Coherent, Inc. COHR

The business

Coherent makes the optics that move data around and between data centres: transceivers that convert electrical signals to light, the lasers inside them, and the indium phosphide wafers those lasers are grown on. When a hyperscale operator wires up tens of thousands of accelerators, every one of those connections needs a transceiver, and the faster the chips get the more of them are required.

The other half of the company sells lasers and optical components into semiconductor equipment, precision manufacturing and instruments. That half is shrinking.