While hyperscalers like Amazon (AMZN) and chipmakers like Nvidia (NVDA) get a lot of attention in the artificial intelligence (AI) buildout, creating the infrastructure to make AI a reality is often an overlooked investing theme. After all, data centers need land, power systems, connectivity, storage, and cooling systems — and all of those are just as important as Nvidia’s vaunted GPUs or Amazon’s industry-leading cloud.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pointed to this recently in Texas, speaking about the expansion of a Coherent (COHR) manufacturing facility that provides technology needed for AI systems. The facility in Sherman, Texas, is being expanded through a $2 billion partnership between Coherent and Nvidia, and will quadruple the output of the factory that makes material used in lasers that transmit data among computer chips.