Chief Executive Officer, President & Employee Director, Coherent
Search every verified James Anderson interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a February 2025 interview, Coherent CEO Jim Anderson discussed the company's recent financial performance and its role in AI-driven data center growth. He stated that in the company's fiscal second quarter, revenue grew 6% sequentially and 27% year-over-year, with earnings per share increasing 40% sequentially and more than tripling year-over-year. Anderson attributed much of this growth to the data center business, which he said grew 80% year-over-year, driven by demand for optical transceivers that enable networking between computing nodes in AI workloads. He described Coherent's core competence as "harnessing the power of a photon" for three applications: transmitting data, using laser beams to change material properties, and measuring or sensing objects. Anderson also addressed the company's industrial business, which he characterized as a stable market serving semiconductor equipment, OLED screen manufacturing, and medical applications such as microscopes used in Alzheimer's research. He noted that nearly half of Coherent's business is industrial or industrial-related, and that innovations in that area can be applied to data communications, creating a "flywheel effect." Regarding company culture, Anderson said Coherent has a strong culture of innovation at a fundamental physical level, but that the company needs to improve its speed and agility in bringing innovations to market.
“We really did have a good quarter and this is our fiscal second quarter, this was our December quarter. We grew revenue about 6% sequentially but we grew at 27% on a year-over-year basis. We expanded gross margin on both a sequential and year-over-year basis and EPS grew 40% sequentially and more than tripled on a year...”
“Data center is a big market for us and it's a big part of our revenue. No surprise AI-driven data center growth is driving tremendous demand for our optical transceivers that enable optical networking between different computing nodes in the data center.”
“Coherent's core competence is around harnessing the power of a photon using a photon to do all sorts of amazing things. We boil everything down into three applications: transmitting data, concentrating photons in a laser beam to change material properties, and bouncing photons off something to measure or sense things.”
“We're seeing tremendous growth right now in demand for our products. Our data center business grew 80% year-over-year, driven by big AI workloads expanding data center capacity and the need for increased bandwidth through optical networking.”
“The best way to add bandwidth in data centers is to use optical networking because photons can transmit data and provide bandwidth orders of magnitude greater than electrical connections. We believe there will be a transition to more optical interconnect links between computing nodes moving forward.”
“Our industrial business doesn't get as much attention as data center, but it's a stable, steady market with a diverse range of applications including semiconductor equipment, OLED screen manufacturing, and medical applications like high-end microscopes used in Alzheimer's research.”
“Almost half of our business now is industrial or industrial-related applications. What we build and learn there can also be applied into some of those AI and data communication businesses, creating a bit of a flywheel effect.”
“Culture to me is a big accelerator of execution across all aspects of the company. At Coherent, we have a culture around innovation at a really fundamental physical level, which is stronger than any other company I've worked for. But we need to improve our speed and agility to get innovations to market faster.”
Coherent CEO Jim Anderson joins @SixFiveMedia to discuss the company's momentum, including 80% YoY growth in AI-driven ...
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