Soitec shares climbed after the French semiconductor-materials maker lifted its revenue guidance for the current quarter as the race to build artificial-intelligence infrastructure continues to fuel demand for its products.

The group said late Wednesday that it expected year-on-year revenue growth of around 50% at constant currency and scope in the second fiscal quarter that closes at the end of September, above prior guidance of more than 30% growth.

Soitec shares in Paris gained more than 15% on Thursday. The stock is up more than fivefold since the year began as companies pledge hundreds of billions of dollars in capital expenditures to build data centers that require increasingly sophisticated semiconductors and materials to build them.

Headquartered just outside Grenoble in southeastern France, Soitec supplies materials known as substrates that serve as the base layer upon which the integrated circuits and chips that are found in smartphones, tablets and data centers are built.

Steve Babureck, Soitec's U.S. operations president and chief strategy officer, said in an interview in May that the AI capex cycle was unprecedented in the history of semiconductors and that Soitec was fortunate that the focus at the moment was on data centers.

The company said late Wednesday that revenue from Photonics-SOI--products to integrate photonic components on a silicon-on-insulator substrate that are widely used in data centers--should be around three times last year's level of around $25 million this quarter.

Meanwhile, Photonics-SOI revenue for the fiscal year to the end of March 2027 should range from about $250 million to $300 million compared with slightly more than $100 million in fiscal 2026. The projection is better than prior guidance of more than double last year's figure.

Citi analysts wrote in a note to clients that investors were likely to view continued AI strength positively and that Soitec's upgraded outlook could drive high-single-digit upgrades to consensus estimates for fiscal 2027.

The company said it had upgraded its guidance thanks to accelerating demand for Photonics-SOI, greater visibility from clients and its ability to adjust capacity to meet demand, noting it continued to sign multiyear agreements with several Photonics-SOI customers and that it expected to have deals in place with eight of around ten major Photonics-SOI customers in the coming weeks.