New York, March 2, 2026, 18:14 EST — After-hours.
Coherent Corp. shares rose 15.4% to $298.91 in after-hours trading on Monday after Nvidia disclosed a $2 billion investment and a multi-year supply agreement tied to advanced optics for AI data centers. The stock touched $304 earlier in the session. 1
Nvidia said the deal is nonexclusive and includes a multibillion-dollar purchase commitment, plus future access and capacity rights for advanced laser and optical networking products. Chief Executive Jensen Huang said Nvidia is “pioneering next-generation silicon photonics” with Coherent, a push to scale what it calls AI factories. 2
Photonics is shorthand for using light, not electricity, to move data — a big deal as AI systems strain the power and bandwidth limits inside data centers. Nvidia’s move puts a spotlight on optical transceivers, lasers and circuit-switching gear that sit behind the servers and connect chips to one another. 3
A filing showed Coherent (NYSE: COHR) sold 7,788,161 shares to Nvidia at $256.80 a share, raising $2 billion in cash through a private placement — a stock sale that is exempt from the usual SEC registration rules. The same filing said Nvidia’s access expands to five additional Coherent product families tied to co-packaged optics, which brings optical links closer to the chip package. 4
Nvidia also signed a similar multi-year optics agreement with Lumentum, and said it would invest $2 billion there to support capacity and U.S. manufacturing. Lumentum shares were up 11.8% and Nvidia shares gained 3.0% late on Monday. 5
Coherent came into the announcement after a strong quarterly update in early February, reporting second-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue of $1.69 billion, up 17% from a year earlier, alongside higher profit. The company has been pitching growing demand across data center and communications end-markets. 6
But the companies flagged the usual caveats: the purchase agreement or collaboration could be amended or terminated, and the deal could bring unexpected costs, including litigation and potential disruption to business relationships. The fine print matters because the purchase commitments and capacity rights do not guarantee smooth production ramps or stable margins. 7
Next up, investors will look for more color on product road maps and capacity timing when Coherent hosts a Technology Innovation Briefing at the Optical Fiber Communication conference in Los Angeles on March 17, with CEO Jim Anderson and other executives scheduled for presentations and Q&A. 8
