5 Stocks With 3x-5x Returns This Year

3. Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)

Applied Optoelectronics climbed by 351 percent year-to-date, primarily bolstered by its ongoing expansion program, coupled with the strong demand for its 800G and 1.6T data transceivers.

Earlier this month, one of its major hyperscale customers, which it refused to identify, has upsized its order for the 800G data transceivers to a total of $124 million, more than doubling the existing backlog for the same buyer alone.

Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) said that the transceivers would support the latter’s network capacity expansion to support its AI-driven workloads.

Launched in September last year, the 800G optical transceivers are built for high-performance AI and cloud data center networks requiring superior port density and bandwidth efficiency.

Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) also received last month its first volume order for its 1.6T data center transceivers from one of its long-term clients.

Meanwhile, it is underway with the expansion of its manufacturing facility in Taiwan, to be completed by its new production site in Sugar Land, Texas.

“We expect that we will soon have the largest production capacity for 800G and 1.6T transceivers in the US, and including both our US and overseas production, we continue to expect to be able to produce over 500,000 units of combined 800G and 1.6T transceivers per month by the end of this year,” Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) Chairman and CEO Thompson Lin said.

The company is set to release the results of its earnings performance for the first quarter of the year after market close on May 7, 2026. It will hold a conference to discuss the results and its outlook for the second quarter.