07:30 AM EDT, 04/17/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Applied Optoelectronics ( AAOI ) said Friday it plans to expand its Houston-area footprint by adding two adjacent buildings in Pearland, Texas, increasing manufacturing capacity by about 388,000 square feet to support rising demand for AI data center connectivity.

The expansion complements the company's existing US operations, including a 210,000-square-foot facility under development near its Sugar Land headquarters and a recently leased 154,000-square-foot site at Blue Ridge Commerce Center, it said.

AOI said it expects the expanded footprint to enable production of up to 700,000 units per month of 800G and 1.6T transceivers and to increase laser fabrication capacity by roughly 350% by end-2027.