The U.S. is considering banning the import of new Chinese data center components, leading to a sharp rise in the U.S. stock market's optical communication sector. AAOI surged over 18%.

August 4th, Reuters reported citing sources that the Trump administration is drafting an order to ban the import of new Chinese data center components. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to impose import restrictions on Chinese optical transceivers (used for high-speed data transmission in data centers) and hopes to announce the enforcement within this year. The White House and FCC have not responded to requests for comments.

Impacted by this, according to BIT (bit.com) market data, pre-market trading in the U.S. stock market saw further expansion in the optical communication sector, including:

Pure Photonic ETF FOTO rose by 8.08%;

Corning (GLW) rose by 8.10%;

Marvell Technology (MRVL) rose by 7.64%;

AAOI (Applied Optoelectronics) rose by 18.1%. The company is a manufacturer of high-speed optical modules (800G/1.6T) focusing on AI data center transceivers;

LITE (Lumentum Holdings) rose by 11.57%. The company is a leading supplier of optical communication lasers and modules, a key player in AI data center technology;

COHR (Coherent Corp) rose by 14.01%. The company is a leading provider of lasers, optical components, and photonic solutions, covering data center and industrial fields;

CIEN (Ciena Corporation) rose by 8.96%. The company produces high-speed SerDes and connectivity chips, focusing on low-power interconnects for AI data centers.