Applied Optoelectronics Announces 1.4 Million 25 Gbps Lasers Produced

SUGAR LAND, Texas, June 19, 2017 -- Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI), a leading provider of fiber-optic access network products for the internet datacenter, cable broadband, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and telecom markets, today announced it has produced over 1.4 million 25 Gbps Distributed Feedback (DFB) laser diodes, since first shipping the products in late 2015.

AOI utilizes the overwhelming majority of the diodes produced in its 100G QSFP-28 transceiver products that are primarily deployed in hyperscale datacenters. The 1.4 million 25 Gbps laser diodes have passed all production testing and are fully qualified for use in AOI's  transceiver products and have either been shipped to customers or are in the process of transceiver manufacture.

“We are currently on track to achieve our production ramp goal of producing approximately one million fully-qualified lasers per month by the end of the year.  In May, we produced nearly 600 thousand such laser diodes.  We would like to publicly acknowledge all the hard work by AOI’s engineering and production staff by marking this milestone,” commented Dr. Fred Chang, AOI’s Senior Vice President and head of the Optical Component BU.  “Additionally, the expansion of our fab capabilities in Sugar Land last year have enabled the ramp in production and we continue to build out capacity in the fab in order to reach our production goals.”

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions and current expectations, which could cause the company’s actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: reduction in the size or quantity of customer orders; change in demand for the company’s products due to industry conditions; changes in manufacturing operations; volatility in manufacturing costs; delays in shipments of products; disruptions in the supply chain; change in the rate of design wins or the rate of customer acceptance of new products; the company’s reliance on a small number of customers for a substantial portion of its revenues; potential pricing pressure; a decline in demand for our customers’ products or their rate of deployment of their products; general conditions in the internet datacenter, CATV, FTTH or Telecom markets; changes in the world economy (particularly in the United States and China); the negative effects of seasonality; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in the company’s documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. More information about these and other risks that may impact the company’s business are set forth in the “Risk Factors” section of the company’s quarterly and annual reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "believe," "may," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "should," "could," "would," "target," "seek," "aim," "believe," "predicts," "think," "objectives," "optimistic," "new," "goal," "strategy," "potential," "is likely," "will," "expect," "plan" "project," "permit"  or by other similar expressions that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes. You should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon information available to us as of the date hereof, and qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this press release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in the company’s expectations.

About Applied Optoelectronics
Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (AOI) is a leading developer and manufacturer of advanced optical products, including components, modules and equipment. AOI's products are the building blocks for broadband fiber access networks around the world, where they are used in the internet datacenter, CATV broadband, FTTH and telecom markets. AOI supplies optical networking lasers, components and equipment to tier-1 customers in all four of these markets. In addition to its corporate headquarters, wafer fab and advanced engineering and production facilities in Sugar Land, TX, AOI has engineering and manufacturing facilities in Taipei, Taiwan and Ningbo, China. For additional information, visit www.ao-inc.com.

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