Astera Labs reported Q1 2026 revenue of $308.4 million, up 14% sequentially and 93% year-over-year, as demand accelerated for its PCIe 6 connectivity portfolio for rack-scale AI infrastructure. The company posted GAAP gross margin of 76.3%, GAAP operating income of $61.8 million, and GAAP diluted EPS of $0.44. Non-GAAP operating income reached $111.7 million, with non-GAAP diluted EPS of $0.61.
The quarter marked an expansion of Astera Labs’ AI fabric strategy beyond signal conditioning and retimers into higher-radix switching for scale-up and scale-out AI systems. The company began shipping its Scorpio X-Series 320-lane AI Fabric switch, which targets memory-semantic scale-up fabrics for frontier AI workloads. Astera said the switch supports open and platform-specific protocols, with features such as Hypercast and In-Network Compute designed to accelerate collective operations, reduce latency, and improve efficiency for agentic inference.
Astera also expanded its Scorpio P-Series PCIe 6 switch family, now covering 32-lane to 320-lane configurations. The portfolio uses customer-optimized firmware and COSMOS embedded software for fleet management, non-disruptive updates, and signal, link, and packet diagnostics across Astera’s connectivity products. The company expects shipments of several Scorpio P-Series variants to multiple customers in the second half of 2026, with broader volume ramps targeted for 2027.
• Q1 2026 revenue: $308.4 million, up 14% QoQ and 93% YoY
• GAAP gross margin: 76.3%
• GAAP operating income: $61.8 million; GAAP operating margin: 20.1%
• Non-GAAP operating income: $111.7 million; non-GAAP operating margin: 36.2%
• GAAP diluted EPS: $0.44; non-GAAP diluted EPS: $0.61
• Q2 2026 revenue outlook: $355 million to $365 million
• Scorpio X-Series 320-lane AI Fabric switch now shipping, with production ramp expected in 2H 2026
• Scorpio P-Series PCIe 6 switch family now spans 32 to 320 lanes
• Astera highlighted support for merchant GPU platforms through Scorpio PCIe switches, Aries 6 PCIe retimers, Leo CXL memory controllers, Taurus Smart Cable Modules, and custom NVLink Fusion connectivity solutions
• Astera collaborated with the Ultra Accelerator Link Consortium on UALink 2.0, which adds In-Network Compute, confidential computing, and multi-path routing while retaining a memory-semantic model
“Astera Labs delivered strong Q1 2026 financial results with revenue growing by 14% sequentially and 93% year-over-year to a record level of $308.4 million, driven by robust demand for our PCIe 6 portfolio,” said Jitendra Mohan, Astera Labs’ Chief Executive Officer.
Addendum: Investor Call Highlights
• Management said PCIe 6 revenue across AI fabric and signal conditioning reached more than one-third of total Q1 revenue.
• Astera Labs said it shipped millions of PCIe Gen 6 ports to date.
• Scorpio small-radix X-Series designs moved from pre-production shipments to initial volume ramp in Q1.
• Management expects Scorpio to become Astera’s largest product line by the end of 2026, up from 15% of revenue in 2025.
• X-Series revenue should exceed P-Series revenue as the year progresses.
• Scorpio P-Series should see initial shipments to at least two additional major hyperscalers near the end of 2026, with broader deployment in 2027.
• Management said silicon content can exceed $1,000 per XPU in AI racks as Astera moves from retimers into fabric-class and optical-enabled switching.
• Astera expects NPO-based optical opportunities to start ramping in 2027, with more mainstream CPO deployments expected in 2028.
• The company said its detachable fiber connector technology for CPO should ship in volume in 2027.
• Astera is preparing Aries for PCIe 7.0 and Taurus for 1.6T Ethernet.
• Leo CXL memory controllers remain on track for Microsoft Azure M-series virtual machines, now in private beta with general availability expected by year-end.
• Astera won a second custom CXL design, targeting KV cache offload for AI inference, with revenue expected in 2027.
• Management said NVLink Fusion-related custom silicon is in deep development with NVIDIA and a hyperscaler, with revenue expected to begin in 2027.
• UALink-based switches are being timed to intercept 2027 accelerator launches from Amazon and AMD.
• The company expects UALink switch value to be substantially higher than current PCIe switches, due to higher complexity, speed, radix, and media attach.
• Astera said custom products will become an important growth driver, but management stressed it will pursue these selectively to manage customer concentration, risk, and margin.
• Q1 cash from operations was $74.6 million, while cash, equivalents, and marketable securities ended flat at $1.18 billion after acquisition payments.
• Management said supply is in place through the end of 2026, despite some industry supply-chain tightness, and the company is working with partners on 2027 capacity.
🌐 Analysis: Astera’s Q1 results show how rapidly AI infrastructure demand is pulling PCIe 6, CXL, retimers, smart cable modules, and fabric switching into rack-scale system design. The company now positions Scorpio X-Series and UALink-related work against a broader shift toward open scale-up fabrics, where hyperscalers and AI system builders seek alternatives and complements to proprietary accelerator interconnects while preserving low-latency collective performance.
