(Submitted photo)
Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. officials celebrate the company’s recent listing on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (AOI) is a leading, vertically integrated provider of fiber-optic networking products and technologies, founded in 1997 by President, Chairman and CEO Dr. Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin.
AOI is currently trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker “AAOI”. AOI’s vertically integrated capabilities target three end markets, all driven by rapidly growing consumer bandwidth demand, including cable television broadband, internet data centers, and fiber to the home.
In the cable broadband market, AOI is the leading provider of optical components and the second largest provider of subsystems to the CATV industry. AOI’s key customers in the CATV market included Cisco Systems and Biogenomics Corp., a distributor. In the internet data center market, AOI is a supplier of optical modules to multiple tier-1 data center operators, including Amazon and Microsoft. In fiber-to-the-home market, AOI is developing next-generation technology that will enable 1 gigabit bandwidth to the home, which is approximately 100 times the bandwidth of average American homes.
AOI remains a technological innovator and a strong driver of economic prosperity in the Sugar Land area and other locales in which AOI has operations. AOI currently has operations in U.S., Taiwan and China, each carrying manufacturing, research and development, sales and administrative offices to service customers globally.
AOI’s corporate headquarter is located in Sugar Land with 24,000 square feet of manufacturing space, which includes one of the most preeminent, state of the art, commercial III-V laser fabs in the world. AOI’s new headquarter expansion project, at a cost of approximately $33 million, was completed in May.
The new expansion adds two additional buildings adjacent to the the existing headquarters. The first building includes a 106,000-square-foot, three-story concrete facility providing a 15,700-square-foot Class 100,000 clean room, additional office and administration space, as well as research and development labs.
The second building is composed of a 10,000-sqaure-foot Class 10,000 clean room containing a Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) reactor. MOCVD is a widely used, complex semi-conductor manufacturing process.
In December of 2014, AOI completed a move to a new facility in New Taipei City, Taiwan, comprising of 168,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space. AOI’s wholly owned subsidiary, Global Technology, Inc., is located in Ningbo, China, where its 450,000 square feet facility provide the capacity for the manufacturing of video equipment products. With its strategically located and vertically integrated operations, AOI is currently a top supplier worldwide of CATV lasers and subsystems and datacenter transceivers.
The mission of AOI is to develop breakthrough technology to bring life-changing products that affect the lives of people worldwide. AOI’s technological innovation is further supported by the 178 plus issued and pending patents spanning over jurisdiction worldwide. AOI has delivered industry-leading revenue growth at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 40 percent over the past three years.
Applied Optoelectronics Inc., employs approximately 2,700 employees worldwide, with 261 employees located in Sugar Land.