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Astera Labs sees strong demand for Scorpio switches and Aries retimers, fueling revenue gains.
The artificial intelligence (AI) saga, supported by the massive growth of cloud computing and data centers, is yet to fully unfold. The demand for data center capacity surged to manage and store the vast amount of cloud computing-based data.
The AI infrastructure space remains rock solid supported by an extremely bullish demand scenario. According to a report by Bloomberg Intelligence, “The generative AI market is poised to explode, growing to $1.3 trillion over the next 10 years from a market size of just $40 billion in 2022.”
In order to reap the benefit of this enormous opportunity, we recommend investors buy at this stage three large AI-powered data center and cloud infrastructure developers and hold for the long term. These companies are: Vertiv Holdings Co. (VRT - Free Report) , Arista Networks Inc. (ANET - Free Report) and Astera Labs Inc. (ALAB - Free Report) . Each of our picks currently carries either a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Vertiv Holdings Co.
Zacks Rank #1 Vertiv Holdings is a leading global provider of critical digital infrastructure and services for data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial environments. Its portfolio mainly consists of power, cooling, and IT infrastructure solutions and services, particularly the AI-enabled infrastructure.
Innovative Portfolio and Solid Execution
Vertiv is benefiting from an extensive product portfolio, which spans thermal systems, liquid cooling, UPS, switchgear, busbar and modular solutions. CEO Giordano Albertazzi said, "Our 35% sales growth and robust orders momentum reflect both strong market demand and expanded capabilities to serve customers' increasingly complex infrastructure needs."
Buoyed by unprecedented data center growth, VRT is strategically expanding capacity to accelerate its AI-enabled pipeline. Vertiv’s partnership with NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA - Free Report) is a key catalyst. VRT aims to stay one GPU generation ahead of NVIDIA, enabling efficient, scalable power solutions for next-generation AI data centers.
As hyperscalers and enterprises increasingly scale AI deployments to support high-performance data centers, Vertiv’s solutions are gaining traction. Apart from NVIDIA, Vertiv has a rich partner base, which includes Ballard Power Systems Inc. (BLDP - Free Report) , Compass Datacenters, Intel Corp. (INTC - Free Report) , ZincFive, and Tecogen.
Robust Estimate Revisions
For 2025, the Zacks Consensus Estimate currently shows revenues of $9.97 billion, suggesting an improvement of 24.5% year over year and earnings per share of $3.82, indicating an increase of 34% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 7.3% over the last 30 days.
For 2026, the Zacks Consensus Estimate currently shows revenues of $11.55 billion, suggesting an improvement of 15.8% year over year and earnings per share of $4.85, indicating an increase of 26.9% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 10.5% over the last 30 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Arista Networks Inc.
Zacks Rank #2 Arista Networks is engaged in providing cloud networking solutions for data centers and cloud computing environments. ANET offers 10/25/40/50/100 Gigabit Ethernet switches and routers optimized for next-generation data center networks.
Impressive AI-Focused Strategy
Arista Networks is well-positioned with the right network architecture for client-to-campus data center cloud and AI networking backed by three guiding principles. These include the best-in-class, highly proactive products with resilience, zero-touch automation and telemetry with predictive client-to-cloud one-click operations with granular visibility and prescriptive insights for deeper AI algorithms.
ANET’s EOS Smart AI Suite and Arista AVA (Autonomous Virtual Assist) enhance AI job monitoring, deep-dive analytics, and proactive performance issue resolution. Arista AVA offers augmentation of pervasive visibility, continuous threat detection, and enforcement. Its AI suite also focuses on network security and optimization.
ANET’s AI-powered cloud networking solutions provide predictable performance and programmability, enabling seamless integration with third-party applications for network management, automation and orchestration.
The Arista 2.0 strategy is resonating well with customers with its modern networking platforms being foundational for transformation from silos to centers of data. The versatility of ANET’s unified software stack across various use cases, including WAN routing and campus and data center infrastructure, sets it apart from other competitors in the industry.
ANET should benefit from its software-driven, data-centric approach that helps customers build their cloud architecture. Diversification across its top verticals and product lines, along with an improved market demand supported by a flexible business model augurs well for long-term growth.
Solid Estimate Revisions
For 2025, the Zacks Consensus Estimate currently shows revenues of $8.73 billion, suggesting an improvement of 24.6% year over year and earnings per share of $2.81, indicating an increase of 23.8% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 9.8% over the last 30 days.
For 2026, the Zacks Consensus Estimate currently shows revenues of $10.28 billion, suggesting an improvement of 17.8% year over year and earnings per share of $3.18, indicating an increase of 12.9% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 8.2% over the last 30 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Astera Labs Inc.
Zacks Rank #1 Astera Labs is a developer of connectivity solutions for cloud computing and AI applications. Its key offerings include an Intelligent Connectivity Platform that has both hardware (like chips and modules) and software (COSMOS) designed to enhance connectivity in AI and cloud environments.
Strong Portfolio to Boost Prospects
Astera Labs has emerged as a key player in next-generation data center connectivity, with a full-stack portfolio spanning PCIe 6.0 and Ultra Accelerator (UA) Link for scale up, Ethernet for scale out and CXL for memory. The company is uniquely positioned to gain from the AI Infrastructure 2.0 transition thanks to an innovative portfolio. ALAB expects Scale-up connectivity for rack-scale AI infrastructure alone to add close to $5 billion of market opportunity by 2030.
Astera Labs is benefiting from strong demand for Aries, Taurus and Scorpio product families, all expected to drive growth in the third quarter of 2025. ALAB expects accelerated shipments of Scorpio P-Series switches and Aries 6 retimers on a customized rack-scale AI platform based on market-leading GPUs to boost top-line growth. Scorpio revenues are expected to account for more than 10% of total revenues in 2025, while becoming the largest product line for Astera Labs over the next several years.
In the second quarter of 2025, ALAB achieved a significant milestone with the volume production of its PCIe 6 product portfolio for customized rack-scale AI systems. Scorpio Fabric switches won multiple design wins in the reported quarter. ALAB continues to see strong demand for Scorpio P-Series and X-Series PCIe Fabric Switches. The company expects Scorpio X-Series to begin shipping for customized scale-up architectures in late 2025, with a shift to high-volume production over the course of 2026.
Continued deployment of AI and general-purpose systems at leading hyperscaler customers is benefiting the Taurus system. Meanwhile, Leo remains in pre-production shipments as customers scale their development rack clusters to qualify new systems, taking advantage of recently introduced CXL-enabled data center CPU platforms.
UA Link offers a significant growth opportunity for Astera Labs. UA Link combines the memory semantics of PCIe and the fast speed of Ethernet, but is devoid of the software complexity and performance limitations of Ethernet. ALAB expects proliferation of UA Link in 2027 and beyond to represent a significant key catalyst over the long term.
Excellent Estimate Revisions
For 2025, the Zacks Consensus Estimate currently shows revenues of $757.66 million, suggesting an improvement of 91.2% year over year and earnings per share of $1.58, indicating an increase of 88.1% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 17% over the last 30 days.
For 2026, the Zacks Consensus Estimate currently shows revenues of $984.46 million, suggesting an improvement of 29.9% year over year and earnings per share of $1.97, indicating an increase of 24.1% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 15.9% over the last 30 days.
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Buy and Hold 3 AI-Focused Data Center, Cloud Infrastructure Developers
Key Takeaways
The artificial intelligence (AI) saga, supported by the massive growth of cloud computing and data centers, is yet to fully unfold. The demand for data center capacity surged to manage and store the vast amount of cloud computing-based data.
The AI infrastructure space remains rock solid supported by an extremely bullish demand scenario. According to a report by Bloomberg Intelligence, “The generative AI market is poised to explode, growing to $1.3 trillion over the next 10 years from a market size of just $40 billion in 2022.”
In order to reap the benefit of this enormous opportunity, we recommend investors buy at this stage three large AI-powered data center and cloud infrastructure developers and hold for the long term. These companies are: Vertiv Holdings Co. (VRT - Free Report) , Arista Networks Inc. (ANET - Free Report) and Astera Labs Inc. (ALAB - Free Report) . Each of our picks currently carries either a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Vertiv Holdings Co.
Zacks Rank #1 Vertiv Holdings is a leading global provider of critical digital infrastructure and services for data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial environments. Its portfolio mainly consists of power, cooling, and IT infrastructure solutions and services, particularly the AI-enabled infrastructure.
Innovative Portfolio and Solid Execution
Vertiv is benefiting from an extensive product portfolio, which spans thermal systems, liquid cooling, UPS, switchgear, busbar and modular solutions. CEO Giordano Albertazzi said, "Our 35% sales growth and robust orders momentum reflect both strong market demand and expanded capabilities to serve customers' increasingly complex infrastructure needs."
Buoyed by unprecedented data center growth, VRT is strategically expanding capacity to accelerate its AI-enabled pipeline. Vertiv’s partnership with NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA - Free Report) is a key catalyst. VRT aims to stay one GPU generation ahead of NVIDIA, enabling efficient, scalable power solutions for next-generation AI data centers.
As hyperscalers and enterprises increasingly scale AI deployments to support high-performance data centers, Vertiv’s solutions are gaining traction. Apart from NVIDIA, Vertiv has a rich partner base, which includes Ballard Power Systems Inc. (BLDP - Free Report) , Compass Datacenters, Intel Corp. (INTC - Free Report) , ZincFive, and Tecogen.
Robust Estimate Revisions
For 2025, the Zacks Consensus Estimate currently shows revenues of $9.97 billion, suggesting an improvement of 24.5% year over year and earnings per share of $3.82, indicating an increase of 34% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 7.3% over the last 30 days.
For 2026, the Zacks Consensus Estimate currently shows revenues of $11.55 billion, suggesting an improvement of 15.8% year over year and earnings per share of $4.85, indicating an increase of 26.9% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 10.5% over the last 30 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Arista Networks Inc.
Zacks Rank #2 Arista Networks is engaged in providing cloud networking solutions for data centers and cloud computing environments. ANET offers 10/25/40/50/100 Gigabit Ethernet switches and routers optimized for next-generation data center networks.
Impressive AI-Focused Strategy
Arista Networks is well-positioned with the right network architecture for client-to-campus data center cloud and AI networking backed by three guiding principles. These include the best-in-class, highly proactive products with resilience, zero-touch automation and telemetry with predictive client-to-cloud one-click operations with granular visibility and prescriptive insights for deeper AI algorithms.
ANET’s EOS Smart AI Suite and Arista AVA (Autonomous Virtual Assist) enhance AI job monitoring, deep-dive analytics, and proactive performance issue resolution. Arista AVA offers augmentation of pervasive visibility, continuous threat detection, and enforcement. Its AI suite also focuses on network security and optimization.
ANET’s AI-powered cloud networking solutions provide predictable performance and programmability, enabling seamless integration with third-party applications for network management, automation and orchestration.
The Arista 2.0 strategy is resonating well with customers with its modern networking platforms being foundational for transformation from silos to centers of data. The versatility of ANET’s unified software stack across various use cases, including WAN routing and campus and data center infrastructure, sets it apart from other competitors in the industry.
ANET should benefit from its software-driven, data-centric approach that helps customers build their cloud architecture. Diversification across its top verticals and product lines, along with an improved market demand supported by a flexible business model augurs well for long-term growth.
Solid Estimate Revisions
For 2025, the Zacks Consensus Estimate currently shows revenues of $8.73 billion, suggesting an improvement of 24.6% year over year and earnings per share of $2.81, indicating an increase of 23.8% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 9.8% over the last 30 days.
For 2026, the Zacks Consensus Estimate currently shows revenues of $10.28 billion, suggesting an improvement of 17.8% year over year and earnings per share of $3.18, indicating an increase of 12.9% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 8.2% over the last 30 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Astera Labs Inc.
Zacks Rank #1 Astera Labs is a developer of connectivity solutions for cloud computing and AI applications. Its key offerings include an Intelligent Connectivity Platform that has both hardware (like chips and modules) and software (COSMOS) designed to enhance connectivity in AI and cloud environments.
Strong Portfolio to Boost Prospects
Astera Labs has emerged as a key player in next-generation data center connectivity, with a full-stack portfolio spanning PCIe 6.0 and Ultra Accelerator (UA) Link for scale up, Ethernet for scale out and CXL for memory. The company is uniquely positioned to gain from the AI Infrastructure 2.0 transition thanks to an innovative portfolio. ALAB expects Scale-up connectivity for rack-scale AI infrastructure alone to add close to $5 billion of market opportunity by 2030.
Astera Labs is benefiting from strong demand for Aries, Taurus and Scorpio product families, all expected to drive growth in the third quarter of 2025. ALAB expects accelerated shipments of Scorpio P-Series switches and Aries 6 retimers on a customized rack-scale AI platform based on market-leading GPUs to boost top-line growth. Scorpio revenues are expected to account for more than 10% of total revenues in 2025, while becoming the largest product line for Astera Labs over the next several years.
In the second quarter of 2025, ALAB achieved a significant milestone with the volume production of its PCIe 6 product portfolio for customized rack-scale AI systems. Scorpio Fabric switches won multiple design wins in the reported quarter. ALAB continues to see strong demand for Scorpio P-Series and X-Series PCIe Fabric Switches. The company expects Scorpio X-Series to begin shipping for customized scale-up architectures in late 2025, with a shift to high-volume production over the course of 2026.
Continued deployment of AI and general-purpose systems at leading hyperscaler customers is benefiting the Taurus system. Meanwhile, Leo remains in pre-production shipments as customers scale their development rack clusters to qualify new systems, taking advantage of recently introduced CXL-enabled data center CPU platforms.
UA Link offers a significant growth opportunity for Astera Labs. UA Link combines the memory semantics of PCIe and the fast speed of Ethernet, but is devoid of the software complexity and performance limitations of Ethernet. ALAB expects proliferation of UA Link in 2027 and beyond to represent a significant key catalyst over the long term.
Excellent Estimate Revisions
For 2025, the Zacks Consensus Estimate currently shows revenues of $757.66 million, suggesting an improvement of 91.2% year over year and earnings per share of $1.58, indicating an increase of 88.1% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 17% over the last 30 days.
For 2026, the Zacks Consensus Estimate currently shows revenues of $984.46 million, suggesting an improvement of 29.9% year over year and earnings per share of $1.97, indicating an increase of 24.1% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 15.9% over the last 30 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research