Carlsbad-based MaxLinear Inc. (Nasdaq: MXL) has emerged as a significant beneficiary of the artificial intelligence data center buildout, with its semiconductor products driving record revenue growth and a surging share price over the past year.
The company’s infrastructure business grew 145% in the second quarter of 2025, driven by adoption of its Keystone family of digital signal processors (DSPs) — chips that convert electrical signals into optical light to enable faster data processing within data centers. Overall revenue grew 55% year-over-year, reflecting what CEO Kishore Seendripu called “the beginning of a multi-year growth phase for MaxLinear.”
“Our Q2 financial results highlight the exciting inflection in our business trajectory and the accelerating adoption of our newest data center products,” Seendripu said, as reported by the San Diego Business Journal.
MaxLinear’s Keystone DSPs can process up to 800 gigabits of data per second. Copper cable connections between data center servers are generally inadequate beyond 10 meters due to bandwidth limitations, while optical connections can transmit denser data without generating significant heat — a critical advantage as AI workloads demand ever-greater bandwidth.
The company is not resting on its current product lineup. In March 2025, MaxLinear announced its Rushmore 1.6T DSP, designed for next-generation data center processing. Seendripu expects Rushmore to become a growth driver as early as next year. The company also launched its Washington transimpedance amplifier, which converts weak optical signals into usable electrical voltage for power efficiency, and its Annapurna scale-up retimer, which reconstructs degraded high-speed digital signals to extend copper cable connectivity.
CFO Steve Litchfield said MaxLinear expects to top $200 million in revenue in the third quarter of 2026, with much of that growth driven by the optical infrastructure business. The company’s full-year revenue was $467.6 million in fiscal 2025.
The growth has attracted significant investor attention. Shares of MXL increased more than 350% over the last calendar year, reaching a record high of $128.03 per share at the end of June. The stock has since cooled to between $60 and $70 per share, but executives remain bullish.
Market research estimates that revenue across the data center semiconductor industry will reach $843 billion by 2030, and MaxLinear’s leadership believes the company is in the early stages of a multi-year growth cycle.
MaxLinear received a Best of Show Award in the servers and networking category for its Panther V data storage accelerator at the 20th annual Future of Memory and Storage Conference in August, underscoring the company’s growing prominence in the semiconductor industry.
Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Carlsbad with over 1,000 employees, MaxLinear originally debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010 before transferring its listing to Nasdaq in 2021. The company’s growth trajectory highlights San Diego County’s strength as a semiconductor and technology hub.
