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ALAB Benefits From Strong UALink Growth: More Upside Ahead?

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Key Takeaways

  • Astera Labs expanded Scorpio switches with UALink-based AI scale-up connectivity solutions.
  • ALAB expects Q2 2026 revenues of $355M-$365M, implying 15%-18% sequential growth.
  • ALAB sees rising hyperscaler and enterprise interest, with deployments expected in 2027.

Astera Labs (ALAB - Free Report) is benefiting from strong growth in UALink, an open standard scale-up connectivity protocol designed to address the increasing demands of AI infrastructure. UALink combines the memory semantics of PCIe and the fast speed of Ethernet, but is devoid of the software complexity and performance limitations of Ethernet.

In the first quarter of 2026, ALAB collaborated with the UALink Consortium to publish the new UALink 2.0 specification, introducing advanced capabilities such as In-Network Compute, confidential computing and multi-path routing while preserving its foundational memory-semantic model. These enhancements strengthen scalability, security and resiliency, further supporting an open, vendor-neutral AI compute fabric designed to meet evolving industry demands.

One of the key drivers for ALAB’s upside is the expansion of its Scorpio product line, which now includes UALink-based switches designed for AI scale-up platforms. The Scorpio X-Series, supporting up to 320 lanes, and the Scorpio P-Series, spanning 32 to 320 lanes, represent the industry's broadest portfolio. These switches are purpose-built to maximize AI economics by leveraging hardware-accelerated hypercast and in-network compute engines, which can double the collective performance of operations. Such features are critical for large-scale AI training and inference, reducing networking overhead and improving system efficiency.

The company is already seeing widening interest and design activity from hyperscalers, edge AI inference providers and enterprise infrastructure builders, with initial UALink-based product deployments expected in 2027.

ALAB’s innovative product portfolio and early leadership in UALink-based solutions provide a solid foundation for continued upside. For the second quarter of 2026, ALAB expects revenues between $355 million and $365 million, implying 15% to 18% sequential growth.

ALAB Faces Stiff Competition

ALAB is facing stiff competition from other industry players like Marvell Technology (MRVL - Free Report) and Credo Technology (CRDO - Free Report) . Both Marvell Technology and Credo Technology are expanding their footprints in the AI infrastructure space.

Marvell Technology’s expanding portfolio has been noteworthy. In March 2026, Marvell Technology and NVIDIA announced a strategic partnership to connect the former to the NVIDIA AI factory and AI-RAN ecosystem through NVIDIA NVLink Fusion. With this partnership, the two companies will be able to offer customers building on NVIDIA architectures a greater choice and flexibility in developing next-generation infrastructure. The companies will also collaborate on silicon photonics technology. NVIDIA has invested $2 billion in Marvell Technology.

Credo Technology’s expanding portfolio has been noteworthy. In March 2026, Credo Technology launched the Robin optical DSP family, featuring AI-optimized 800G and 400G transceiver solutions with enhanced signal integrity, lower power consumption, integrated SiPh and EML drivers, and up to 50% PCB space savings for scalable AI data center networks.

ALAB’s Share Price Performance, Valuation, and Estimates

ALAB shares have rallied 34.7% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the broader Zacks Computer & Technology sector’s increase of 15.4%. The Zacks Internet - Software industry has decreased 14.3% in the same time frame.

ALAB Stock’s Performance

Zacks Investment Research
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ALAB stock is trading at a premium, with a forward 12-month Price/Sales of 21.86X compared with the Internet - Software industry’s 3.68X. ALAB has a Value Score of F.

ALAB’s Valuation

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings is pegged at $2.44 per share, which has increased 2.09% over the past 30 days. This suggests 32.61% year-over-year growth.

ALAB’s Zacks Rank

Astera Labs currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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