Astera Labs Reports Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results
- Record quarterly revenue of
$584.9 million , up 49% QoQ and up 154% year-over-year - Scorpio™ fabric switches became the company's largest product family, led by volume production of the Scorpio X-Series 320-lane fabric switch
- Portfolio expanded across memory, optical and copper signal conditioning, and rack-scale AI platforms with Leo 2 and Leo X-Series, Aries 7 and Orion
“Astera Labs delivered outstanding Q3 2026 results, with record quarterly revenue of
Third Quarter of Fiscal 2026 Financial Highlights
GAAP Financial Results:
- Revenue of
$584.9 million , up 49% sequentially and up 154% year-over-year - GAAP gross margin of 72.3%
- GAAP operating income of
$179.1 million - GAAP operating margin of 30.6%
- GAAP net income of
$182.9 million - GAAP diluted net income per share of
$0.99
Non-GAAP Financial Results (1):
- Non-GAAP gross margin of 72.4%
- Non-GAAP operating income of
$261.6 million - Non-GAAP operating margin of 44.7%
- Non-GAAP net income of
$243.4 million - Non-GAAP diluted net income per share of
$1.32
____________
(1) See “Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures” table included below.
Q3 2026 and Recent Business Highlights
- Announced Aries 7, the industry’s first and broadest PCIe® 7 signal conditioning portfolio, spanning Smart Retimers, Smart Redrivers, Smart Cable Modules, Smart Optical Drivers, and Smart Optical Transimpedance Amplifiers (TIAs). The expanded portfolio extends reach from centimeters of PCB trace to 50+ meters over optical cables spanning multiple racks and includes optical connectivity solutions purpose-built for near-packaged optics (NPO) and linear pluggable optics (LPO) applications. Aries 7 Smart Retimers and Smart Redrivers support the OCP Signal Conditioner Standard Footprint, allowing customers to select different signal conditioners without redesigning the board. Aries 7 products are expected to begin sampling in Q4 2026 to select hyperscale, OEM, and NPO customers.
- Unveiled Orion, a compute-agnostic rack-scale reference architecture that allows customers to choose their own GPU and CPU. Orion comprises six production-grade reference designs—spanning rack, compute tray, fabric tray, memory tray, link board, and compute board—and its high-radix 320-lane PCIe switch fabric is designed to scale from 8 to 160 accelerators per pod while helping the same accelerator extract more tokens per second across AI inference workloads. All designs are integrated with COSMOS Rack Manager and COSMOS Fabric Manager orchestration software for management, fleet-wide telemetry and diagnostics. Orion is designed primarily for neocloud and enterprise customers building AI inference capacity, and rack reference and system designs are on track for availability through Astera Labs’ OEM and ODM partners beginning in Q1 2027.
- Expanded the Leo Smart Memory Controller™ family with three new memory connectivity solutions—Leo X-Series and the Leo 2 E-Series and P-Series—extending the portfolio across direct fabric-attached GPU memory, CPU-attached expansion, and pooled memory architectures. Paired with Scorpio X-Series Fabric Switches, Leo X-Series enables fabric-attached memory for long-context, KV-cache-intensive workloads, improving inference performance with up to 62% faster time-to-first-token and up to 22% more tokens per second (as measured by the company’s internal testing). The new Leo 2 E-Series and P-Series support CPU-attached DDR4 and DDR5 memory expansion with PCIe® 6 and CXL® 3.2 support, and double memory bandwidth and capacity versus the previous generation.
- Showcased the expanded Aries and Orion families at the 2026
Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit inSan Jose , including a powered Orion rack featuring interchangeable, pre-validated compute trays with different CPU and accelerator configurations and live demonstrations of the Scorpio X-Series 320-lane Smart Fabric Switch with Hypercast™ and In-Network Compute, the Leo X-Series Smart Memory Controller, and PCIe 7 copper and optical signal conditioning.
Fourth Quarter of Fiscal 2026 Financial Outlook
Based on current business trends and conditions,
GAAP Financial Outlook:
- Revenue within a range of
$730 million to$750 million - GAAP gross margin of approximately 72%
- GAAP operating expenses within a range of approximately
$273 million to$279 million - GAAP tax rate of approximately 20%
- GAAP diluted net income per share of approximately
$1.13 to$1.17 on weighted-average diluted shares outstanding of approximately 187 million
Non-GAAP Financial Outlook(2):
- Non-GAAP gross margin of approximately 72%
- Non-GAAP operating expenses within a range of approximately
$194 million to$200 million - Non-GAAP tax rate of approximately 12%
- Non-GAAP diluted net income per share of approximately
$1.62 to$1.66 on weighted-average diluted shares outstanding of approximately 187 million
_____________
(2) See “Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Outlook” table included below.
Earnings Webcast and Conference Call
Discussion of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
We use certain non-GAAP financial measures, including those concerning our financial outlook, to supplement the performance measures in our consolidated financial statements, which are presented in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the closest GAAP measures can be found later in this release. The timing and impact of any adjustments to arrive at the corresponding GAAP financial measures concerning our financial outlook are inherently dependent on future events that are typically uncertain or that may be outside of our control. These non-GAAP financial measures include non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating expenses, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP tax rate, non-GAAP net income, and non-GAAP diluted net income per share. We use these non-GAAP financial measures for financial and operational decision-making and as a means to assist us in evaluating period-to-period comparisons. By excluding certain items that may not be indicative of our recurring core operating results, we believe that non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating expenses, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP tax rate, non-GAAP net income, and non-GAAP diluted net income per share provide meaningful supplemental information regarding our performance. Accordingly, we believe these non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors and others because they allow for additional information with respect to financial measures used by management in its financial and operational decision-making and they may be used by our institutional investors and the analyst community to help them analyze the health of our business. However, there are a number of limitations related to the use of non-GAAP financial measures, and these non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or in isolation from, our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate these non-GAAP financial measures differently or not at all, which reduces their usefulness as comparative measures.
We adjust the following items from one or more of our non-GAAP financial measures:
Stock-based compensation expense
We exclude non-cash stock-based compensation expense from certain of our non-GAAP financial measures because we believe that excluding this item provides meaningful supplemental information regarding operational performance. In particular, companies calculate non-cash stock-based compensation expense using a variety of valuation methodologies and subjective assumptions. Moreover, stock-based compensation expense is a non-cash charge that can vary significantly from period to period for reasons that are unrelated to our core operating performance, and therefore excluding this item provides investors and other users of our financial information with information that allows meaningful comparisons of our business performance across periods.
Acquisition-related costs
We exclude acquisition-related costs incurred in connection with our acquisitions, which we generally would not have otherwise incurred in the periods presented as part of our continuing operations. Acquisition-related costs include certain incremental expenses incurred to effect a business combination such as third-party costs: advisory, legal, accounting, valuation, and other professional fees. We believe that providing the non-GAAP measures excluding these costs assists our investors because such costs are not reflective of our ongoing operating results.
Other
We exclude other adjustments, including non-cash fair value adjustments related to equity investments without readily determinable fair values. These investments are measured at cost and adjusted for observable price changes or impairment on a nonrecurring basis only upon the occurrence of certain events. Accordingly, these adjustments are not indicative of our core operating performance.
Income tax effect
This represents the impact of the non-GAAP adjustments on an after-tax basis and one-off discrete tax adjustments that are unrelated to our core operating performance in connection with the presentation of non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted net income per share. This approach is designed to enhance investors’ ability to understand the impact of our non-GAAP tax expense on our current operations, provide improved modeling accuracy, and substantially reduce fluctuations caused by GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release and the accompanying oral presentation contain forward-looking statements based on
A variety of risks and factors that are beyond our control could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements including, without limitation: the competitive and cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry; the concentration of our customer base; the changes in demand for AI; the macroeconomic and/or geopolitical environment, including economic uncertainty and volatility in the capital markets; risks that demand for our products and the supply chain may be adversely affected, including by the imposition of tariffs by
About
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited) (In thousands) |
|||||||
| As of | |||||||
2026 |
2025 |
||||||
| Assets | |||||||
| Current assets | |||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 209,396 | $ | 167,611 | |||
| Marketable securities | 1,168,847 | 1,021,205 | |||||
| Accounts receivable, net | 284,253 | 83,202 | |||||
| Inventory | 200,893 | 58,979 | |||||
| Prepaid expenses and other current assets | 91,830 | 31,033 | |||||
| Total current assets | 1,955,219 | 1,362,030 | |||||
| Property and equipment, net | 170,713 | 92,038 | |||||
| 91,557 | 19,015 | ||||||
| Other assets | 82,844 | 58,740 | |||||
| Total assets | $ | 2,300,333 | $ | 1,531,823 | |||
| Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity | |||||||
| Current liabilities | |||||||
| Accounts payable | $ | 96,828 | $ | 42,362 | |||
| Accrued expenses and other current liabilities | 146,752 | 90,680 | |||||
| Total current liabilities | 243,580 | 133,042 | |||||
| Other liabilities | 57,285 | 35,147 | |||||
| Total liabilities | 300,865 | 168,189 | |||||
| Stockholders’ equity | |||||||
| Common stock | 17 | 17 | |||||
| Additional paid-in capital | 1,585,959 | 1,348,969 | |||||
| Accumulated other comprehensive (loss) income | (13,188 | ) | 4,310 | ||||
| Retained earnings | 426,680 | 10,338 | |||||
| Total stockholders’ equity | 1,999,468 | 1,363,634 | |||||
| Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity | $ | 2,300,333 | $ | 1,531,823 | |||
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Unaudited) (In thousands, except per share amounts) |
||||||||||||||||
| Three Months Ended | Nine Months Ended | |||||||||||||||
2026 |
2026 |
2025 |
2026 |
2025 |
||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 584,899 | $ | 392,400 | $ | 230,575 | $ | 1,285,660 | $ | 581,942 | ||||||
| Cost of revenue | 162,147 | 104,833 | 54,763 | 340,200 | 141,156 | |||||||||||
| Gross profit | 422,752 | 287,567 | 175,812 | 945,460 | 440,786 | |||||||||||
| Operating expenses | ||||||||||||||||
| Research and development | 170,957 | 135,898 | 78,928 | 432,489 | 210,206 | |||||||||||
| Sales and marketing | 37,432 | 26,372 | 19,359 | 85,703 | 59,670 | |||||||||||
| General and administrative | 35,307 | 36,049 | 22,119 | 97,131 | 64,445 | |||||||||||
| Total operating expenses | 243,696 | 198,319 | 120,406 | 615,323 | 334,321 | |||||||||||
| Operating income | 179,056 | 89,248 | 55,406 | 330,137 | 106,465 | |||||||||||
| Interest and other income | 12,971 | 13,577 | 11,456 | 38,129 | 32,773 | |||||||||||
| Income before income taxes | 192,027 | 102,825 | 66,862 | 368,266 | 139,238 | |||||||||||
| Income tax (provision) benefit | (9,083 | ) | 50,263 | 24,252 | 48,076 | 34,914 | ||||||||||
| Net income | $ | 182,944 | $ | 153,088 | $ | 91,114 | $ | 416,342 | $ | 174,152 | ||||||
| Net income per share: | ||||||||||||||||
| Basic | $ | 1.05 | $ | 0.89 | $ | 0.54 | $ | 2.41 | $ | 1.05 | ||||||
| Diluted | $ | 0.99 | $ | 0.83 | $ | 0.50 | $ | 2.28 | $ | 0.97 | ||||||
| Weighted-average shares used in calculating net income per share: | ||||||||||||||||
| Basic | 174,126 | 172,378 | 167,436 | 172,423 | 165,365 | |||||||||||
| Diluted | 184,077 | 183,340 | 180,631 | 182,871 | 178,961 | |||||||||||
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited) (In thousands) |
||||||||
| Nine Months Ended |
||||||||
| 2026 | 2025 | |||||||
| Cash flows from operating activities | ||||||||
| Net income | $ | 416,342 | $ | 174,152 | ||||
| Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities | ||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 195,495 | 118,659 | ||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 12,681 | 3,983 | ||||||
| Warrants contra revenue | 30,397 | 4,016 | ||||||
| Accretion of discounts on marketable securities | (3,426 | ) | (6,278 | ) | ||||
| Other, net | 7,312 | 2,521 | ||||||
| Changes in operating assets and liabilities: | ||||||||
| Accounts receivable, net | (201,245 | ) | (4,089 | ) | ||||
| Inventory | (146,173 | ) | (7,106 | ) | ||||
| Prepaid expenses and other assets | (51,767 | ) | (56,760 | ) | ||||
| Accounts payable | 38,814 | (1,088 | ) | |||||
| Accrued expenses and other liabilities | 43,047 | (3,969 | ) | |||||
| Net cash provided by operating activities | 341,477 | 224,041 | ||||||
| Cash flows from investing activities | ||||||||
| Purchases of property and equipment | (73,363 | ) | (18,855 | ) | ||||
| Purchases of marketable securities | (509,927 | ) | (664,432 | ) | ||||
| Sales and maturities of marketable securities | 348,213 | 515,109 | ||||||
| Payments for business combinations, net of cash acquired | (69,214 | ) | — | |||||
| Other investing activities | (2,500 | ) | (500 | ) | ||||
| Net cash used in investing activities | (306,791 | ) | (168,678 | ) | ||||
| Cash flows from financing activities | ||||||||
| Proceeds from exercises of stock options | 802 | 1,730 | ||||||
| Proceeds from employee stock purchase plan | 6,294 | 4,345 | ||||||
| Net cash provided by financing activities | 7,096 | 6,075 | ||||||
| Net increase in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash | 41,782 | 61,438 | ||||||
| Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash | ||||||||
| Beginning of the period | 167,684 | 80,044 | ||||||
| End of the period | $ | 209,466 | $ | 141,482 | ||||
RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES (Unaudited) (In thousands, except percentages and per share amounts) |
||||||||||||||||||||
| Three Months Ended | Nine Months Ended | |||||||||||||||||||
2026 |
2026 |
2025 |
2026 |
2025 |
||||||||||||||||
| GAAP gross profit | $ | 422,752 | $ | 287,567 | $ | 175,812 | $ | 945,460 | $ | 440,786 | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation expense | 890 | 1,692 | 379 | 3,081 | 694 | |||||||||||||||
| Non-GAAP gross profit | $ | 423,642 | $ | 289,259 | $ | 176,191 | $ | 948,541 | $ | 441,480 | ||||||||||
| GAAP gross margin | 72.3 | % | 73.3 | % | 76.2 | % | 73.5 | % | 75.7 | % | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation expense | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | |||||||||||||||
| Non-GAAP gross margin(1) | 72.4 | % | 73.7 | % | 76.4 | % | 73.8 | % | 75.9 | % | ||||||||||
| GAAP operating income | $ | 179,056 | $ | 89,248 | $ | 55,406 | $ | 330,137 | $ | 106,465 | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation expense | 82,590 | 63,992 | 40,739 | 195,495 | 118,659 | |||||||||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs(2) | — | 232 | — | 1,213 | — | |||||||||||||||
| Non-GAAP operating income | $ | 261,646 | $ | 153,472 | $ | 96,145 | $ | 526,845 | $ | 225,124 | ||||||||||
| GAAP operating margin | 30.6 | % | 22.7 | % | 24.0 | % | 25.7 | % | 18.3 | % | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation expense | 14.1 | 16.3 | 17.7 | 15.2 | 20.4 | |||||||||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs(2) | — | 0.1 | — | 0.1 | — | |||||||||||||||
| Non-GAAP operating margin | 44.7 | % | 39.1 | % | 41.7 | % | 41.0 | % | 38.7 | % | ||||||||||
| GAAP net income | $ | 182,944 | $ | 153,088 | $ | 91,114 | $ | 416,342 | $ | 174,152 | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation expense | 82,590 | 63,992 | 40,739 | 195,495 | 118,659 | |||||||||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs(2) | — | 232 | — | 1,213 | — | |||||||||||||||
| Other(3) | — | (1,500 | ) | — | (1,500 | ) | — | |||||||||||||
| Income tax effect(4) | (22,134 | ) | (69,996 | ) | (43,627 | ) | (112,266 | ) | (66,935 | ) | ||||||||||
| Non-GAAP net income | $ | 243,400 | $ | 145,816 | $ | 88,226 | $ | 499,284 | $ | 225,876 | ||||||||||
| Net income per share attributable to common stockholders: | ||||||||||||||||||||
| GAAP - basic | $ | 1.05 | $ | 0.89 | $ | 0.54 | $ | 2.41 | $ | 1.05 | ||||||||||
| GAAP - diluted | $ | 0.99 | $ | 0.83 | $ | 0.50 | $ | 2.28 | $ | 0.97 | ||||||||||
| Non-GAAP - diluted | $ | 1.32 | $ | 0.80 | $ | 0.49 | $ | 2.73 | $ | 1.26 | ||||||||||
| Weighted average shares used to compute net income per share attributable to common stockholders: | ||||||||||||||||||||
| GAAP - basic | 174,126 | 172,378 | 167,436 | 172,423 | 165,365 | |||||||||||||||
| GAAP - diluted | 184,077 | 183,340 | 180,631 | 182,871 | 178,961 | |||||||||||||||
____________________
(1) Total may not sum due to rounding.
(2) Acquisition-related costs included certain incremental expenses incurred to effect a business combination such as third-party costs: advisory, legal, accounting, valuation, and other professional fees.
(3) Other included non-cash and nonrecurring fair value adjustments on equity investments without readily determinable fair values.
(4) Income tax effect is calculated based on the tax laws in the jurisdictions in which we operate and is calculated to exclude the impact of stock-based compensation expense and one-off discrete tax adjustments that are unrelated to our core operating performance. For the three months ended
RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP OUTLOOK (Unaudited) (In millions, except percentages and per share amounts) |
||||||||
| Outlook for Three Months Ending |
||||||||
| Low | High | |||||||
| GAAP gross margin | 72 | % | 72 | % | ||||
| Stock-based compensation expense | — | — | ||||||
| Non-GAAP gross margin | 72 | % | 72 | % | ||||
| GAAP operating expenses | $ | 273 | $ | 279 | ||||
| Stock-based compensation expense | (79 | ) | (79 | ) | ||||
| Non-GAAP operating expenses | $ | 194 | $ | 200 | ||||
| GAAP tax rate | 20 | % | 20 | % | ||||
| Income tax effect | (8 | ) | (8 | ) | ||||
| Non-GAAP tax rate | 12 | % | 12 | % | ||||
| GAAP net income per share - diluted | $ | 1.13 | $ | 1.17 | ||||
| Stock-based compensation expense | 0.43 | 0.43 | ||||||
| Income tax effect | 0.06 | 0.06 | ||||||
| Non-GAAP net income per share - diluted | $ | 1.62 | $ | 1.66 | ||||
SUPPLEMENTAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION EXPENSE (Unaudited) (In thousands) |
|||||||||||||||
| Three Months Ended | Nine Months Ended | ||||||||||||||
2026 |
2026 |
2025 |
2026 |
2025 |
|||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 890 | $ | 1,692 | $ | 379 | $ | 3,081 | $ | 694 | |||||
| Research and development | 49,395 | 36,413 | 21,711 | 115,212 | 58,749 | ||||||||||
| Sales and marketing | 19,678 | 11,419 | 9,361 | 40,989 | 30,874 | ||||||||||
| General and administrative | 12,627 | 14,468 | 9,288 | 36,213 | 28,342 | ||||||||||
| Total stock-based compensation expense | $ | 82,590 | $ | 63,992 | $ | 40,739 | $ | 195,495 | $ | 118,659 | |||||
IR CONTACT:
leslie.green@asteralabs.com
Source: ASTERA LABS, INC.