James Anderson on technology
From Coherent | Six Five Media: Beyond the Numbers - Jim Anderson on Coherent’s Next Chapter · · Coherent Corp.
“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.”
On , James Anderson, Chief Executive Officer, President & Employee Director at COHERENT CORP, spoke about technology during Coherent | Six Five Media: Beyond the Numbers - Jim Anderson on Coherent’s Next Chapter on Coherent Corp..
About James Anderson
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.