strong. AECs continue to grow as we expand with existing customers, add new customers, and move to higher data rates. Our retimer and optical DSP businesses also delivered record revenue. At the same time, the scope of our optical business is expanding. We believe that the system-level approach will become increasingly important as AI networks move to 1.6T and 3.2T solutions, and as scale-up architectures drive greater use of near-package optics. AECs helped take Credo to the scale we have achieved today, and we continue to see growth ahead for that business. What is different today is that we are adding optics as another major growth engine from a much larger base and as an established player in the industry.

Bill Brennan: In conclusion, Q1 was another strong quarter for Credo, and customer engagement across the business remains very strong. AECs continue to grow as we expand with existing customers, add new customers, and move to higher data rates. Our retimer and optical DSP businesses also delivered record revenue. At the same time, the scope of our optical business is expanding. We believe that the system-level approach will become increasingly important as AI networks move to 1.6T and 3.2T solutions, and as scale-up architectures drive greater use of near-package optics.

Speaker #3: Our re-timer and optical DSP businesses also delivered record revenue. At the same time, the scope of our optical business is expanding. We believe that the system-level approach will become increasingly important as AI networks move to 1.6T and 3.2T solutions, and as scale-up architectures drive greater use of near-package optics.

Speaker #3: AECs have helped take Credo to the scale we've achieved today, and we continue to see growth ahead for that business. What's different today is that we're adding optics as another major growth engine.

Bill Brennan: AECs helped take Credo to the scale we have achieved today, and we continue to see growth ahead for that business. What is different today is that we are adding optics as another major growth engine from a much larger base and as an established player in the industry. Our optical opportunity now extends from DSPs and silicon photonic PICs to complete ZeroFlap optics and NPO solutions. Our content opportunity expands significantly as we solve a broader set of challenges for our customers. AECs continue to grow.

Speaker #3: From a much larger base and as an established player in the industry, our optical opportunity now extends from DSPs and silicon photonic PICs to complete ZR pluggable optics and NPO solutions.

Bill Brennan: Our optical opportunity now extends from DSPs and silicon photonic PICs to complete ZeroFlap optics and NPO solutions. Our content opportunity expands significantly as we solve a broader set of challenges for our customers. AECs continue to grow. Optics is growing faster. Based on the customer engagements and ramps underway across the portfolio, we remain confident in the outsized growth we expect to deliver in fiscal 2027. The common thread across all these products remains reliability. As AI infrastructure scales, our job is to provide connectivity that works reliably, uses less power, provides visibility into the network, and keeps expensive processors operating at high utilization. That is what we are focused on, and we are very excited about what lies ahead. With that, I will turn the call over to Dan.

Speaker #3: Our content opportunity expands significantly as we solve a broader set of challenges for our customers. AECs continue to grow, optics is growing faster, and, based on the customer engagements and ramps underway across the portfolio, we remain confident in the outsized growth we expect to deliver in fiscal 2027.

Bill Brennan: Optics is growing faster. Based on the customer engagements and ramps underway across the portfolio, we remain confident in the outsized growth we expect to deliver in fiscal 2027. The common thread across all these products remains reliability. As AI infrastructure scales, our job is to provide connectivity that works reliably, uses less power, provides visibility into the network, and keeps expensive processors operating at high utilization. That is what we are focused on, and we are very excited about what lies ahead. With that, I will turn the call over to Dan.

Speaker #3: The common thread across all these products remains reliability. As AI infrastructure scales, our job is to provide connectivity that works reliably, uses less power, provides visibility into the network, and keeps expensive processors operating at high utilization.

Speaker #3: That's what we're focused on, and we're very excited about what lies ahead. With that, I'll turn the call over to Dan.

Speaker #2: Thank you, Bill, and good afternoon. I will first review our Q1 results, and then discuss our outlook for Q2 of fiscal year 2027. In Q1, we reported revenue of $479 million, up 10% sequentially and above the high end of our guidance range.

Dan Fleming: Thank you, Bill, and good afternoon. I will first review our Q1 results and then discuss our outlook for Q2 of fiscal year 2027. In Q1, we reported revenue of $479 million, up 10% sequentially and above the high end of our guidance range. Year over year, revenue grew 115%. Q1 marks another revenue record driven by substantial year-over-year growth across four domestic customers and marks our seventh consecutive quarter of triple-digit revenue growth year over year. Our top four end customers each came in at or greater than 10% of revenue in Q4. As a reminder, customer mix will vary from quarter to quarter. We continue to expect that three to four customers will be greater than 10% of revenue in the coming quarters and fiscal year, and we continue to make progress in diversifying our revenue base across hyperscalers, neo clouds, and other customers.

Dan Fleming: Thank you, Bill, and good afternoon. I will first review our Q1 results and then discuss our outlook for Q2 of fiscal year 2027. In Q1, we reported revenue of $479 million, up 10% sequentially and above the high end of our guidance range. Year over year, revenue grew 115%. Q1 marks another revenue record driven by substantial year-over-year growth across four domestic customers and marks our seventh consecutive quarter of triple-digit revenue growth year over year. Our top four end customers each came in at or greater than 10% of revenue in Q4.

Speaker #2: Year over year, revenue grew 115%. Q1 marks another revenue record, driven by substantial year-over-year growth across four domestic customers, and marks our seventh consecutive quarter of triple-digit revenue growth year over year.

Speaker #2: Our top four end customers each came in at or greater than 10% of revenue in Q4. As a reminder, customer mix will vary from quarter to quarter.

Dan Fleming: As a reminder, customer mix will vary from quarter to quarter. We continue to expect that three to four customers will be greater than 10% of revenue in the coming quarters and fiscal year, and we continue to make progress in diversifying our revenue base across hyperscalers, neo clouds, and other customers. Our team delivered Q1 non-GAAP gross margin of 68% at the midpoint of our guidance range. Total non-GAAP operating expenses in the first quarter were $95.2 million, above the high end of our guidance range due to our strong R&D investment and up 16% sequentially.

Speaker #2: We continue to expect that three to four customers will represent greater than 10% of revenue in the coming quarters and fiscal year, and we continue to make progress in diversifying our revenue base across hyperscalers, neoclouds, and other customers.

Speaker #2: Our team delivered Q1 non-GAAP gross margin of 68%, at the midpoint of our guidance range. Total non-GAAP operating expenses in the first quarter were $95.2 million, above the high end of our guidance range due to our strong R&D investment, and up 16% sequentially.

Dan Fleming: Our team delivered Q1 non-GAAP gross margin of 68% at the midpoint of our guidance range. Total non-GAAP operating expenses in the first quarter were $95.2 million, above the high end of our guidance range due to our strong R&D investment and up 16% sequentially. Our non-GAAP operating income was $230.6 million in Q1 compared to non-GAAP operating income of $216.7 million in Q4. Our non-GAAP operating margin was 48.2% in the quarter. Our bottom line once again demonstrated the substantial leverage we are delivering in the business, even with our continued heavy investment in R&D. Our non-GAAP net income was $236.3 million in the quarter, a record high, and a 4% sequential increase compared to non-GAAP net income of $226.7 million in Q4.

Speaker #2: Our non-GAAP operating income was $230.6 million in Q1, compared to non-GAAP operating income of $216.7 million in Q4. Our non-GAAP operating margin was 48.2% in the quarter.

Dan Fleming: Our non-GAAP operating income was $230.6 million in Q1 compared to non-GAAP operating income of $216.7 million in Q4. Our non-GAAP operating margin was 48.2% in the quarter. Our bottom line once again demonstrated the substantial leverage we are delivering in the business, even with our continued heavy investment in R&D. Our non-GAAP net income was $236.3 million in the quarter, a record high, and a 4% sequential increase compared to non-GAAP net income of $226.7 million in Q4.

Speaker #2: Our bottom line once again demonstrated the substantial leverage we are delivering in the business, even with our continued heavy investment in R&D. Our non-GAAP net income was $236.3 million in the quarter, a record high, and a 4% sequential increase compared to non-GAAP net income of $226.7 million in Q4.

Speaker #2: Our Q1 non-GAAP net income more than doubled year over year, clearly demonstrating the magnitude of our top-line growth, strong gross margins, and disciplined approach to managing operating expenses.

Dan Fleming: Our Q1 non-GAAP net income more than doubled year-over-year, clearly demonstrating the magnitude of our top-line growth, strong gross margins, and disciplined approach to managing operating expenses. Our non-GAAP net margin was 49.3% in the quarter. Cash flow from operations in the first quarter was $90.2 million, down $92.0 million sequentially, due primarily to changes in working capital. CapEx was $7.3 million in the quarter, and free cash flow was $82.9 million. We ended the quarter with cash and equivalents of $764.3 million, a decrease of $679 million from the fourth quarter, due primarily to the cash outlay for our acquisition of DustPhotonics. We remain well-capitalized to continue investing in our growth opportunities while maintaining a substantial cash buffer. Our Q1 ending inventory was $313.1 million, up $62.2 million sequentially. Now, turning to our guidance.

Dan Fleming: Our Q1 non-GAAP net income more than doubled year-over-year, clearly demonstrating the magnitude of our top-line growth, strong gross margins, and disciplined approach to managing operating expenses. Our non-GAAP net margin was 49.3% in the quarter. Cash flow from operations in the first quarter was $90.2 million, down $92.0 million sequentially, due primarily to changes in working capital. CapEx was $7.3 million in the quarter, and free cash flow was $82.9 million.

Speaker #2: Our non-GAAP net margin was 49.3% in the quarter. Cash flow from operations in the first quarter was $90.2 million, down $92.0 million sequentially, due primarily to changes in working capital.

Speaker #2: Capex was $7.3 million in the quarter, and free cash flow was $82.9 million. We ended the quarter with cash and equivalents of $764.3 million, a decrease of $679 million from the fourth quarter, due primarily to the cash outlay for our acquisition of Dust Photonics.

Dan Fleming: We ended the quarter with cash and equivalents of $764.3 million, a decrease of $679 million from the fourth quarter, due primarily to the cash outlay for our acquisition of DustPhotonics. We remain well-capitalized to continue investing in our growth opportunities while maintaining a substantial cash buffer. Our Q1 ending inventory was $313.1 million, up $62.2 million sequentially. Now, turning to our guidance. We currently expect revenue in Q2 of fiscal 2027 to be between $525 million and $535 million. We expect Q2 non-GAAP gross margin to be within a range of 67% to 69%.

Speaker #2: We remain well-capitalized to continue investing in our growth opportunities, while maintaining a substantial cash buffer. Our Q1 ending inventory was $313.1 million, up $62.2 million sequentially.

Speaker #2: Now, turning to our guidance, we currently expect revenue in Q2 of fiscal 2027 to be between $525 million and $535 million. We expect Q2 non-GAAP gross margin to be within a range of 67% to 69%.

Dan Fleming: We currently expect revenue in Q2 of fiscal 2027 to be between $525 million and $535 million. We expect Q2 non-GAAP gross margin to be within a range of 67% to 69%. We expect Q2 non-GAAP operating expenses to be between $100 million and $105 million. We expect Q2 diluted weighted average share count to be approximately 200 million shares. These expectations are based on the current tariff regime, which remains fluid. As we move forward through fiscal year 2027, we continue to expect an inflection in the H2, driven by more than $600 million in optical revenue, with ZeroFlap optics, silicon photonics PICs, and optical DSPs, each contributing more than $100 million, resulting in more than 85% year-over-year total revenue growth for the full year. We expect non-GAAP gross margin in fiscal year 2027 to be broadly consistent with fiscal year 2026 levels.

Speaker #2: We expect Q2 non-GAAP operating expenses to be between $100 million and $105 million. And we expect Q2 diluted weighted average share count to be approximately 200 million shares.

Dan Fleming: We expect Q2 non-GAAP operating expenses to be between $100 million and $105 million. We expect Q2 diluted weighted average share count to be approximately 200 million shares. These expectations are based on the current tariff regime, which remains fluid. As we move forward through fiscal year 2027, we continue to expect an inflection in the H2, driven by more than $600 million in optical revenue, with ZeroFlap optics, silicon photonics PICs, and optical DSPs, each contributing more than $100 million, resulting in more than 85% year-over-year total revenue growth for the full year.

Speaker #2: These expectations are based on the current tariff regime, which remains fluid. As we move forward through fiscal year 2027, we continue to expect an inflection in the second half, driven by more than $600 million in optical revenue, with Zero Flap Optics, silicon photonics PICs, and optical DSPs each contributing more than $100 million, resulting in more than 85% year-over-year total revenue growth for the full year.

Speaker #2: We expect non-GAAP gross margin in fiscal year 2027 to be broadly consistent with fiscal year 2026 levels. We expect non-GAAP operating expenses to increase approximately 55% year over year, well below our revenue growth rate, as we continue to invest in R&D to support new product development and address the significant growth opportunities ahead.

Dan Fleming: We expect non-GAAP gross margin in fiscal year 2027 to be broadly consistent with fiscal year 2026 levels. We expect non-GAAP operating expenses to increase approximately 55% year-over-year, well below our revenue growth rate, as we continue to invest in R&D to support the new product development and address the significant growth opportunities ahead. As a result, we expect our non-GAAP net margin to be in the vicinity of 50%. With that, I will open it up for questions.

Dan Fleming: We expect non-GAAP operating expenses to increase approximately 55% year-over-year, well below our revenue growth rate, as we continue to invest in R&D to support the new product development and address the significant growth opportunities ahead. As a result, we expect our non-GAAP net margin to be in the vicinity of 50%. With that, I will open it up for questions.

Speaker #2: As a result, we expect our non-GAAP net margin to be in the vicinity of 50%. And with that, I will open it up for questions.

Operator: At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star, then the number 1 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, we ask that you please limit yourself to 1 question only so we can get to as many people as possible. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Tore Svanberg with Stifel. Your line is now open. Please hold.

Operator: At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star, then the number 1 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, we ask that you please limit yourself to 1 question only so we can get to as many people as possible. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Tore Svanberg with Stifel. Your line is now open. Please hold.

Speaker #3: At this time, I would like to remind everyone that in order to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad.

Speaker #3: As a reminder, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question only, so we can get to as many people as possible. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster.

Speaker #3: Your first question comes from the line of Tor Spanberg with Stifel. Your line is now open. Please hold.

Speaker #2: Yes, thank you.

Tore Svanberg: Yes. Thank you, and, yeah, thanks and congrats

Tore Svanberg: Yes. Thank you, and, yeah, thanks and congrats

Speaker #3: Please go ahead. Thank you, Tor.

Operator: Please go ahead. Thank you, Tore.

Operator: Please go ahead. Thank you, Tore.

Speaker #2: Yes, thank you. And congrats on the record quarter. Bill, I was hoping you could unpack a little bit the position in optical right now.

Tore Svanberg: Yes. Thank you, and congrats on the record quarter. Bill, I was hoping you could unpack a little bit the position in optical right now. You did reiterate the $600 million-plus, but now you also talked about NPO and maybe even doing some system-level NPO. As we think about that $600 million, both in fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028, how should we expect the mix to look like between all the very different components?

Tore Svanberg: Yes. Thank you, and congrats on the record quarter. Bill, I was hoping you could unpack a little bit the position in optical right now. You did reiterate the $600 million-plus, but now you also talked about NPO and maybe even doing some system-level NPO. As we think about that $600 million, both in fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028, how should we expect the mix to look like between all the very different components?

Speaker #2: You did reiterate the 600 million dollar plus, but now you also talked about NPO, and maybe even doing some system level NPO. So as we think about that 600 million dollars, both in fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028, how should we expect the mix to look like between all of our different components?

Speaker #4: Sure. I think we feel great about the broadening portfolio that we're bringing to market. As we've indicated, the optical DSP business for us is going quite well.

Dan Fleming: Sure. I think we feel great about the broadening portfolio that we are bringing to market. As we have indicated, the optical DSP business for us is doing quite well at a component level. The team that came into Credo from DustPhotonics brought a lot of momentum. In fact, after just a few months, the momentum has picked up, and we are happy to be able to say that we have got design wins with two major players for next generation ramps that will occur in fiscal 2028 and maybe starting in the late part of this fiscal year. At ZF Optics, we continue to make progress. We are engaged with multiple customers, both hyperscalers and neo clouds. We feel good about the way that the year is shaping up.

Bill Brennan: Sure. I think we feel great about the broadening portfolio that we are bringing to market. As we have indicated, the optical DSP business for us is doing quite well at a component level. The team that came into Credo from DustPhotonics brought a lot of momentum. In fact, after just a few months, the momentum has picked up, and we are happy to be able to say that we have got design wins with two major players for next generation ramps that will occur in fiscal 2028 and maybe starting in the late part of this fiscal year.

Speaker #4: At the component level, the team that came into Credo from Dust brought a lot of momentum. In fact, after just a few months, the momentum has picked up, and we're happy to be able to say that we've got design wins with two major players for next-generation ramps that will occur in fiscal 2028, and maybe starting in the latter part of this fiscal year.

Speaker #4: ZF Optics—we continue to make progress. We're engaged with multiple customers, both hyperscalers and new cloud providers, and we feel good about the way the year is shaping up.

Bill Brennan: At ZF Optics, we continue to make progress. We are engaged with multiple customers, both hyperscalers and neo clouds. We feel good about the way that the year is shaping up. I think as I think about the overall optical opportunity, and you did mention CPX, and I think you may have all seen the press release earlier that we have joined the consortium. We plan on pursuing solutions for the scale-up market that is developing really across the board. CPX is, I think, an important development in the industry.

Speaker #4: I think, as I think about the overall optical, and I think you may have all seen the press release earlier, that we have joined the consortium.

Dan Fleming: I think as I think about the overall optical opportunity, and you did mention CPX, and I think you may have all seen the press release earlier that we have joined the consortium. We plan on pursuing solutions for the scale-up market that is developing really across the board. CPX is, I think, an important development in the industry. That is one way of solving the challenge of going to 10 times more density than what you are seeing in scale-out. We will pursue this market the same way. We will pursue component sales where that makes sense with customers, and we will also pursue system-level solutions that we will talk about over time. But you bring up an important point. Fiscal 2027, I think, is just a stepping stone for where we are going with our optical business.

Speaker #4: And we plan on pursuing solutions for the scale-up market that's developing. Really, across the board, CPX is, I think, an important development in the industry.

Speaker #4: That's one way of solving the challenge of going to ten times more density than what you're seeing in scale out. And we'll pursue this market the same way.

Bill Brennan: That is one way of solving the challenge of going to 10 times more density than what you are seeing in scale-out. We will pursue this market the same way. We will pursue component sales where that makes sense with customers, and we will also pursue system-level solutions that we will talk about over time. But you bring up an important point. Fiscal 2027, I think, is just a stepping stone for where we are going with our optical business. If we think about the market forecasters, specifically the ones that are focused on the optical transceiver pluggable market.

Speaker #4: We'll pursue component sales where that makes sense with customers, and we'll also pursue system-level solutions that we'll talk about over time. But you bring up an important point.

Speaker #4: Fiscal 2027, I think, is just a stepping stone for where we're going with our optical business. And if we think about the market forecasters, specifically the ones that are focused on the optical transceiver, pluggable market—just that piece alone is expected to grow from 60 million units in 2026 to 175 million units by 2030.

Dan Fleming: If we think about the market forecasters, specifically the ones that are focused on the optical transceiver pluggable market.

Bill Brennan: Just that piece alone is expected to grow from 60 million units in 2026 to 175 million units by 2030. This is amazing growth for this portion of the industry, and then add growth on top of that for what happens in scale up. We think that with our broad portfolio of solutions, that we are going to experience continued outsized growth through the 2030 timeframe. It is going to have contributions from not just our optical portfolio, but also AECs, as well as our other copper solutions. So I probably gave you a little more color than you asked in that question. Hopefully that gives you what you were looking for.

Bill Brennan: Just that piece alone is expected to grow from 60 million units in 2026 to 175 million units by 2030. This is amazing growth for this portion of the industry, and then add growth on top of that for what happens in scale up. We think that with our broad portfolio of solutions, that we are going to experience continued outsized growth through the 2030 timeframe. It is going to have contributions from not just our optical portfolio, but also AECs, as well as our other copper solutions. So I probably gave you a little more color than you asked in that question. Hopefully that gives you what you were looking for.

Speaker #4: This is amazing growth for this portion of the industry. And then add growth on top of that for what happens in scale-up. And so, we think that with our broad portfolio of solutions, we're going to experience continued outsized growth through the 2030 timeframe.

Speaker #4: And it's going to have contributions from not just our optical portfolio, but also AUCs as well as our other copper solutions. So I probably gave you a little more color than you asked in that question.

Speaker #4: So hopefully that gives you what you were looking for.

Speaker #3: Your next question comes from the line of Quinn Bolton with Needham. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Quinn Bolton with Needham. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Quinn Bolton with Needham. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Speaker #5: Hey, Bill. I guess a question just as a follow-up to Tor's question—I really wanted more color on the importance of Credo joining the Open CPX Consortium.

Quinn Bolton: Hey, Bill. I guess a question just on the follow-up to Tore's question. I really wanted more color on the importance of Credo joining the Open CPX consortium. What types of solutions you may be providing. Is it more PIC-based? Would you be supplying the full optical engines? I assume these are all laser-based rather than micro LED based, but maybe just a little bit more detail on this new opportunity that's opening up for you in the NPO scale-up segment. Thank you.

Quinn Bolton: Hey, Bill. I guess a question just on the follow-up to Tore's question. I really wanted more color on the importance of Credo joining the Open CPX consortium. What types of solutions you may be providing. Is it more PIC-based? Would you be supplying the full optical engines? I assume these are all laser-based rather than micro LED based, but maybe just a little bit more detail on this new opportunity that's opening up for you in the NPO scale-up segment. Thank you.

Speaker #5: What types of solutions might you be providing? Is it more PIC-based? Will you be supplying the full optical engines? I assume these are all laser-based rather than microLED-based, but maybe you could give just a little bit more detail on this new opportunity that's opening up for you in the NPO scale-up segment.

Speaker #5: Thank you.

Speaker #4: Sure. So, as we all think about the scale-up opportunity, we're thinking about changing form factors. When we look at front-end and we look at scale-out, there's no real catalyst to change from the pluggable form factor.

Bill Brennan: Sure. As we all think about the scale-up opportunity, we're thinking about a changing of form factors. When we look at front end and we look at scale-out, there's no real catalyst to change from the pluggable form factor. But for scale-up networks, there's a fundamental need to have more dense form factors. There's been an ongoing industry conversation about things like XPO, CPX, how that fits in with NPO, and then ultimately CPO. All of these solutions address the need for a 10x density improvement. The way that we're approaching the market is somewhat agnostic. We will basically look at what our customers are asking us, and what our customers are driving towards. We've, I think, done a very good job of being agnostic as it relates to the solutions that we're bringing to market. We're going to continue to do that.

Bill Brennan: Sure. As we all think about the scale-up opportunity, we're thinking about a changing of form factors. When we look at front end and we look at scale-out, there's no real catalyst to change from the pluggable form factor. But for scale-up networks, there's a fundamental need to have more dense form factors. There's been an ongoing industry conversation about things like XPO, CPX, how that fits in with NPO, and then ultimately CPO. All of these solutions address the need for a 10x density improvement. The way that we're approaching the market is somewhat agnostic.

Speaker #4: But for scaled-up networks, there's a fundamental need to have more dense form factors. And we've talked—there's been an ongoing industry conversation about things like XPO, CPX, how that fits in with NPO, and then ultimately CPO.

Speaker #4: All of these solutions address the need for a 10x density improvement. And the way that we're approaching the market is somewhat agnostic. We will basically look at what our customers are asking us, and what our customers are driving towards.

Bill Brennan: We will basically look at what our customers are asking us, and what our customers are driving towards. We've, I think, done a very good job of being agnostic as it relates to the solutions that we're bringing to market. We're going to continue to do that. Of course, with all of the NPO solutions, including CPX, we'll lead with the silicon photonics PIC, but we'll also look at doing the complete optical engine long term as we add more functionality to our portfolio.

Speaker #4: And so, we've, I think, done a very good job of being agnostic as it relates to the solutions that we're bringing to market. We're going to continue to do that.

Speaker #4: And so, of course, with all of the NPO solutions, including CPX, we'll lead with the silicon photonics pick, but we'll also look at doing the complete optical engine long term as we add more functionality to our portfolio.

Bill Brennan: Of course, with all of the NPO solutions, including CPX, we'll lead with the silicon photonics PIC, but we'll also look at doing the complete optical engine long term as we add more functionality to our portfolio.

Speaker #3: Your next question comes from the line of Tom O'Malley with Barclays. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Tom O'Malley with Barclays. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Tom O'Malley with Barclays. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Speaker #6: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. So, mine relates to the ZF Optics side as well. When you look at the forecast that you have over the next year and then in the year after that as well, a lot of the volume, in terms of revenue, is driven by the ZF Optics forecast.

Tom O'Malley: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Mine relates to the ZF Optics side as well. When you look at the forecast that you have over the next year and then in the year after that as well, a lot of the volume in terms of revenue is driven by the ZF Optics forecast. It is unique. You imagine that you are going to use a contract manufacturer for this, and you are hearing about supply issues, raising prices in the foundry world. Can you talk about challenges that you are facing in scaling today? What gives you the confidence that you are able to hit the metrics that you gave us some color on the last earnings call? What gives you the confidence that you are able to hit those really big revenue numbers in the near term?

Tom O'Malley: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Mine relates to the ZF Optics side as well. When you look at the forecast that you have over the next year and then in the year after that as well, a lot of the volume in terms of revenue is driven by the ZF Optics forecast. It is unique. You imagine that you are going to use a contract manufacturer for this, and you are hearing about supply issues, raising prices in the foundry world. Can you talk about challenges that you are facing in scaling today? What gives you the confidence that you are able to hit the metrics that you gave us some color on the last earnings call?

Speaker #6: And it’s unique. You imagine that you’re going to use a contract manufacturer for this, and you’re hearing about supply issues raising prices in the foundry world.

Speaker #6: Can you talk about challenges that you're facing in scaling today, and what gives you the confidence that you're able to hit the metrics that you gave us some color on in the last earnings call? What gives you the confidence that you're able to hit those really big revenue numbers in the near term?

Tom O'Malley: What gives you the confidence that you are able to hit those really big revenue numbers in the near term? Just maybe a little bit of a pulse check on conversations with customers today, particularly those who in the media have potentially been spending a little bit more money, and the forecast has raised on the ZF Optics side. Thank you very much.

Speaker #6: And just maybe a little bit of a pulse check on conversations with customers today, particularly those who in the media have potentially been spending a little bit more money and the forecast is raised on the ZF Optics side.

Tom O'Malley: Just maybe a little bit of a pulse check on conversations with customers today, particularly those who in the media have potentially been spending a little bit more money, and the forecast has raised on the ZF Optics side. Thank you very much.

Speaker #6: Thank you very much.

Bill Brennan: Yeah, you point out something that is lots of fun. We are in a very dynamic market right now, and you are right, from the supply side, it has been important that we have spent so much time, even going back 18 to 24 months ago, when we knew that this was the direction that we were heading. You can see from Dan's update that working capital is increasing. We are leaning in from a supply chain standpoint. I feel great about our ability to supply increasing volumes in our H2 and then throughout the next couple of fiscal years. The other half of that is driving demand. I see that over the past year, we have been very successful in marketing and really engaging with customers. All of this has got to come together. But again, I will point out that we are really playing the long game here.

Bill Brennan: Yeah, you point out something that is lots of fun. We are in a very dynamic market right now, and you are right, from the supply side, it has been important that we have spent so much time, even going back 18 to 24 months ago, when we knew that this was the direction that we were heading. You can see from Dan's update that working capital is increasing. We are leaning in from a supply chain standpoint. I feel great about our ability to supply increasing volumes in our H2 and then throughout the next couple of fiscal years. The other half of that is driving demand.

Speaker #4: Yeah, you point out something that's a lot of fun. We're in a very dynamic market right now. And you're right—from the supply side, it has been important that we have spent so much time, even going back 18 to 24 months ago, when we knew that this was the direction that we were heading.

Speaker #4: And so you can see from Dan's update that working capital is increasing. We're leaning in from a supply chain standpoint. I feel great about our ability to supply increasing volumes in our second half, and then throughout the next couple of fiscal years.

Speaker #4: The other half of that is driving demand. And so, I see that over the past year, we've been very successful in marketing and really engaging with customers.

Bill Brennan: I see that over the past year, we have been very successful in marketing and really engaging with customers. All of this has got to come together. But again, I will point out that we are really playing the long game here. Of course, there should be, and there is a lot of emphasis on the very fast ramp that we have set expectations on. I think more importantly, looking at the big picture, this involves an opportunity that takes us to a different scale as a company. This is very much an important part of our growth strategy and our scale as a company.

Speaker #4: And so all of this has got to come together, but again, I'll point out that we're really playing the long game here. And of course, there should be—and there is—a lot of emphasis on the very fast ramp that we've set expectations on.

Bill Brennan: Of course, there should be, and there is a lot of emphasis on the very fast ramp that we have set expectations on. I think more importantly, looking at the big picture, this involves an opportunity that takes us to a different scale as a company. This is very much an important part of our growth strategy and our scale as a company.

Speaker #4: But I think more importantly, looking at the big picture, this involves an opportunity that takes us to a different scale as a company. And so this is very, very much an important part of our growth strategy and our scale as a company.

Speaker #3: Your next question comes from the line of Sean O'Lochran with TD Cowen. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Sean McLoughlin with TD Cowen. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Sean McLoughlin with TD Cowen. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Speaker #5: Hey, guys. Congrats on the solid results and momentum. Thanks for letting me hop on. Maybe we could just get some blocking and tackling on the—Dan, you mentioned the three to four customers.

Sean McLoughlin: Hey, guys. Congrats on the solid results and momentum. Thanks for letting me hop on. Maybe we could just get some blocking and tackling. Dan, you mentioned the three to four customers.

Sean O'Loughlin: Hey, guys. Congrats on the solid results and momentum. Thanks for letting me hop on. Maybe we could just get some blocking and tackling. Dan, you mentioned the three to four customers. Will be greater than 10%, and you are continuing to diversify. I wanted to ask specifically, maybe if you could do the rundown of what the stats were on those three to four in the quarter, but then also, when we think about customer concentration, there is also platform concentration, and are you diversifying your product portfolio across those customers as well? Thanks.

Speaker #5: We'll be greater than 10%. And you're continuing to diversify. I wanted to ask specifically if you could maybe do a rundown of what the stats were on those three to four in the quarter, but then also, when we think about customer concentration, there's also platform concentration.

Sean McLoughlin: Will be greater than 10%, and you are continuing to diversify. I wanted to ask specifically, maybe if you could do the rundown of what the stats were on those three to four in the quarter, but then also, when we think about customer concentration, there is also platform concentration, and are you diversifying your product portfolio across those customers as well? Thanks.

Speaker #5: And are you diversifying your product portfolio across those customers as well? Thanks.

Speaker #2: Yeah, sure. Let me start with just the percentages of those 10%+ customers. So, our largest customer was a third of our revenue, at 33%.

Bill Brennan: Yeah, sure. Let me start with just the percentages of those 10%-plus customers. So our largest customer was a third of our revenue at 33%, second largest 28%, and then followed by 13% and 10%. Those top three customers were similar to or the same three as in the prior quarter, in a slightly different order. One thing to note, our fourth 10% customer, right at 10%, was different from our 10% fourth customer last quarter. They have been a 10% customer in the past, though. In terms of diversification of product line within those, for sure. There is a strengthening and broadening across the board. It is not just AECs that these hyperscalers are consuming of ours.

Dan Fleming: Yeah, sure. Let me start with just the percentages of those 10%-plus customers. So our largest customer was a third of our revenue at 33%, second largest 28%, and then followed by 13% and 10%. Those top three customers were similar to or the same three as in the prior quarter, in a slightly different order. One thing to note, our fourth 10% customer, right at 10%, was different from our 10% fourth customer last quarter. They have been a 10% customer in the past, though. In terms of diversification of product line within those, for sure.

Speaker #2: Second largest, 28, and then followed by 13 and 10. Those top three customers were similar to, or the same as, the prior quarter.

Speaker #2: And a slightly different order. One thing to note: our fourth 10% customer, right at 10%, was different from our 10% fourth customer last quarter.

Speaker #2: They have been a 10% customer in the past, though. Now, in terms of diversification of product line within those, for sure there is a strengthening and broadening across the board.

Dan Fleming: There is a strengthening and broadening across the board. It is not just AECs that these hyperscalers are consuming of ours.

Speaker #2: It isn't just ADCs that these hyperscalers are consuming, or buffers.

Speaker #3: Your next question comes from the line of Blaine Curtis with Jefferies. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Blayne Curtis with Jefferies. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Blayne Curtis with Jefferies. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Speaker #4: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. On the AEC side, I just wanted to ask you about timing on 1.6 terabit, but also about the design traction if you compare that versus the 800 gig.

Blayne Curtis: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. On the AEC side, I just wanted to ask you, timing on 1.6T, but also just the design traction if you compare that versus the 800G. You've been talking about Neo Cloud. I think some of your existing customers are moving to faster speeds. Can you just give us a perspective of how those designs are laid out and the timing?

Blayne Curtis: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. On the AEC side, I just wanted to ask you, timing on 1.6T, but also just the design traction if you compare that versus the 800G. You've been talking about Neo Cloud. I think some of your existing customers are moving to faster speeds. Can you just give us a perspective of how those designs are laid out and the timing?

Speaker #4: You've been talking about NeoCloud. I think some of your existing customers are moving to faster speeds. Can you just give us a perspective of how those designs are laid out, and the timing?

Speaker #6: Sure. We expect that our AEC portfolio will ramp up in a similar timeframe as the rest of the market—and, for that matter, our ZF Optics products.

Bill Brennan: Sure. We expect that our AEC portfolio will ramp in a similar timeframe as the rest of the market, and for that matter, our ZF Optics products. I want to step back and give some perspective on the way we view the AEC market. There's been a lot of conversation about copper and optical, and just the trade-off there. The way that we view the AEC market, it is part of the pluggable transceiver market. So when we talk about forecasts for specifically optical transceivers going from 60 to 175 over the next four years, there's not really a breakout for the AEC market. But the AEC market really represents the 1 meter to 7 meter segment of that market. So it just makes sense that that segment is going to grow as well. We see that really being long-term. We see that in a big way.

Bill Brennan: Sure. We expect that our AEC portfolio will ramp in a similar timeframe as the rest of the market, and for that matter, our ZF Optics products. I want to step back and give some perspective on the way we view the AEC market. There's been a lot of conversation about copper and optical, and just the trade-off there. The way that we view the AEC market, it is part of the pluggable transceiver market. So when we talk about forecasts for specifically optical transceivers going from 60 to 175 over the next four years, there's not really a breakout for the AEC market.

Speaker #6: I want to step back and give some perspective on the way we view the AEC market. There's been a lot of conversation about copper and optical.

Speaker #6: And just the trade-off there. And the way that we view the AEC market, it is part of the pluggable transceiver market. So when we talk about forecasts for specifically optical transceivers going from 60 to 175 over the next four years, there's not really a breakout for the AEC market.

Speaker #6: But the AEC market really represents the one-meter to seven-meter segment of that market, and so it just makes sense that that segment is going to grow as well.

Bill Brennan: But the AEC market really represents the 1 meter to 7 meter segment of that market. So it just makes sense that that segment is going to grow as well. We see that really being long-term. We see that in a big way. In the 800G category, what we saw was copper replacing optical, and it was replacing laser-based optical transceivers because of the need for higher reliability, and secondarily, lower power as it relates to that first connection in the network from GPUs to that first switch.

Speaker #6: And we see that really being long-term. We see that in a big way in the 800-gig category. What we saw was copper replacing optical.

Bill Brennan: In the 800G category, what we saw was copper replacing optical, and it was replacing laser-based optical transceivers because of the need for higher reliability, and secondarily, lower power as it relates to that first connection in the network from GPUs to that first switch. The bottom line is that we see the pluggable transceiver market for all of the pluggable transceivers, from copper to laser-based optical, and ultimately, we'll talk about AECs being another pluggable transceiver option within the spectrum, and that going up to 30 meters. As it relates to what I think the setup looks like for 1.6T, we're quite bullish about the AEC opportunity.

Speaker #6: And it was replacing laser-based optical transceivers because of the need for higher reliability, and, secondarily, lower power as it relates to that first connection in the network from GPUs to that first switch.

Speaker #6: And so the bottom line is that we see the pluggable transceiver market for all of the pluggable transceivers, from copper to laser-based optical. And ultimately, we'll talk about ALCs being another pluggable transceiver option.

Bill Brennan: The bottom line is that we see the pluggable transceiver market for all of the pluggable transceivers, from copper to laser-based optical, and ultimately, we'll talk about AECs being another pluggable transceiver option within the spectrum, and that going up to 30 meters. As it relates to what I think the setup looks like for 1.6T, we're quite bullish about the AEC opportunity.

Speaker #6: Within the spectrum, and that going up to 30 meters. And so, as it relates to what I think the setup looks like for 1.6T, we're quite bullish about the AEC opportunity. As we showed going back six months ago at OFC, many of the next-generation deployments that have been discussed in the industry—we showed very elegant solutions, all connected with AECs.

Bill Brennan: As we showed going back six months ago at OFC, many of the next generation deployments that have been discussed in the industry, we showed very elegant solutions all connected with AECs, and we will deliver up to 6.5 meters in that category. We think it takes shape towards the end of. There will be some contribution in our H2 fiscal 2027, and then fiscal 2028, it comes in in a much bigger way.

Bill Brennan: As we showed going back six months ago at OFC, many of the next generation deployments that have been discussed in the industry, we showed very elegant solutions all connected with AECs, and we will deliver up to 6.5 meters in that category. We think it takes shape towards the end of. There will be some contribution in our H2 fiscal 2027, and then fiscal 2028, it comes in in a much bigger way.

Speaker #6: And we'll deliver up to six and a half meters in that category. So, we think it takes shape towards the end of, or towards—there'll be some contribution in our second half fiscal '27, and then in fiscal '28, it comes in in a much bigger way.

Speaker #3: Your next question comes from the line of Joseph Cardoso with JP Morgan. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Joseph Cardoso with JP Morgan. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Joseph Cardoso with JP Morgan. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Speaker #7: Hi, thank you for taking my question. This is MP on behalf of Joseph Cardoso. I just wanted to ask about the overall opportunity. To date, most of the opportunity and the focus has been on training.

[Analyst] (J.P. Morgan): Hi. Thank you for taking my question. This is MP on behalf of Joseph Cardoso. Just wanted to ask on the overall opportunity. Till date, most of the opportunity and the focus has been on training, but we are seeing incremental development around inferencing as well now. Just wanted to check how Credo is positioned in terms of addressing the inferencing opportunity, and which part of the portfolio particularly stands out, and how does the overall opportunity compare relative to training? Thank you.

[Analyst] (JPMorgan): Hi. Thank you for taking my question. This is MP on behalf of Joseph Cardoso. Just wanted to ask on the overall opportunity. Till date, most of the opportunity and the focus has been on training, but we are seeing incremental development around inferencing as well now. Just wanted to check how Credo is positioned in terms of addressing the inferencing opportunity, and which part of the portfolio particularly stands out, and how does the overall opportunity compare relative to training? Thank you.

Speaker #7: But we are seeing incremental development around inferencing as well now. So just wanted to check, how is Credo positioned in terms of addressing the inferencing opportunity?

Speaker #7: And which part of the portfolio particularly stands out? And how does the overall opportunity compare relative to training? Thank you.

Speaker #4: I appreciate that question. I'd like to maybe talk a little bit about our OmniConnect solutions that we are bringing to market now, and that we expect to contribute revenue in our fiscal '28.

Bill Brennan: Appreciate that question. I would like to maybe talk a little bit about our OmniConnect solutions that we are bringing to market now and that we expect to contribute revenue in our fiscal 2028. Specifically related to inference. As these solutions continue to gain momentum, one universal issue is around memory fanout. The memory fanout issue is limiting bandwidth and also total memory deployment or memory capacity, both of which are critical to achieving high performance inference. With our OmniConnect solutions, there is a two-piece story to the offering. First thing is we license a highly optimized high-speed SerDes that has a very small form factor, very low power, and that has reach of up to 10 inches. Effectively addressing the fanout issue that exists on the XPU beachfront, as well as the distance you can achieve between the GPU and memory.

Bill Brennan: Appreciate that question. I would like to maybe talk a little bit about our OmniConnect solutions that we are bringing to market now and that we expect to contribute revenue in our fiscal 2028. Specifically related to inference. As these solutions continue to gain momentum, one universal issue is around memory fanout. The memory fanout issue is limiting bandwidth and also total memory deployment or memory capacity, both of which are critical to achieving high performance inference. With our OmniConnect solutions, there is a two-piece story to the offering.

Speaker #4: Specifically related to inference, as these solutions continue to gain

Speaker #1: Gain momentum . One universal issue is around memory Fanout the memory fanout issue is limiting bandwidth and also total memory deployment memory capacity , both of which are are critical to achieving high performance inference .

Speaker #1: And so with our Omnitech solutions , there's kind of a two piece story to to , to the offering . First thing is we license a highly optimized high speed service .

Bill Brennan: First thing is we license a highly optimized high-speed SerDes that has a very small form factor, very low power, and that has reach of up to 10 inches. Effectively addressing the fanout issue that exists on the XPU beachfront, as well as the distance you can achieve between the GPU and memory. The second piece is the gearboxes that we are developing. The first gearbox that we are developing is a solution that we call Weaver, and it is a gearbox that interfaces between that embedded SerDes on the XPU. So it is up to 10 inches reach and interfaces with that same exact SerDes.

Speaker #1: That's got a very small form factor , very low power , and that's got reach of up to ten inches . And so effectively addressing the the issue that exists on the XP , you beachfront as well as the distance that you can , you know , get the distance you can achieve between the GPU and memory So the second piece is the gearboxes that we're developing .

Bill Brennan: The second piece is the gearboxes that we are developing. The first gearbox that we are developing is a solution that we call Weaver, and it is a gearbox that interfaces between that embedded SerDes on the XPU. So it is up to 10 inches reach and interfaces with that same exact SerDes. Then it becomes an LPDDR interface. It is important to note that our first product will be LPDDR5, and there will be a second product we do for LPDDR6. In a sense, this architecture is future-enabled, because when the memory market shifts from 5 to 6, there is not going to be a need for our XPU partners to do another tape out, another design. Just simply change the gearbox. Our first customer, Positron, is doing really great things.

Speaker #1: The first gearbox that we're developing is a solution that we call Weaver. And it is a gearbox that interfaces between that embedded on the XPU.

Speaker #1: So it's up to ten inches . Reece reach and interfaces with that same exact service . And then it it becomes an LP , DDR interface and it's important to note that our first product will be LP , Ddr5 , and there will be a second product we do for LP , DDR six .

Bill Brennan: Then it becomes an LPDDR interface. It is important to note that our first product will be LPDDR5, and there will be a second product we do for LPDDR6. In a sense, this architecture is future-enabled, because when the memory market shifts from 5 to 6, there is not going to be a need for our XPU partners to do another tape out, another design. Just simply change the gearbox. Our first customer, Positron, is doing really great things.

Speaker #1: And so in a sense , this architecture is future enabled because when the memory market shifts from 5 to 6 , there isn't going to be a need for our xpu partners to do another tapeout another design , just simply change the gearbox .

Speaker #1: And so our first customer , positron , is doing really , really great things . When we look at , you know , memory limitations and the opportunity , you know that if you can increase memory capacity up to two terabytes , which is their first announced product , just the performance with frontier model or frontier models , basically , you can fit everything in memory and your performance just goes off the charts .

Bill Brennan: When we look at memory limitations and the opportunity that if you can increase memory capacity up to 2 terabytes, which is their first announced product, just the performance with frontier models, basically you can fit everything in memory and your performance just goes off the charts. They are redefining what is competitive in that space. If we look even from a bandwidth standpoint, we have got a roadmap that will achieve very comparable bandwidth to even HBM5. That is while expanding on memory size and eliminating the reliability issues of packaging XPUs and HBM in the same package. Related specifically to inference, we are really excited about how this is really going to change the game for many frontier model applications.

Bill Brennan: When we look at memory limitations and the opportunity that if you can increase memory capacity up to 2 terabytes, which is their first announced product, just the performance with frontier models, basically you can fit everything in memory and your performance just goes off the charts. They are redefining what is competitive in that space. If we look even from a bandwidth standpoint, we have got a roadmap that will achieve very comparable bandwidth to even HBM5. That is while expanding on memory size and eliminating the reliability issues of packaging XPUs and HBM in the same package.

Speaker #1: And so they're redefining what is competitive in that space . And if we if we look even from a bandwidth standpoint , we've got a roadmap that will achieve very comparable bandwidth to even HBM five .

Speaker #1: And , you know , that's while expanding on memory size and eliminating the reliability issues of packaging , XP use and HBM at the same package , but related specifically to inference , we're really excited about how this is really going to change the game for many .

Bill Brennan: Related specifically to inference, we are really excited about how this is really going to change the game for many frontier model applications.

Speaker #1: You know, frontier model applications.

Speaker #2: Your next question comes from the line of Vivek Arya with Bank of America. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Vivek Arya with Bank of America. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Vivek Arya with Bank of America. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Speaker #3: Thanks for taking my question . Bill , I wanted to go back on the AEC growth in the second half and then longer term , if I take your 85% growth outlook for the year , you know , suggest about $500 million of incremental growth in the second half .

Vivek Arya: Thanks for taking my question. Bill, I wanted to go back on the AEC growth in the H2 and then longer term. If I take your 85% growth outlook for the year, it suggests about USD 500 million of incremental growth in the H2. But if optics is going to be the bulk of it, then that USD 600 million, that suggests more conservative assumptions about AEC growth. I am sure that I am probably mistaken about how much optics was in the H1 or so. I was just hoping if you could give us some more details on the optics versus AEC segmentation in the H1 versus H2, and what that implies for AEC growth in the H2. Then how should we model AEC growth longer term?

Vivek Arya: Thanks for taking my question. Bill, I wanted to go back on the AEC growth in the H2 and then longer term. If I take your 85% growth outlook for the year, it suggests about USD 500 million of incremental growth in the H2. But if optics is going to be the bulk of it, then that USD 600 million, that suggests more conservative assumptions about AEC growth. I am sure that I am probably mistaken about how much optics was in the H1 or so. I was just hoping if you could give us some more details on the optics versus AEC segmentation in the H1 versus H2, and what that implies for AEC growth in the H2.

Speaker #3: But if optics is going to be the bulk of it, then that $600 million, you know, that suggests kind of more conservative assumptions about AEC growth.

Speaker #3: I'm sure that I'm probably mistaken about how much optics was in the first half or so. So I was just hoping if you could kind of give us some more details on the optics versus AEC segmentation in the first half versus second half, and what that implies for—.

Speaker #3: AEC growth in the second half. And then, how should we model AEC growth longer term?

Vivek Arya: Then how should we model AEC growth longer term?

Speaker #1: Sure. I think that as we look at the entire year, and we look at the growth across each one of the products that we're bringing to market, we see growth across the board.

Bill Brennan: Sure. I think that as we look at the entire year, and we look at the growth across each one of the products that we are bringing to market, we see growth across the board. Now, of course, with our optical solutions, this is really the first year that we are ramping, and it makes a lot of sense based on what we are bringing to market that we will be able to achieve a really fast-paced growth. I think AECs will continue to grow. You have to consider where we have grown from. AECs have driven growth over the last two fiscal years, more than doubling from 2024 to 2025, and then more than tripling from 2025 to 2026. I think that as we look at our opportunities in AEC, we continue to see expanding opportunities.

Bill Brennan: Sure. I think that as we look at the entire year, and we look at the growth across each one of the products that we are bringing to market, we see growth across the board. Now, of course, with our optical solutions, this is really the first year that we are ramping, and it makes a lot of sense based on what we are bringing to market that we will be able to achieve a really fast-paced growth. I think AECs will continue to grow. You have to consider where we have grown from.

Speaker #1: Now , of course , with our optical solutions , this is really the first year that we're ramping . And it makes a lot of sense based on , you know , what we're bringing to market that we'll be able to achieve really fast paced growth .

Speaker #1: I think AEC will continue to grow . You've got to consider where we've grown from . Aecs have driven growth over the last two fiscal years , more than doubling from 24 to 25 , and then more than tripling from 25 to 26 .

Bill Brennan: AECs have driven growth over the last two fiscal years, more than doubling from 2024 to 2025, and then more than tripling from 2025 to 2026. I think that as we look at our opportunities in AEC, we continue to see expanding opportunities. But in a sense, I think we are looking at clearly a slower growth overall compared to the fact that we are growing into such a large market with optics. It makes sense that optics will grow faster because we are growing from a smaller base.

Speaker #1: And so I think that that , you know , as we look at our opportunities in AEC , we continue to see to to see expanding opportunities .

Speaker #1: But in a sense , you know , I think we're , you know , we're , we're , you know , we're looking at clearly a slower growth overall compared to the fact that we're growing into such a large market with , with optics .

Bill Brennan: But in a sense, I think we are looking at clearly a slower growth overall compared to the fact that we are growing into such a large market with optics. It makes sense that optics will grow faster because we are growing from a smaller base. But long term, I think you will see AECs grow, and as we continue to scale as a company, I think you will see a really nice balance between copper solutions and optical.

Speaker #1: And so it makes sense that optics will grow faster because we're growing from a smaller base. But long term, I think you'll see AEC grow.

Bill Brennan: But long term, I think you will see AECs grow, and as we continue to scale as a company, I think you will see a really nice balance between copper solutions and optical.

Speaker #1: And as we continue to scale as a company, I think you'll see balance—really nice balance—between copper solutions and optical.

Speaker #2: Your next question comes from the line of Sebastian Nagy with William Blair. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Sebastian Nagy with William Blair. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Sebastian Nagy with William Blair. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Speaker #4: Yeah . Thank you . Good afternoon . I just wanted to maybe ask a little bit about pilot and some of the telemetry data that that your your solutions are picking up as you're installed .

Sebastian Nagy: Yeah. Thank you. Good afternoon. I just wanted to maybe ask a little bit about PILOT and some of the telemetry data that your solutions are picking up. As your install base grows, are you accumulating enough link-level telemetry that the data itself is becoming a bit of a competitive advantage? For example, allowing you to identify failure modes or optimize future DSP designs. Is that extending your moat at all? Just any thoughts on that?

Sebastien Naji: Yeah. Thank you. Good afternoon. I just wanted to maybe ask a little bit about PILOT and some of the telemetry data that your solutions are picking up. As your install base grows, are you accumulating enough link-level telemetry that the data itself is becoming a bit of a competitive advantage? For example, allowing you to identify failure modes or optimize future DSP designs. Is that extending your moat at all? Just any thoughts on that?

Speaker #4: As your base grows, are you accumulating enough link-level telemetry that the data itself is becoming a bit of a competitive advantage? For example, allowing you to identify failure modes or optimize future DSP designs?

Speaker #4: And is that extending your moat at all? Just any thoughts on that?

Speaker #1: Sure . The the pilot software platform is really important part of the total Z optics offering . And when we look at what we've done , we've we basically had to start with a custom DSP design , one that would enable telemetry to be lit up on every link between an Xpu and a switch .

Bill Brennan: Sure. The PILOT software platform is a really important part of the total ZF Optics offering. When we look at what we have done, we basically had to start with a custom DSP design, one that would enable telemetry to be lit up on every link between an XPU and a switch. When I say every link, there is really six in total. There is three in one direction and three in the other. This is completely different than the telemetry that has been discussed up to this point in the industry. What we are able to sense on a real-time continuous basis is really rich telemetry data that looks on indicators of link stability, even going down to the SerDes level, because that, of course, is core to our platform on everything we do.

Bill Brennan: Sure. The PILOT software platform is a really important part of the total ZF Optics offering. When we look at what we have done, we basically had to start with a custom DSP design, one that would enable telemetry to be lit up on every link between an XPU and a switch. When I say every link, there is really six in total. There is three in one direction and three in the other. This is completely different than the telemetry that has been discussed up to this point in the industry.

Speaker #1: And when I say every link, there's really six in total. There are three in one direction and three in the other. And this is completely different from the telemetry that has been discussed up to this point in the industry.

Speaker #1: And so what we're able to sense on a real time continuous basis is really rich telemetry data that looks , you know , on indicators of link stability , even going down to the surface level , because that , of course , is core to our platform on everything we do , but we're looking at a real time measurement of eye height .

Bill Brennan: What we are able to sense on a real-time continuous basis is really rich telemetry data that looks on indicators of link stability, even going down to the SerDes level, because that, of course, is core to our platform on everything we do. We are looking at a real-time measurement of eye height and SNR post-FEC histograms, really rich telemetry data, even down to that level. When we are sensing this continuously, we can sense when the link integrity is decreasing.

Bill Brennan: We are looking at a real-time measurement of eye height and SNR post-FEC histograms, really rich telemetry data, even down to that level. When we are sensing this continuously, we can sense when the link integrity is decreasing. You can think of it as, right now in the industry, what exists is a green light when you have got a connection, and a red light when there is a failure. What we are adding is like a check engine, like a yellow light that says, "Okay, you have identified something," and then the mitigation piece of it is about acting. There are different approaches that are enabled by PILOT. You can make the decision on a transceiver by transceiver basis to take that transceiver that looks likely to have a link flap, and in an orderly way, take that GPU out of the cluster.

Speaker #1: And Snr post histograms , really rich telemetry data , even down to that level . And so when we when we , you know , our , our sensing this continuously , we can sense when the , the link integrity is decreasing .

Speaker #1: And so you can think of it as right now in the industry , what exist is a green light . When , when you've got a connection and a red light , when there's a failure , what we're adding is like a check engine , like a yellow light that says , okay , you've identified something .

Bill Brennan: You can think of it as, right now in the industry, what exists is a green light when you have got a connection, and a red light when there is a failure. What we are adding is like a check engine, like a yellow light that says, "Okay, you have identified something," and then the mitigation piece of it is about acting. There are different approaches that are enabled by PILOT. You can make the decision on a transceiver by transceiver basis to take that transceiver that looks likely to have a link flap, and in an orderly way, take that GPU out of the cluster.

Speaker #1: And then the mitigation piece of it is about acting . And so there's a different approaches that are enabled by pilot . You can make the decision on a transceiver by transceiver basis to , to take that transceiver that looks likely to have a link flap .

Speaker #1: And , and in an orderly way , take that GPU out of the cluster . We've got other customers that are looking at a network level , more of a centralized approach .

Bill Brennan: We have got other customers that are looking at a network level, more of a centralized approach, and the ultimate outcome is the same from a reliability standpoint. In this case, both opportunities allow you to collect a tremendous amount of data because as you are taking a link down, you have got a snapshot of exactly what was happening within that transceiver and what is happening within the network. You are right, that the data set that we are starting to gather and that we will gather over time will lead to better solutions. It will lead to next generation solutions being optimized even more so for the types of failures that we are detecting early. I will say we are doing other things that are really interesting, and that is related to conversations with customers.

Bill Brennan: We have got other customers that are looking at a network level, more of a centralized approach, and the ultimate outcome is the same from a reliability standpoint. In this case, both opportunities allow you to collect a tremendous amount of data because as you are taking a link down, you have got a snapshot of exactly what was happening within that transceiver and what is happening within the network. You are right, that the data set that we are starting to gather and that we will gather over time will lead to better solutions.

Speaker #1: And , you know , the ultimate outcome is , is the same from a reliability standpoint . But in this case , you know , both opportunities allow you to collect a tremendous amount of data because as you're taking a link down , you've got a snapshot of exactly what was happening within that , within that transceiver .

Speaker #1: And what's happening within the network. And so you're right that the data set that, you know, we're starting to gather and that we will gather over time will lead to better solutions.

Speaker #1: It will lead to , you know , next generation solutions being optimized even more so for the types of failures that , that we're detecting early .

Bill Brennan: It will lead to next generation solutions being optimized even more so for the types of failures that we are detecting early. I will say we are doing other things that are really interesting, and that is related to conversations with customers. We had a customer ask us, "Can you sense even the slightest ESD damage on a transceiver?" Because that will become a latent defect. We have figured out a way to sense even the slightest ESD damage. Not the type of damage that would cause a transceiver to fail, but the type of damage that over time would result in a failure in that connection.

Speaker #1: I will say we're doing other things that are really interesting . And that's , you know , related to conversations with customers . We had a customer ask us , can you sense even the slightest ESD damage on a transceiver ?

Bill Brennan: We had a customer ask us, "Can you sense even the slightest ESD damage on a transceiver?" Because that will become a latent defect. We have figured out a way to sense even the slightest ESD damage. Not the type of damage that would cause a transceiver to fail, but the type of damage that over time would result in a failure in that connection. Now when we have got customers lighting up racks, they can determine immediately if a transceiver was mishandled and needs to be replaced. Other things that we are sensing is dust on the fiber plant. This is really important because even the smallest speck of dust can have light bouncing back in the other direction, causing a multi-path interference situation. What we are doing is far beyond. Now, PILOT allows us to integrate within the network at our customers.

Speaker #1: Because that will become a latent defect . And so , you know , we figured out a way to , to sense even the slightest ESD damage , not the type of damage that would cause a transceiver to fail , but the type of damage that over time would result in , in a , in a failure in that connection .

Speaker #1: And so now, when we've got customers lighting up racks, they can determine immediately if a transceiver was mishandled and needs to be replaced.

Bill Brennan: Now when we have got customers lighting up racks, they can determine immediately if a transceiver was mishandled and needs to be replaced. Other things that we are sensing is dust on the fiber plant. This is really important because even the smallest speck of dust can have light bouncing back in the other direction, causing a multi-path interference situation. What we are doing is far beyond. Now, PILOT allows us to integrate within the network at our customers. And that really just changes the game on giving our customers tools to be active in identifying and mitigating.

Speaker #1: Other things that we're sensing is dust on the fiber plant . This is really , really important because even the smallest speck of dust can have light bouncing back in the other direction , causing a multi multipath interference situation .

Speaker #1: And so what we're doing is far beyond now pilot allows us to , to integrate within the network at customers . And that really just changes the game on , on , you know , giving our customers tools to be active in identifying and mitigating and look , the , the goal here is twofold .

Bill Brennan: And that really just changes the game on giving our customers tools to be active in identifying and mitigating. The goal here is twofold. It is really to deliver the fastest time to revenue. So bringing a cluster up in 5 or 6 days versus 6 to 8 weeks. I think we have seen the contracts that have been reported in the market. You can measure a month on the order of hundreds of millions or even USD 1 billion of advantage when you have got that really expensive gear that could be generating revenue. But it is sitting idle because you are trying to bring a cluster up and on the order of weeks versus days. The other big one is uptime after deployment. And driving to a 99% uptime or even higher is the objective here. And that just delivers a better fabric, a better product for the end customers.

Bill Brennan: The goal here is twofold. It is really to deliver the fastest time to revenue. So bringing a cluster up in 5 or 6 days versus 6 to 8 weeks. I think we have seen the contracts that have been reported in the market. You can measure a month on the order of hundreds of millions or even USD 1 billion of advantage when you have got that really expensive gear that could be generating revenue. But it is sitting idle because you are trying to bring a cluster up and on the order of weeks versus days. The other big one is uptime after deployment.

Speaker #1: It's really to , to deliver the fastest time to revenue . So bringing a cluster up in 5 or 6 days versus 6 to 8 weeks , I think we we've seen the contracts that have been reported in the market .

Speaker #1: You can measure a month on the order of hundreds of millions, or even $1 billion, of advantage when you've got that really expensive gear that could be generating revenue.

Speaker #1: But it's sitting idle because you're trying to bring a cluster up, and that's on the order of weeks versus days. The other big one is uptime.

Speaker #1: You know, after deployment, driving to a 99% uptime or even higher is the objective here. And that just delivers a better fabric, a better product for the end customers.

Bill Brennan: And driving to a 99% uptime or even higher is the objective here. And that just delivers a better fabric, a better product for the end customers. And so it is a huge differentiator, I think at a cluster level. But yes, PILOT is critical to enabling that. It is a combination of the custom hardware, but the interface within the network is really the critical piece.

Speaker #1: And so it's a huge differentiator . I think at , at a , at a cluster level . But yes , pilot is , is critical to enabling that .

Bill Brennan: And so it is a huge differentiator, I think at a cluster level. But yes, PILOT is critical to enabling that. It is a combination of the custom hardware, but the interface within the network is really the critical piece.

Speaker #1: It's a combination of the custom hardware, but the interface within the network is really the critical piece.

Speaker #4: Frank, thank you so much.

Sebastian Nagy: Great detail. Thank you so much.

Sebastien Naji: Great detail. Thank you so much.

Speaker #2: Your next question comes from the line of Karl Ackerman with BNP. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Karl Ackerman with BNP. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Karl Ackerman with BNP. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Speaker #5: Great

Karl Ackerman: Great.

Karl Ackerman: Great. DSPs and PICs. Aren't direct hyperscaler sales growing as a portion of your mix versus optical module suppliers? How does that improve your customer visibility and stickiness with your data center customer base? Thank you.

Karl Ackerman: DSPs and PICs. Aren't direct hyperscaler sales growing as a portion of your mix versus optical module suppliers? How does that improve your customer visibility and stickiness with your data center customer base? Thank you.

Speaker #6: And picks, aren't direct hyperscaler sales growing as a portion of your mix versus optical module suppliers? And how does that improve your customer visibility and stickiness with your data center customer base?

Speaker #6: Thank you .

Speaker #1: Carl , I apologize , you the first part of your question , we didn't hear . So I just want to make sure I've got the right perspective .

Bill Brennan: Karl, I apologize. The first part of your question, we didn't hear, so I just want to make sure I've got the right perspective.

Bill Brennan: Karl, I apologize. The first part of your question, we didn't hear, so I just want to make sure I've got the right perspective.

Speaker #6: Sure. Yeah. As we think about the opportunity for your discrete DSPs and the piece of that $600 million, and also growing over time, isn't the customer mix moving more toward direct hyperscaler sales, who are making their own custom transceivers?

Karl Ackerman: Sure. As we think about the opportunity for your discrete DSPs and PICs of that $600 million and also growing over time, isn't the customer mix moving more toward direct hyperscaler sales who are making their own custom transceivers? As they do that, how does that improve your customer visibility and stickiness with that customer base?

Karl Ackerman: Sure. As we think about the opportunity for your discrete DSPs and PICs of that $600 million and also growing over time, isn't the customer mix moving more toward direct hyperscaler sales who are making their own custom transceivers? As they do that, how does that improve your customer visibility and stickiness with that customer base?

Speaker #6: And as they do that, how does that improve your customer visibility and stickiness with that customer base?

Speaker #1: When? So, in looking at our optical components business, this is a really important part of our business, both short term and long term.

Bill Brennan: So in looking at our optical components business, this is a really important part of our business, short-term and long-term. Ultimately, it's the path where we're going to pursue that pluggable optical transceiver market that is based on mainstream standards. The combination of having an optical DSP and a PIC and being able to offer that system level, even within a component offering, that'll help our customers deliver what we see as the most competitive combination of system performance, power, and yield. Many times, our module customers are working directly with hyperscalers, and the hyperscalers are active in basically pointing to the components that they want to be put together within the modules that our module customers offer.

Bill Brennan: So in looking at our optical components business, this is a really important part of our business, short-term and long-term. Ultimately, it's the path where we're going to pursue that pluggable optical transceiver market that is based on mainstream standards. The combination of having an optical DSP and a PIC and being able to offer that system level, even within a component offering, that'll help our customers deliver what we see as the most competitive combination of system performance, power, and yield.

Speaker #1: And ultimately , it's the path where we're going to pursue that pluggable optical transceiver market that is based on mainstream standards and the combination of having an optical DSP and a pick and being able to offer that system level , even within a component offering , you know , that'll help our , our customers deliver what we see is the most competitive combination of system performance , power and yield .

Speaker #1: Many times, our customers are working directly with hyperscalers, and the hyperscalers are active in, you know, basically pointing to the components that they want to be put together within the modules that our module customers offer.

Bill Brennan: Many times, our module customers are working directly with hyperscalers, and the hyperscalers are active in basically pointing to the components that they want to be put together within the modules that our module customers offer. The hyperscalers play a big role in both the component sale part of our business to our module customers, as well as our ZF Optics modules that we are building ourselves.

Speaker #1: And so the hyperscalers play a big role in both the component sale part of our business to our module customers, as well as our ZF optics modules that we're building ourselves long term.

Bill Brennan: The hyperscalers play a big role in both the component sale part of our business to our module customers, as well as our ZF Optics modules that we are building ourselves. Long term, I think that is going to be a balance that we see that will continue to where we are going to see that, in fact, our component sales and our module sales will be complementary in the sense that the broad part of the market will be addressed by components, and a very specific part of the market that really is focused on reliability will be a new product that is offered in that transceiver space.

Bill Brennan: Long term, I think that is going to be a balance that we see that will continue to where we are going to see that, in fact, our component sales and our module sales will be complementary in the sense that the broad part of the market will be addressed by components, and a very specific part of the market that really is focused on reliability will be a new product that is offered in that transceiver space.

Speaker #1: I think that, that is going to be a balance that we see, that will continue to where we're going to see that.

Speaker #1: In fact, our component sales and our module sales will be complementary in the sense that the broad part of the market will be addressed by components.

Speaker #1: And a very specific part of the market that really, really is focused on reliability will be kind of a new product that's offered in that transceiver space.

Speaker #2: Your next question comes from the line of Vijay Rakesh with Mizuho. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Vijay Rakesh with Mizuho. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Vijay Rakesh with Mizuho. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Speaker #7: Yeah . Hi , Bill and Dan , just a quick question . You mentioned just taking a step back . You mentioned 2027 as a stepping stone and you're already growing like 85% year on year as you look at , you know , as you look out to fiscal 28 , can you give us some perspective on how to look at it ?

Vijay Rakesh: Yeah. Hi, Bill and Dan. Just a quick question. Just taking a step back, you mentioned 2027 as a stepping stone, and you are already growing 85% year-on-year. As you look out to fiscal 2028, can you give us some perspective on how to look at it? Obviously, AECs are growing, might be like 50% this year. You have ZF Optics ramping, SiPho, the ZF Optics and SiPho, like USD 600 million for fiscal 2027, which kind of annualized is like a USD 1 billion-plus run rate. As you mentioned, Active Electrical Cables as well. As you have all these four segments ramping, can you give us some perspective on how to look at fiscal 2028? Thanks.

Vijay Rakesh: Yeah. Hi, Bill and Dan. Just a quick question. Just taking a step back, you mentioned 2027 as a stepping stone, and you are already growing 85% year-on-year. As you look out to fiscal 2028, can you give us some perspective on how to look at it? Obviously, AECs are growing, might be like 50% this year. You have ZF Optics ramping, SiPho, the ZF Optics and SiPho, like USD 600 million for fiscal 2027, which kind of annualized is like a USD 1 billion-plus run rate. As you mentioned, Active Electrical Cables as well.

Speaker #7: Obviously , AEC is growing . You know , maybe like 50% this year . You have ZF optics ramping . Sipho the optics and cipher's like 600 million for fiscal 27 , which kind of annualized is like a billion plus run rate .

Speaker #7: And as you mentioned , active LED cables as well as you have all these four segments ramping . Can you can you give us some perspective on how to look at fiscal 28 ?

Vijay Rakesh: As you have all these four segments ramping, can you give us some perspective on how to look at fiscal 2028? Thanks.

Speaker #7: Thanks

Speaker #1: I appreciate that the, you know, the conversation about fiscal '28, '29, and '30 is something that's a very active conversation within our leadership team at Credo.

Bill Brennan: I appreciate that. The conversation about fiscal 2028 and 2029 and 2030 is something that is a very active conversation within our leadership team at Credo. Let me first touch on ALC as a part of our portfolio. The ALC product that we are bringing to market first is using micro LED technology. The promise of this technology is really to deliver the same reliability and the same power efficiencies at a core technology level as AECs. Key difference there is we will extend the length to 30 meters. ALCs will represent our third differentiated pluggable transceiver solution. So different things we first did, kind of created the product category with AECs, followed by ZF Optics, again, creating a new product category. ALCs will be the third leg of that stool.

Bill Brennan: I appreciate that. The conversation about fiscal 2028 and 2029 and 2030 is something that is a very active conversation within our leadership team at Credo. Let me first touch on ALC as a part of our portfolio. The ALC product that we are bringing to market first is using micro LED technology. The promise of this technology is really to deliver the same reliability and the same power efficiencies at a core technology level as AECs. Key difference there is we will extend the length to 30 meters. ALCs will represent our third differentiated pluggable transceiver solution.

Speaker #1: Let me first touch on on ALK as , as a part of our portfolio , I think this is , you know , the ALK product that we're bringing to market first is using micro led technology and the promise of this technology is really to deliver the same reliability and the same power efficiencies at a core technology level as Aecs key difference there is we'll extend the length to 30m .

Speaker #1: And so it's going to Alks will represent our third differentiated pluggable transceiver solution . So , you know , different things . We first did , you know , kind of created the product category with AEC , followed by ZF optics .

Bill Brennan: So different things we first did, kind of created the product category with AECs, followed by ZF Optics, again, creating a new product category. ALCs will be the third leg of that stool. The bottom line is I look at that pluggable transceiver market, and I think that is just step one for AECs and the micro emitters technology. A next natural step forward on that is to apply that to what comes with the scale-up opportunity.

Speaker #1: Again , creating a new product category . Alks will be the third leg of of that stool . The , the bottom line is I look at that pluggable transceiver market .

Bill Brennan: The bottom line is I look at that pluggable transceiver market, and I think that is just step one for AECs and the micro emitters technology. A next natural step forward on that is to apply that to what comes with the scale-up opportunity. Because again, in scale-up, this is another technology alternative, but the promise there is that at a core technology level, we would be addressing some of the problems that have prohibited that market from taking off with solutions specifically related to reliability, availability, and serviceability. We view AEC as a big multibillion-dollar opportunity, followed by as big of an opportunity with scale-up, and it is highly complementary to the suite of technologies that we have brought to market. The way that I think about the future, more specifically to answer your question, is that we are trying to put ourselves in several multibillion-dollar TAM opportunities.

Speaker #1: And I think that's just step one for Alks . And the micro emitter technology . A next natural step forward on that is to apply that to what comes with the scale up opportunity , because again in scale up this is another technology alternative .

Bill Brennan: Because again, in scale-up, this is another technology alternative, but the promise there is that at a core technology level, we would be addressing some of the problems that have prohibited that market from taking off with solutions specifically related to reliability, availability, and serviceability. We view AEC as a big multibillion-dollar opportunity, followed by as big of an opportunity with scale-up, and it is highly complementary to the suite of technologies that we have brought to market.

Speaker #1: But the promise there is that at a core technology level , we'd be addressing , you know , some of the problems that have prohibited that market from taking off with , you know , with , with solutions specifically related to reliability , availability , and serviceability .

Speaker #1: And so we view ALK as , as a , a big multibillion dollar opportunity , followed by , you know , as big of an opportunity with , with scale up .

Speaker #1: And it's highly complementary to this , to the suite of technologies that we brought to market . So the way that I think about the future , more specifically , to answer your question , is that we're trying to put ourselves in several multibillion dollar town opportunities .

Bill Brennan: The way that I think about the future, more specifically to answer your question, is that we are trying to put ourselves in several multibillion-dollar TAM opportunities. You can just analyze our portfolio across the pluggable space, and you can see that it is really tens of billions of dollars of opportunity that we are now going to be addressing in our fiscal 2028 timeline, given the fact that AECs will be part of the portfolio. We are trying to put ourselves in position to address a very large market. Our growth as a company will follow based on our success in executing with every customer.

Speaker #1: You can just analyze our portfolio across the pluggable space, and you can see that it's really tens of billions of dollars of opportunity that we're now going to be addressing in our fiscal '28.

Bill Brennan: You can just analyze our portfolio across the pluggable space, and you can see that it is really tens of billions of dollars of opportunity that we are now going to be addressing in our fiscal 2028 timeline, given the fact that AECs will be part of the portfolio. We are trying to put ourselves in position to address a very large market. Our growth as a company will follow based on our success in executing with every customer. I think we are quite bullish on the opportunity, and that is without even talking about the massive opportunity that the entire industry has in front of us with scale-up. Even think about OmniConnect. We have articulated in the past that that is a multibillion-dollar opportunity annually as well. I think that as we think about fiscal 2028, you are right.

Speaker #1: Timeline, given the fact that ALKs will be part of the portfolio. And so we're trying to put ourselves in position to address a very large market.

Speaker #1: Our growth as a company will follow based on our success in executing with every customer. I think we're quite bullish on the opportunity.

Bill Brennan: I think we are quite bullish on the opportunity, and that is without even talking about the massive opportunity that the entire industry has in front of us with scale-up. Even think about OmniConnect. We have articulated in the past that that is a multibillion-dollar opportunity annually as well. I think that as we think about fiscal 2028, you are right. We think about outsized growth again for another year, but we think that will continue for the years that follow as well.

Speaker #1: And that's without even talking about the massive opportunity that the entire industry has in front of us . With scale up . You even think about Omni connect .

Speaker #1: We've articulated in the past that that's a multibillion-dollar opportunity annually as well. So I think that as we think about fiscal '28, you're right.

Speaker #1: We think about outsized growth again for another year, but we think that will continue for the years to follow as well.

Bill Brennan: We think about outsized growth again for another year, but we think that will continue for the years that follow as well.

Speaker #2: Your next question comes from the line of Mark Lipacis with Evercore ISI. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Mark Lipacis with Evercore ISI. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Mark Lipacis with Evercore ISI. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Speaker #4: Hi . Thanks for taking my question . I think for you , you know , optics is growing faster . It's a newer market .

Mark Lipacis: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Bill, I think for you, optics is growing faster. It is a newer market. Can you contrast how you are prosecuting the optics market compared to how you prosecuted the AEC market? I have to imagine there are some differences given you effectively created the AEC market. Maybe as part of that, what are the implications on the business model as optics becomes larger and to the extent that you can talk about where you get leverage between these businesses, on development and the supply chain and with your customers and where you need to build capabilities. Thank you.

Mark Lipacis: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Bill, I think for you, optics is growing faster. It is a newer market. Can you contrast how you are prosecuting the optics market compared to how you prosecuted the AEC market? I have to imagine there are some differences given you effectively created the AEC market. Maybe as part of that, what are the implications on the business model as optics becomes larger and to the extent that you can talk about where you get leverage between these businesses, on development and the supply chain and with your customers and where you need to build capabilities. Thank you.

Speaker #4: Can you contrast how you are prosecuting the optics market compared to how you prosecuted the AEC market? I have to imagine there's some differences, given you—.

Speaker #4: You effectively created the AEC market . And maybe as part of that , what are the implications on the business model as optics becomes a larger and to the extent that you can talk about where you get leverage between these businesses , you know , on development and the supply chain and with your customers and where you need to build capabilities .

Speaker #4: Thank you

Speaker #1: There is a pretty interesting contrast between the efforts that we pursued with AEC and some of the leverage and how it looks different this time with ZF optics , the AEC , you know , we we imagined this product as being an extension to copper , basically addressing some of the issues that our customers are facing as they were going to faster speeds and they were having issues DACs we were surprised when we had customers pursuing us , talking about really interesting innovations at a feature level , you know , things like telemetry , things like other system related rack level innovations .

Bill Brennan: There is a pretty interesting contrast between the efforts that we pursued with AECs and some of the leverage and how it looks different this time with ZF Optics. With AECs, we imagined this product as being an extension to copper, basically addressing some of the issues that our customers were facing as they were going to faster speeds, and they were having issues with DACs. We were surprised when we had customers pursuing us, talking about really interesting innovations at a feature level. Things like telemetry, things like other system-related rack-level innovations. We really opened that door to the customer base on feature set innovation. Our first customer, Microsoft, the reason that they converted to AECs was really the functionality that we offered.

Bill Brennan: There is a pretty interesting contrast between the efforts that we pursued with AECs and some of the leverage and how it looks different this time with ZF Optics. With AECs, we imagined this product as being an extension to copper, basically addressing some of the issues that our customers were facing as they were going to faster speeds, and they were having issues with DACs. We were surprised when we had customers pursuing us, talking about really interesting innovations at a feature level. Things like telemetry, things like other system-related rack-level innovations.

Speaker #1: And we really opened that door to the customer base on feature set innovation . Our first customer , Microsoft . The reason that that they converted to Aecs was really the functionality that we offered .

Bill Brennan: We really opened that door to the customer base on feature set innovation. Our first customer, Microsoft, the reason that they converted to AECs was really the functionality that we offered. We developed a solution that was smart enough to sense when a TOR port was failing or about to fail, and then switching the data to a redundant TOR in a hitless manner. Really, really smart solution in a cable format. Over time, the momentum built, and this is over years.

Speaker #1: We developed a solution that was smart enough to sense when a Tor port was failing or about to fail, and then switch the data to a redundant Tor in a hitless manner.

Bill Brennan: We developed a solution that was smart enough to sense when a TOR port was failing or about to fail, and then switching the data to a redundant TOR in a hitless manner. Really, really smart solution in a cable format. Over time, the momentum built, and this is over years. Momentum built because as speeds increased, it was clear that DACs were not going to cut it from a signal integrity, but also from a form factor standpoint with the copper wires needing to become much, much thicker. So from a form factor standpoint and a signal integrity standpoint, many other customers started looking. Then, again, if we look at our solutions today, many of them have really innovative feature set solutions. So the growth happened over a product category creation, happened over several years.

Speaker #1: Really , really smart solution in a cable format Over time , the the momentum built and this is over . Over years , momentum built .

Bill Brennan: Momentum built because as speeds increased, it was clear that DACs were not going to cut it from a signal integrity, but also from a form factor standpoint with the copper wires needing to become much, much thicker. So from a form factor standpoint and a signal integrity standpoint, many other customers started looking. Then, again, if we look at our solutions today, many of them have really innovative feature set solutions. So the growth happened over a product category creation, happened over several years.

Speaker #1: Because as speeds increased , it was clear that DACs weren't going to cut it from a from a signal integrity , but also from a , you know , from a form factor standpoint with with the copper wires needed to become much , much thicker .

Speaker #1: So from a form factor standpoint and a signal integrity standpoint , many other customers started looking . And then again , I mean , if we look at our solutions today , many of them have really innovative feature set solutions .

Speaker #1: And so the growth happened over a product category . Creation happened over several years As part of developing our solution and having it be a complete solution in taking ownership of it , we , we developed a really differentiated way of coming to market from a qualification standpoint , the rigor that we put our solutions through is sometimes far beyond what our customer calls look like , and that includes having our customers switches , our customers mix running at speed as we're as we're hammering the link , the entire link , not just our , not our AEC , but the entire link from Nic to switch .

Bill Brennan: As part of developing our solution and having it be a complete solution, in taking ownership of it, we developed a really differentiated way of coming to market from a qualification standpoint. The rigor that we put our solutions through is sometimes far beyond what our customer quals look like, and that includes having our customers' switches, our customers' NICs, running at speed as we are hammering the link, the entire link, not our AEC, but the entire link from NIC to switch. The objective is to harden the solution, finding link weaknesses, and then hardening that through firmware modifications. So that was definitely something that we are leveraging now as we bring ZF Optics to market.

Bill Brennan: As part of developing our solution and having it be a complete solution, in taking ownership of it, we developed a really differentiated way of coming to market from a qualification standpoint. The rigor that we put our solutions through is sometimes far beyond what our customer quals look like, and that includes having our customers' switches, our customers' NICs, running at speed as we are hammering the link, the entire link, not our AEC, but the entire link from NIC to switch. The objective is to harden the solution, finding link weaknesses, and then hardening that through firmware modifications.

Speaker #1: And , you know , the objective is to harden the solution , finding link weaknesses and then hardening that through firmware modifications so that was , that was that was definitely something that we're leveraging now as we bring ZF optics to market .

Bill Brennan: So that was definitely something that we are leveraging now as we bring ZF Optics to market. But the difference with ZF Optics was that AI happened, and AI networks were fundamentally different than, say, front-end networks, where there was kind of a built-in redundancy within the different tiers of the network. And so we have had link flaps for a long time, but they just have not surfaced as a major concern because there was not any massive hit to the network.

Speaker #1: But the , the difference with ZF optics was that AI happened . And AI networks were fundamentally different than , say , front end networks where there was kind of a built in redundancy within the different tiers of , of the network .

Bill Brennan: But the difference with ZF Optics was that AI happened, and AI networks were fundamentally different than, say, front-end networks, where there was kind of a built-in redundancy within the different tiers of the network. And so we have had link flaps for a long time, but they just have not surfaced as a major concern because there was not any massive hit to the network. But now that we have got AI clusters, you have got tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of links that are all interdependent, that if you start getting flaps on some of those links, it can affect the entire cluster to the point where customers have talked about losing GPU utilization on the order of greater than 10% or even approaching 20%.

Speaker #1: And so we've had link flaps for a long time, but they just haven't surfaced as a major concern because there wasn't any massive hit to the network.

Speaker #1: But now that we've got AI clusters , you've got tens of thousands , if not hundreds of thousands of links that are all interdependent , that if you start getting flaps on some of those links , it can affect the entire cluster to the point where , you know , customers have talked about , you know , losing GPU utilization on the on the order of greater than 10% or even approaching 20% .

Bill Brennan: But now that we have got AI clusters, you have got tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of links that are all interdependent, that if you start getting flaps on some of those links, it can affect the entire cluster to the point where customers have talked about losing GPU utilization on the order of greater than 10% or even approaching 20%. So with this new application, it was a perfect fit for following the playbook on AECs and doing interesting things, very innovative things, in an area where innovation had not happened for many years.

Speaker #1: So there was a , you know , with this , with this new application , it was a perfect fit for following the playbook on ECS and doing interesting things , very innovative things in an area where innovation had not happened for many years , working closely with customers and basically charting the path to at a system level , be able to improve reliability of the network .

Bill Brennan: So with this new application, it was a perfect fit for following the playbook on AECs and doing interesting things, very innovative things, in an area where innovation had not happened for many years. Working closely with customers and basically charting the path to, at a system level, be able to improve reliability of the network. That was really the difference. And it took some time to develop the hardware and the software solution. But we are seeing that the market is taking off a lot faster than AECs because we are addressing a pain point that exists. Clearly exists already. So this is welcomed every time we have a conversation with the technical networking teams within the customer base.

Bill Brennan: Working closely with customers and basically charting the path to, at a system level, be able to improve reliability of the network. That was really the difference. And it took some time to develop the hardware and the software solution. But we are seeing that the market is taking off a lot faster than AECs because we are addressing a pain point that exists. Clearly exists already. So this is welcomed every time we have a conversation with the technical networking teams within the customer base.

Speaker #1: That was really the difference . And it took some time to , you know , to develop the hardware and the software solution .

Speaker #1: But we're seeing that the market is taking off a lot faster than AEC because we're addressing a pain point that clearly exists already.

Speaker #1: So this is, you know, this is welcomed every time we have a conversation with the technical networking teams within the customer base.

Speaker #2: Your next question comes from the line of Suji DeSilva with Roth Capital. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Suji De Silva with Roth Capital. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Suji De Silva with Roth Capital. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Speaker #8: Hi , Bill . Dan . Dan , congrats on the progress and the margins . We've given us a lot of color in the optical and kind of dug into how you're approaching it .

Suji De Silva: Hi, Bill and Dan. Congrats on the progress and the margins. You have given us a lot of color on the optical and kind of dug into how you are approaching it. It might be a good time to timely to revisit the competitive landscape and how you think competitors are approaching the markets you are approaching, whether you are approaching it differently or they are going to be able to approach the feature-driven approach the way you are, or any other elements that are key to how you are doing it that really allow you to separate from the group, because a lot of people talking about the same opportunities.

Suji De Silva: Hi, Bill and Dan. Congrats on the progress and the margins. You have given us a lot of color on the optical and kind of dug into how you are approaching it.

Speaker #8: It might be a good time to time to revisit the competitive landscape and how you think competitors are approaching the markets . You are approaching , whether you're approaching it differently or they're going to be able to approach the feature driven approach the way you are or any other elements that are key to kind of how you're doing it , that really allow you to separate from , from the group .

Suji De Silva: It might be a good time to timely to revisit the competitive landscape and how you think competitors are approaching the markets you are approaching, whether you are approaching it differently or they are going to be able to approach the feature-driven approach the way you are, or any other elements that are key to how you are doing it that really allow you to separate from the group, because a lot of people talking about the same opportunities.

Speaker #8: Because a lot of people are talking about the same opportunities.

Speaker #1: Sure . I think it's , I , I think there , there is a case to be made here about our go to market strategy and the fact that we are owning the entire stack .

Bill Brennan: Sure. I think there is a case to be made here about our go-to-market strategy and the fact that we are owning the entire stack. I think when we look at the opportunity just at a transceiver level, starting with the SerDes and then looking at it from a DSP and now a PIC perspective, being vertically integrated gives huge advantage on your ability to deliver the best possible system solution, but it also gives you an advantage on COGS. Then you think about going to market with a solution that's differentiated, and the challenge is what are those features worth? I think we expect an advantage at a COGS level, but we also expect an advantage on an ASP level as we compare our solution to more standards-based solutions in the market.

Bill Brennan: Sure. I think there is a case to be made here about our go-to-market strategy and the fact that we are owning the entire stack. I think when we look at the opportunity just at a transceiver level, starting with the SerDes and then looking at it from a DSP and now a PIC perspective, being vertically integrated gives huge advantage on your ability to deliver the best possible system solution, but it also gives you an advantage on COGS. Then you think about going to market with a solution that's differentiated, and the challenge is what are those features worth?

Speaker #1: And I think when we look at the opportunity Just at at a at a , at a , at a transceiver level , starting with the certes and then looking at it from a DSP and now a Pic perspective being vertically integrated gets huge advantage on your ability to deliver the best possible system solution , but it also gives you an advantage on Cogs Then you think about going to market with a solution that's differentiated and the challenge is what are those features worth ?

Speaker #1: And so, I think we expect an advantage at a COGS level, but we also expect that advantage on an ASP level as we compare our solution to more standards-based solutions in the market.

Bill Brennan: I think we expect an advantage at a COGS level, but we also expect an advantage on an ASP level as we compare our solution to more standards-based solutions in the market. I do think that long term, we are now the pace setter on innovation in the optical space. The market needs it, and we're being pretty open with working with the standards groups on standardizing around some of the things that we're doing. The challenge there is, how can we innovate faster than the rest of the competition, the rest of the market?

Speaker #1: I do think that long term we are now the pace setter on innovation in the optical space . The market needs it , and we're being pretty open with working with the standards groups on standardizing around some of the things that we're doing and the challenge there is how how can we innovate faster than the rest of the , the competition , the rest of the market ?

Bill Brennan: I do think that long term, we are now the pace setter on innovation in the optical space. The market needs it, and we're being pretty open with working with the standards groups on standardizing around some of the things that we're doing. The challenge there is, how can we innovate faster than the rest of the competition, the rest of the market? I think we feel comfortable, given the fact that we own the entire stack, that that's going to lead to the same kind of success that we've had with AECs.

Speaker #1: And I think we feel comfortable, given the fact that we own the entire stack, that that's going to lead to the same kind of success that we've had with Apex.

Bill Brennan: I think we feel comfortable, given the fact that we own the entire stack, that that's going to lead to the same kind of success that we've had with AECs.

Speaker #2: Your next question, and final question, comes from the line of Christopher Rowland with Susquehanna. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question, and final question, comes from the line of Christopher Rolland with Susquehanna. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Operator: Your next question, and final question, comes from the line of Christopher Rolland with Susquehanna. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Speaker #9: Hi , guys . Thanks for the question . Squeezing me in and Bill , I will bite on your DSP pick integration that you've mentioned quite a few times .

Christopher Rolland: Hi, guys. Thanks for the question, squeezing me in. Bill, I will bite on your DSP plus PIC integration that you've mentioned quite a few times. I guess first of all, if you could talk maybe a little bit more about your two DustPhotonics wins. Do they include DSP integration? If you could remind us the economics for this part, for this market, and what it means to you guys, that would be great.

Christopher Rolland: Hi, guys. Thanks for the question, squeezing me in. Bill, I will bite on your DSP plus PIC integration that you've mentioned quite a few times. I guess first of all, if you could talk maybe a little bit more about your two DustPhotonics wins. Do they include DSP integration? If you could remind us the economics for this part, for this market, and what it means to you guys, that would be great.

Speaker #9: I guess, first of all, if you could talk maybe a little bit more about your two dust wins—do they include DSP integration?

Speaker #9: And if you could remind us, kind of, the economics for this part—for this market—and what it means, guys, that would be great.

Speaker #1: Appreciate the question . The , the world we live in at a component level is quite competitive . And so just by just , just by proper protocol , we're not able to talk to specifically about exactly which of the major players that we're engaged with .

Bill Brennan: Appreciate the question. The world we live in at a component level is quite competitive. Just by proper protocol, we are not able to talk too specifically about exactly which of the major players that we are engaged with. I will say that these first two major design wins that we are talking about do not include the DSP. There is upside potential with that as we look at really co-marketing the DSP and the PICs long term. Right now, the DustPhotonics team was really doing a great job with engaging deeply with major players in the industry. Amazing that a small team like that had such great traction. I think it is evidence of the fact that their technical solution is absolutely leading edge in the market.

Bill Brennan: Appreciate the question. The world we live in at a component level is quite competitive. Just by proper protocol, we are not able to talk too specifically about exactly which of the major players that we are engaged with. I will say that these first two major design wins that we are talking about do not include the DSP. There is upside potential with that as we look at really co-marketing the DSP and the PICs long term. Right now, the DustPhotonics team was really doing a great job with engaging deeply with major players in the industry. Amazing that a small team like that had such great traction.

Speaker #1: I will say that these first two major design wins that we're talking about do not include the DSP, so there's upside potential with that.

Speaker #1: As we look at really co-marketing , the DSP and the Pix long term . Right now it's it's the dust team was really doing a great job with engaging deeply with major players in the industry .

Speaker #1: Amazing that a small team like that had had such great traction . And I think it's , I think it's evidence of the fact that their technical solution is absolutely leading edge in the market .

Bill Brennan: I think it is evidence of the fact that their technical solution is absolutely leading edge in the market. Long term, I think there is going to be a great opportunity for us to look at these two components and really bring a lot of benefits to the customer base. I look at this as a great development in our overall portfolio and going to be really promising long term for us. I guess with that, we will wrap up the call. I really appreciate you all attending, and thanks for the thoughtful questions. We look forward to the follow-up. Thanks so much.

Speaker #1: Long term, I think there's going to be a great opportunity for us to look at these two components and really bring a lot of benefits to the customer base.

Bill Brennan: Long term, I think there is going to be a great opportunity for us to look at these two components and really bring a lot of benefits to the customer base. I look at this as a great development in our overall portfolio and going to be really promising long term for us. I guess with that, we will wrap up the call. I really appreciate you all attending, and thanks for the thoughtful questions. We look forward to the follow-up. Thanks so much.

Speaker #1: So I look at this as a great development in our overall portfolio, and it's going to be really promising long-term for us. So I guess with that, we'll wrap up the call.

Speaker #1: So I really appreciate you all attending, and thanks for the thoughtful questions. We look forward to the follow-up. Thanks so much.

Operator: This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Operator: This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

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Q1 2027 Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd Earnings Call

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CRDO

Credo Technology Group Holding

Earnings

Q1 2027 Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd Earnings Call

CRDO

Tuesday, September 1st, 2026 at 9:00 PM

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