PICKS & SHOVELS · No. 10 · Specialty materials

Follow the supply chain far enough down and you reach a wafer of indium phosphide. Almost nobody makes it.

What it does

AXT Inc (NASDAQ: AXTI) makes compound-semiconductor substrates, mainly indium phosphide (InP) and gallium arsenide wafers. Most of the production happens at its China-based subsidiary, Tongmei.

The shovel it sells

The raw InP wafers that laser makers like Lumentum and Coherent need to build the lasers inside AI transceivers. This is the bottom layer of the optical stack.

What the numbers say

• Q2 2026: revenue was $47.6 million, up 164% year over year. InP revenue was $30.7 million, up from $3.6 million a year earlier.
• Q3 2026 outlook: about $66 million in “realizable revenue,” with upside that depends on more Chinese export permits.
• Capacity plan: quarterly InP capacity rising from about $20 million to $60 million by year-end and more than $130 million by the end of 2027.
• Customers: supply agreements with prepayments or deposits from Lumentum ($43.5 million), Coherent ($25.4 million) and Casella ($22.3 million).

Sources: Semiconductor Today, Aug 4, 2026; SEC 8-K.

What could go wrong

• It depends on Chinese export permits for InP.
• Manufacturing based in China brings geopolitical and tariff exposure.
• Small scale and concentrated customers.

Season one, wrapped

Ten companies, one chain: turbines and fuel cells make the power, switchgear routes it, chillers remove the heat, packaging and burn-in turn silicon into reliable chips, lasers and cables connect them, and a wafer company in the basement makes the lasers possible. Season two looks at Coherent, Fabrinet, Ciena, Astera Labs, Eaton, nVent and Amphenol. Start again at No. 00.

PICKS & SHOVELS is a Boston Made Newsroom storyline from the BOSSTOX intelligence desk: one under-covered AI-infrastructure company at a time, explained in plain English with sources. Previous: No. 09.

Follow the whole storyline on the Boston Made Reader → Storylines · Track the companies in BOSSTOX Learn.

Not investment advice. Boston Made, Inc. and its writers are not licensed financial advisors. Figures come from the company filings and reports linked above, for the periods stated; check the primary filings before making any decision.

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PICKS & SHOVELS · No. 09 · Switchgear

Between the power plant and the server sits a lot of steel cabinets full of breakers. Without them, nothing switches on safely.

What it does

Powell Industries (NASDAQ: POWL) engineers custom electrical equipment, including switchgear, motor-control centers and prefabricated “e-houses,” that distributes high-voltage power safely in plants, utilities and now data centers.

The shovel it sells

Medium-voltage gear, including the packages that tie on-site generation into a campus. That’s the same bring-your-own-power trend from No. 02.

What the numbers say

• Fiscal Q3 2026 (ended Jun 30, 2026): revenue was $312 million, up 9%. New orders were $934 million, up 158%.
• Book-to-bill: 3.0x. Backlog was $2.4 billion, up 69% year over year.
• The orders include a data-center order worth “exceeding $400 million” for behind-the-meter on-site generation assets.
• Management cited “increasing demand to support data centers and related AI capacity demand.” A yard expansion is due to finish by the end of fiscal 2026.

Source: Powell 8-K, Aug 3, 2026.

What could go wrong

• A long history of oil, gas and petrochemical cycles.
• Large fixed-price projects carry margin risk.
• Capacity is tight with a backlog this big.
• The big data-center orders are concentrated in a few customers.

Why it’s under-covered

Energy analysts have followed Powell for decades. AI analysts mostly haven’t found it yet.

PICKS & SHOVELS is a Boston Made Newsroom storyline from the BOSSTOX intelligence desk: one under-covered AI-infrastructure company at a time, explained in plain English with sources. Previous: No. 08. Next: No. 10, AXT.

Follow the whole storyline on the Boston Made Reader → Storylines · Track the companies in BOSSTOX Learn.

Not investment advice. Boston Made, Inc. and its writers are not licensed financial advisors. Figures come from the company filings and reports linked above, for the periods stated; check the primary filings before making any decision.

The post Picks & Shovels No. 09: Powell Industries and the 3x Book-to-Bill Nobody Noticed appeared first on Boston Made, Inc. | Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

PICKS & SHOVELS · No. 08 · Powered land

Cheap power, cold air and room to grow. North Dakota has all three, and that makes it valuable AI real estate.

What it does

Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) develops large, purpose-built AI data-center campuses, branded “Polaris Forge,” and leases the capacity to hyperscalers and GPU clouds on long contracts.

The shovel it sells

Powered, finished buildings ready for racks. That’s the hardest thing to buy quickly in AI right now.

What the numbers say

• Fiscal Q4 2026 (ended May 31, 2026): revenue was $258.7 million, up 407%. Fiscal 2026 revenue was $611.3 million, up 167%.
• Contracted capacity: 1,410 MW across five campuses. That’s about $36 billion of revenue over the initial 15-year terms, or about $86 billion if every renewal is exercised.
• Customers: CoreWeave, plus a new investment-grade U.S. hyperscaler with about $20 billion of contracted revenue across three leases.
• Operations: 175 MW live at Polaris Forge. It completed a $2.15 billion offering of 6.75% senior secured notes.

Sources: Applied Digital FY2026 results, Jul 27, 2026; 10-K.

What could go wrong

• Heavy leverage at high coupons.
• Construction risk across several campuses at once.
• Concentration in a couple of tenants.
• Access to power and transmission, and lease economics if AI demand cools.

Why it’s under-covered

Many people still think of it as a small crypto-hosting stock, even though its contracted backlog now rivals established data-center REITs.

PICKS & SHOVELS is a Boston Made Newsroom storyline from the BOSSTOX intelligence desk: one under-covered AI-infrastructure company at a time, explained in plain English with sources. Previous: No. 07. Next: No. 09, Powell Industries.

Follow the whole storyline on the Boston Made Reader → Storylines · Track the companies in BOSSTOX Learn.

Not investment advice. Boston Made, Inc. and its writers are not licensed financial advisors. Figures come from the company filings and reports linked above, for the periods stated; check the primary filings before making any decision.

The post Picks & Shovels No. 08: Applied Digital, the Landlord of the Prairie appeared first on Boston Made, Inc. | Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

PICKS & SHOVELS · No. 07 · Test & measurement

One failed chip can take down a multi-GPU board worth more than a house. It’s much cheaper to find the weak ones early.

What it does

Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR) makes burn-in systems. They stress chips at high temperature and voltage so early failures show up in the factory instead of the field. Testing can run on whole wafers or on packaged parts.

The shovel it sells

Reliability. As AI accelerators get bigger and more expensive, the case for screening every one of them gets stronger.

What the numbers say

• Fiscal Q4 2026 (ended May 29, 2026): revenue was $18.8 million vs $14.1 million a year earlier. Full FY2026 revenue was $50.0 million, down from $59.0 million.
• Bookings: a record $60.7 million in the quarter. Effective backlog was $100.6 million including later bookings.
• The lead AI customer is “significantly ramping capacity” with wafer-level burn-in. Benchmark testing with a major AI-processor supplier was completed successfully.
• FY2027 guidance: $130–150 million, which the company describes as 160–200% growth.

Source: Aehr FY2026 results, Jul 14, 2026.

What could go wrong

• A micro-cap with extreme customer concentration, so a few orders swing the year.
• Revenue fell in FY2026 before the guided rebound.
• Its silicon-carbide (EV) market has been weak.
• The AI ramp depends on customers adopting burn-in at scale.

Why it’s under-covered

At around $50 million in annual revenue it’s below most institutional radar. That changes if the guide comes true.

PICKS & SHOVELS is a Boston Made Newsroom storyline from the BOSSTOX intelligence desk: one under-covered AI-infrastructure company at a time, explained in plain English with sources. Previous: No. 06. Next: No. 08, Applied Digital.

Follow the whole storyline on the Boston Made Reader → Storylines · Track the companies in BOSSTOX Learn.

Not investment advice. Boston Made, Inc. and its writers are not licensed financial advisors. Figures come from the company filings and reports linked above, for the periods stated; check the primary filings before making any decision.

The post Picks & Shovels No. 07: Aehr Test Systems Bakes Chips So Data Centers Don’t appeared first on Boston Made, Inc. | Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

PICKS & SHOVELS · No. 06 · Advanced packaging

An AI chip is no longer one chip. It’s several dies, plus stacks of memory, packaged together so they work as one part. That packaging step has turned into a bottleneck.

What it does

Amkor Technology (NASDAQ: AMKR) is the largest U.S.-headquartered outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) company. Chip designers send it finished silicon. Amkor packages the dies, connects them and tests the result.

The shovel it sells

Advanced packaging: flip-chip, wafer-level and 2.5D integration. It is also building one of the first large-scale advanced-packaging campuses on U.S. soil.

What the numbers say

• Q2 2026: net sales were $1.90 billion, up 26%. Advanced products made up $1.56 billion of that.
• Q3 2026 guidance: $1.95–2.05 billion, with gross margin of 18.5–19.5%.
• 2026 capex: about $2.5–3.0 billion.
• Arizona: a $7 billion campus in Peoria on 104 acres, with more than 750,000 sq ft of cleanroom. First facility targeted for mid-2027, production in early 2028, about $407 million in CHIPS Act support. Named customers include Apple and Nvidia.

Sources: Amkor Q2 2026 release, Jul 27, 2026; Construction Dive, Oct 10, 2025.

What could go wrong

• Gross margins under 20% leave a thin cushion.
• Heavy spending comes well before the revenue.
• TSMC’s in-house packaging and ASE are formidable competitors.
• Smartphone and auto exposure is cyclical, and the Arizona build carries construction risk.

Why it’s under-covered

The packaging story is almost always told through TSMC. The U.S.-based alternative gets a fraction of the attention.

PICKS & SHOVELS is a Boston Made Newsroom storyline from the BOSSTOX intelligence desk: one under-covered AI-infrastructure company at a time, explained in plain English with sources. Previous: No. 05. Next: No. 07, Aehr Test Systems.

Follow the whole storyline on the Boston Made Reader → Storylines · Track the companies in BOSSTOX Learn.

Not investment advice. Boston Made, Inc. and its writers are not licensed financial advisors. Figures come from the company filings and reports linked above, for the periods stated; check the primary filings before making any decision.

The post Picks & Shovels No. 06: Amkor Is Building America’s Chip-Packaging Plant appeared first on Boston Made, Inc. | Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

PICKS & SHOVELS · No. 05 · Networking silicon

Inside an AI rack, the shortest connections are still made of copper. Keeping those signals clean at 100 gigabits per lane is a business of its own.

What it does

Credo Technology (NASDAQ: CRDO) designs high-speed connectivity chips: SerDes, retimers and optical DSPs. It also sells active electrical cables (AECs), which are copper cables with signal-conditioning chips built into the ends.

The shovel it sells

For short links between GPUs, switches and servers inside a rack, AECs are often cheaper and use less power than optics. Over longer distances, Credo’s optical DSPs sit inside the transceivers made by companies like Lumentum.

What the numbers say

• Q1 fiscal 2027 (quarter ended Aug 1, 2026): revenue was $479.0 million, up 114.7% year over year and 9.6% from the prior quarter.
• Gross margin: 64.5% GAAP, 68% non-GAAP.
• Q2 FY2027 guidance: $525–535 million.
• Optical push: management guided full-year optical revenue to “north of $600 million.” AECs are expected to drive about half of this year’s dollar growth.

Sources: Pulse 2.0, Sep 2, 2026; Crypto Briefing, Sep 1, 2026.

What could go wrong

• Heavy reliance on a few hyperscale customers.
• Competition from Marvell and Broadcom, and from hyperscalers’ in-house designs.
• A growing optical share may pull margins down.
• Copper’s reach shrinks as speeds climb.

Why it’s under-covered

“Cable company” doesn’t get many clicks. Most AI coverage skips the connective tissue, even when its revenue doubles.

PICKS & SHOVELS is a Boston Made Newsroom storyline from the BOSSTOX intelligence desk: one under-covered AI-infrastructure company at a time, explained in plain English with sources. Previous: No. 04. Next: No. 06, Amkor.

Follow the whole storyline on the Boston Made Reader → Storylines · Track the companies in BOSSTOX Learn.

Not investment advice. Boston Made, Inc. and its writers are not licensed financial advisors. Figures come from the company filings and reports linked above, for the periods stated; check the primary filings before making any decision.

The post Picks & Shovels No. 05: Credo and the Unglamorous Cable That Doubled Its Revenue appeared first on Boston Made, Inc. | Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

PICKS & SHOVELS · No. 04 · Optical interconnect

Thousands of GPUs only act like one computer if they can talk to each other fast. Over any real distance, that conversation travels as light.

What it does

Lumentum (NASDAQ: LITE) makes lasers and optical components that turn electrical signals into light and back again.

The shovel it sells

It makes the indium-phosphide lasers (EMLs) inside 800G and 1.6T transceivers, full cloud transceivers, and optical circuit switches, which re-route light between racks without converting it back to electricity.

What the numbers say

• Fiscal Q4 2026: revenue was $1.006 billion, up 109%.
• Fiscal 2026: revenue was $3.01 billion, up 83%.
• Record 100G and 200G EML shipments and record 800G transceiver shipments. Optical-circuit-switch shipments doubled from the prior quarter.
• Q1 FY2027 guidance: $1.225–1.275 billion, about 130% year-over-year growth.
• Capacity: it is converting a Greensboro, N.C. site into its fifth indium-phosphide fab, with first revenue expected in early 2028.

Sources: Semiconductor Today, Aug 19, 2026; SEC 8-K Ex. 99.1.

The thread to pull

Lumentum has a long-term substrate supply agreement with AXT that runs through December 2031. The lasers depend on a raw material made by a much smaller company. We follow that thread in No. 10.

What could go wrong

• Laser and substrate supply bottlenecks.
• Customer concentration.
• Co-packaged or linear-drive optics could change the economics of pluggable modules.
• Chinese transceiver competition and a history of telecom-cycle swings.

Why it’s under-covered

For years Lumentum was a telecom-optics name few people watched. Its revenue doubled on AI faster than its reputation caught up.

PICKS & SHOVELS is a Boston Made Newsroom storyline from the BOSSTOX intelligence desk: one under-covered AI-infrastructure company at a time, explained in plain English with sources. Previous: No. 03. Next: No. 05, Credo.

Follow the whole storyline on the Boston Made Reader → Storylines · Track the companies in BOSSTOX Learn.

Not investment advice. Boston Made, Inc. and its writers are not licensed financial advisors. Figures come from the company filings and reports linked above, for the periods stated; check the primary filings before making any decision.

The post Picks & Shovels No. 04: Lumentum Turns AI Traffic Into Light appeared first on Boston Made, Inc. | Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

PICKS & SHOVELS · No. 03 · Cooling

Every watt that goes into a GPU comes out as heat. Somebody has to carry it away.

What it does

Modine Manufacturing (NYSE: MOD) has been moving heat for more than a century, starting with radiators. Today it builds chillers, coolant distribution units (CDUs), air handlers and fan walls for data centers, along with commercial HVAC.

The shovel it sells

Modern AI racks run so hot that ordinary air conditioning can’t keep up. Liquid-cooling loops, and the chillers and CDUs that drive them, are now standard in new AI halls. Modine sells that plumbing.

What the numbers say

• Q1 fiscal 2027 (quarter ended Jun 30, 2026): net sales were $874.1 million, up 28%.
• Data Centers segment: $348.6 million, up 90%. It is now Modine’s largest segment.
• FY2027 outlook reaffirmed: sales up 20–35%, adjusted EBITDA of $650–680 million.
• Reshaping: the Performance Technologies (auto and industrial) business is being separated and combined with Gentherm, with closing targeted for Q4 calendar 2026.

Source: Modine Q1 FY2027 results, Jul 29, 2026.

What could go wrong

• Execution risk from ramping several new plants at once.
• Hyperscaler orders arrive in lumps.
• Tough competition from Vertiv, Schneider, nVent and Asian suppliers.
• A shift toward direct-to-chip or immersion cooling could change which products matter.
• Separating the legacy business carries its own risk.

Why it’s under-covered

The ticker still reads “auto parts and HVAC” to a lot of investors, even though the data-center business grew 90% and is now its largest. Coverage has called it one of AI’s overlooked winners. We left out Vertiv, the better-known cooling name, because it is already widely followed.

PICKS & SHOVELS is a Boston Made Newsroom storyline from the BOSSTOX intelligence desk: one under-covered AI-infrastructure company at a time, explained in plain English with sources. Previous: No. 02. Next: No. 04, Lumentum.

Follow the whole storyline on the Boston Made Reader → Storylines · Track the companies in BOSSTOX Learn.

Not investment advice. Boston Made, Inc. and its writers are not licensed financial advisors. Figures come from the company filings and reports linked above, for the periods stated; check the primary filings before making any decision.

The post Picks & Shovels No. 03: Modine, the 100-Year-Old Radiator Company Cooling AI appeared first on Boston Made, Inc. | Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

PICKS & SHOVELS · No. 02 · On-site generation

If the interconnection queue is years long, build the power plant in the parking lot.

What it does

Bloom Energy (NYSE: BE) builds solid-oxide fuel-cell “Energy Servers.” They turn natural gas, or hydrogen, into electricity on site through an electrochemical reaction instead of combustion. A unit is roughly the size of a shipping container, and units stack together into a power plant.

The shovel it sells

Speed. A data center that can’t get grid power soon enough can install Bloom units “behind the meter” and switch on much sooner. In this storyline that is the bring-your-own-power data center.

What the numbers say

• Q2 2026 revenue: $1.065 billion, up 165.5% from $401 million a year earlier. Product revenue rose 215%.
• Gross margin: 33.4%, up from 26.7%.
• FY2026 guidance raised: revenue of $3.9–4.2 billion, about double, and non-GAAP operating income of $800–900 million.
• Financing: the Brookfield framework expanded from $5 billion to $25 billion.
• Customers: management says all the major U.S. hyperscalers and more than a dozen neo-cloud, AI-lab and colocation operators have validated its systems.

Sources: The Energy Mag, Jul 28, 2026; Nasdaq call highlights, Jul 28, 2026.

Where it fits

Bloom and GE Vernova answer the same problem in two ways. Turbines are huge and centralized. Fuel cells are modular and fast to deploy. Both are winning because the grid itself can’t keep up.

What could go wrong

• Exposure to natural-gas prices and pipeline access.
• Reliance on project-financing partners.
• Lumpy, concentrated deployments.
• Competition from turbines, reciprocating engines and grid upgrades.
• A long history of losses, so the margin gains are still being proven.

Why it’s under-covered

For years Bloom was filed under “hydrogen” and “clean-tech,” followed by analysts who don’t cover data centers. Its turn into an AI power supplier is newer than most of the coverage.

PICKS & SHOVELS is a Boston Made Newsroom storyline from the BOSSTOX intelligence desk: one under-covered AI-infrastructure company at a time, explained in plain English with sources. Previous: No. 01. Next: No. 03, Modine.

Follow the whole storyline on the Boston Made Reader → Storylines · Track the companies in BOSSTOX Learn.

Not investment advice. Boston Made, Inc. and its writers are not licensed financial advisors. Figures come from the company filings and reports linked above, for the periods stated; check the primary filings before making any decision.

The post Picks & Shovels No. 02: Bloom Energy and the Bring-Your-Own-Power Data Center appeared first on Boston Made, Inc. | Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

PICKS & SHOVELS · No. 01 · Power & grid equipment

Before a GPU can think, a turbine has to spin. GE Vernova makes the turbines, and the waiting list for them now runs for years.

What it does

GE Vernova (NYSE: GEV), spun out of General Electric, makes heavy equipment for generating and moving electricity: gas turbines, wind turbines, grid transformers, switchgear and grid software.

The shovel it sells

An AI campus needs hundreds of megawatts of firm power, meaning power that is there at 3 a.m. on a windless night. Most of that new capacity comes from natural-gas turbines, and GE Vernova is one of very few companies that can build big ones. It also sells the electrification gear that connects new generation to the grid or straight to a data center.

What the numbers say

• Q2 2026: revenue was $11.1 billion, up 22%. Orders were $24.2 billion, up 88% organically. Total backlog was $176 billion.
• Gas Power: backlog plus slot reservations grew from 100 GW to 116 GW in one quarter. The company expects at least 125 GW by year-end 2026.
• Electrification: data-center orders year-to-date were over $5 billion, “more than double our 2025 total.”
• Cash: first-half 2026 free cash flow was $5.1 billion, more than all of 2025. Full-year guidance was raised.

Source: GE Vernova Q2 2026 results, Jul 22, 2026; Turbomachinery Magazine, Jul 23, 2026.

Why it matters for the storyline

116 GW is a queue, not a sales figure. Developers are reserving turbine slots years ahead because they cannot get power any other way. That ties straight back to the grid strain in No. 00: when the grid can’t connect a project, the project buys its own generation.

What could go wrong

• Factory and supply-chain limits on how fast turbines can be built.
• The wind business has been a recurring drag on profit.
• Backlog can be deferred or cancelled if data-center plans change.
• Policy risk on both gas and renewables, plus a valuation that leaves little room for error.

Why it’s under-covered

GE Vernova isn’t obscure, but it gets filed under “energy” or “GE spinoff.” Its place as a bottleneck supplier of AI power rarely makes the AI headlines.

PICKS & SHOVELS is a Boston Made Newsroom storyline from the BOSSTOX intelligence desk: one under-covered AI-infrastructure company at a time, explained in plain English with sources. Previous: No. 00. Next: No. 02, Bloom Energy.

Follow the whole storyline on the Boston Made Reader → Storylines · Track the companies in BOSSTOX Learn.

Not investment advice. Boston Made, Inc. and its writers are not licensed financial advisors. Figures come from the company filings and reports linked above, for the periods stated; check the primary filings before making any decision.

The post Picks & Shovels No. 01: GE Vernova Sells the Electricity Before It Exists appeared first on Boston Made, Inc. | Boston, Massachusetts, USA.