Since the end of March this year, the stock price of MaxLinear, a communication System-on-Chip (SoC) supplier, has continued to rise. At the beginning of Friday's U.S. stock trading session, due to second-quarter revenue guidance surpassing market expectations, $MaxLinear (MXL.US)$the company’s share price surged more than 70% once again.
After the close of U.S. stock trading on Thursday, MaxLinear disclosed its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026. The data showed that in the first quarter, MaxLinear's net revenue amounted to $137.2 million, increasing by 1% sequentially and 43% year-over-year, exceeding analyst expectations of $135 million. The company raised its guidance, projecting second-quarter revenue to range between $160 million and $170 million.
In the first quarter, the company's GAAP gross margin was 57.5%, compared to 57.6% in the previous quarter and 56.1% in the same period last year. GAAP operating expenses were $96.1 million, accounting for 70% of net revenue, while operating expenses in the previous quarter were $93.4 million, representing 68% of net revenue.
The most notable development in the first quarter was the infrastructure segment becoming MaxLinear's largest revenue source. The company's infrastructure revenue grew by 35% sequentially and 136% year-over-year, primarily driven by robust growth in high-speed optical interconnect products for data centers.
MaxLinear achieved several strategic milestones during the quarter. At OFC 2026, MaxLinear showcased its 1.6T PHY chipset, which incorporates the Rushmore 200G/lane PAM4 DSP and Washington 200G/lane TIA, enabling the company to meet next-generation optical connectivity demands. Additionally, the company introduced 'Annapurna,' a high-performance scale-up retimer capable of delivering up to 1.6Tbps of electrical connectivity, further enhancing its product portfolio.
Furthermore, MaxLinear secured its first Passive Optical Network (PON) design win at a U.S. hyperscale data center through a tier-one U.S. OEM partner, with expected revenue ramp-up starting in the fourth quarter of 2026. This validates the company's ability to expand from traditional markets into hyperscale data center infrastructure.
Kishore Seendripu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MaxLinear, stated that the first quarter marked the beginning of a multi-year growth phase for MaxLinear, driven by accelerating momentum in the optical data center connectivity sector. The company’s revenue grew 43% year-over-year, with core business revenue increasing over 130%, making it the company's largest end market. This was primarily attributable to strong execution and production ramp-up of the company's optical data center products across multiple hyperscale customers, including both scale-up and scale-out AI platforms.
Editor /rice