Some of the best ways to trade a megatrend are not the obvious names. Lumentum Holdings (NASDAQ: LITE) and Rocket Lab USA (NASDAQ: RKLB) sit one layer beneath the headlines: Lumentum builds the laser chips and optical modules that move data inside AI clusters, and Rocket Lab launches rockets and manufactures the satellites that are filling low Earth orbit. Both have turned their respective booms into record revenue in 2026, and both are tradable as perpetual contracts on ApeX Omni with up to 50x leverage. Here is what each company does, where the numbers stand as of mid-2026, and the narrative a trader needs to know.
Lumentum (LITE): the optical engine of the AI data center
Lumentum makes light-based components. Its products include semiconductor laser chips, optical transceivers, and photonic subsystems that carry data as light rather than electrons. That matters because the bottleneck in an AI data center is no longer just compute, it is moving data between tens of thousands of accelerators fast enough to keep them fed. Optics is how that data moves, and Lumentum sells the parts that make it possible: externally modulated lasers (EMLs), high-speed cloud transceivers, and emerging products like co-packaged optics (CPO) and optical circuit switches (OCS).
For years Lumentum was a sleepy, cyclical optics vendor levered to telecom and 3D-sensing. The AI buildout changed that. In its fiscal third quarter of 2026 (the quarter ended March 28, 2026), Lumentum posted record net revenue of $808.4 million, up 90.1% year over year and 21.5% sequentially (SEC 8-K). That capped a steep sequential ramp through the fiscal year, from $665.5 million in the prior quarter, and pushed nine-month revenue to roughly $2.0 billion, up 72.4% year over year (SEC 8-K).
The profitability swing is the part that re-rates a stock. Lumentum went from a GAAP loss a year earlier to GAAP net income of $144.2 million, or $1.50 per diluted share, with non-GAAP EPS of $2.37 (SEC 8-K). Non-GAAP operating margin reached 32.2%, up roughly 2,140 basis points year over year, as factory utilization, a richer laser-chip mix, and pricing power all worked in the same direction (SEC 8-K).
Why the demand is real
The cleanest tell in Lumentum's story is that it cannot make enough of its core product. On the earnings call, CEO Michael Hurlston said the company was "significantly undershipping demand," with an EML supply-demand imbalance "somewhere greater than 30%," and that EML shipments had more than doubled versus the year-ago quarter (earnings call). Management is racing to add capacity, guiding to roughly a 50% increase in EML supply from December to December (earnings call).
Behind the current shipments sits a pipeline aimed squarely at the AI buildout. Lumentum has cited an optical circuit switch backlog "well beyond $400 million" and an incremental multi-hundred-million-dollar co-packaged optics order deliverable in the first half of calendar 2027, describing its components as "mission-critical to the world's AI leaders" (SEC 8-K). These are forward-looking, company-reported figures rather than recognized revenue, so weight them accordingly, but they frame where the growth is pointed.
The bull and bear case on LITE
The bull case writes itself off the numbers above: record revenue, a hard profitability inflection, a supply-constrained core product, and a CPO and OCS pipeline tied to the largest AI spenders. Management guided fiscal Q4 2026 to another record, $960 million to $1.01 billion in revenue with non-GAAP EPS of $2.85 to $3.05 (SEC 8-K), a beat-and-raise cadence that momentum traders love.
The bear case is the same engine running in reverse. This is a demand-cyclical business riding AI capital expenditure, and if hyperscalers throttle spending the order book can soften fast. Average selling prices are already declining on some transceiver lines, partly offsetting volume growth (SEC 10-Q), and the most exciting CPO and OCS commentary is self-reported guidance about 2027. Customer concentration among a handful of AI leaders cuts both ways.
Rocket Lab (RKLB): launch plus satellites, with a wildcard in the wings
Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company. It has two engines. The first is launch: its Electron rocket is the workhorse of dedicated small-satellite missions. The second, and now the larger, is Space Systems, where Rocket Lab designs and builds satellites, spacecraft components, and full constellations for commercial and government customers.
The financials show a company scaling fast. In Q1 2026, Rocket Lab reported record revenue of $200.3 million, up 63.5% year over year and its first quarter ever above $200 million (SEC 8-K). That followed record full-year 2025 revenue of $601.8 million, up 38% (SEC 8-K). The company exited Q1 2026 with a record contracted backlog of $2.2 billion, up about 108% year over year, of which Space Systems made up 58.5% and launch services 41.5% (SEC 8-K).
Electron keeps the lights on and the manifest full. Rocket Lab flew a record 21 Electron and HASTE missions in 2025 at a 100% success rate, including a record seven in the fourth quarter (SEC 8-K). Its total launch manifest now exceeds 70 contracted missions after a busy quarter of new bookings (SEC 8-K).
The Space Systems engine and the $816M defense win
The marquee development is in satellites, not rockets. In December 2025, Rocket Lab won an $816 million prime contract from the Space Development Agency to design and build 18 missile-defense satellites on its Lightning platform, part of the Tracking Layer Tranche 3 program aimed at detecting and tracking advanced threats including hypersonics (GlobeNewswire). It is the largest contract in the company's history and the clearest sign that Rocket Lab has graduated from launch provider to defense-grade spacecraft prime.
Neutron: the wildcard
The single biggest swing factor for RKLB is Neutron, the medium-lift, partially reusable rocket meant to move Rocket Lab from small payloads into the much larger market currently dominated by SpaceX. Neutron's debut has slipped repeatedly, and in January 2026 a stage-one propellant tank ruptured during a hydrostatic qualification test (Spaceflight Now). Management pushed the target first flight to the fourth quarter of 2026 and, as of May 2026, still publicly held that line, with FAA launch permits filed for a window running through the end of 2026 (SEC 8-K). Note that filed permits are not the same as an issued launch license.
There is real hardware behind the schedule. Rocket Lab has qualified its "Hungry Hippo" carbon-composite fairing and thrust structure, advanced its Archimedes engine through hot-fire testing reaching 102% power, and begun integrating first-flight hardware (SEC 8-K). The company also signed its largest launch deal yet during the quarter, covering five dedicated Neutron and three dedicated Electron flights (Spaceflight Now).
The bull and bear case on RKLB
Bulls see accelerating revenue, a record backlog skewed toward higher-value satellite work, a transformational defense contract, and a near-term catalyst in Neutron that could unlock a far larger addressable market. Q2 2026 guidance of $225 million to $240 million implies continued sequential growth (SEC 8-K).
Bears point at the same Neutron. The program has slipped from 2024 to 2025 to late 2026, spending reached roughly $360 million by the end of 2025 against an original $250 million to $300 million plan, and the delay alone added about $15 million a quarter in staffing cost (Spaceflight Now). Rocket Lab is also still posting adjusted EBITDA losses, guiding to a loss of $20 million to $26 million for Q2 2026 (SEC 8-K). This is a growth-at-a-cost story where the next leg depends on flawless execution.
How to trade LITE and RKLB on ApeX Omni
You do not need a brokerage account or the full share price to take a position in either name. On ApeX Omni, you can trade LITE and RKLB as perpetual contracts with up to 50x leverage, going long or short.
That flexibility is the point for active traders:
Go long Lumentum into an AI-capex catalyst or an EML-supply update, or short an overheated print.
Trade Rocket Lab's binary events. Neutron's first launch is a defined catalyst, and perps let you position for it in either direction.
Size with leverage. Up to 50x means a smaller margin commitment controls a larger position, amplifying gains on a correct call.
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The takeaway
Lumentum and Rocket Lab are two clean ways to trade the physical infrastructure of the future: LITE supplying the optics that make AI clusters work, RKLB building and launching the satellites filling orbit, with Neutron as its high-stakes catalyst. The numbers are real, recent, and record-setting, and both stories still have open questions worth respecting. If you want to trade either narrative in either direction, LITE and RKLB perpetuals are live on ApeX Omni with up to 50x leverage. Do your own research, manage your risk, and pick your spots.
This article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not financial, investment, or legal advice. Do your own research and consult a licensed professional before investing.