TMTB Morning News

Good morning. Futures +10bps, Crude is flat on what feels like a relatively slow Friday given the action of the past couple weeks. On the Iran War Front, Kuwait reported drone attacks and accused Iran of violating the ceasefire while Israel and Hezbollah continued fighting, albeit scaled back. All eyes on talks occurring in Pakistan this weekend.

Asia generally green: TPX -0.04%, NKY +1.84%, Hang Seng +0.55%, HSCEI +0.5%, SHCOMP +0.51%, Shenzhen +1.54%, Taiwan TAIEX +1.6%, Korea KOSPI +1.4%. Yields up 2-3bps across the curve. BTC -40bps.

Optical names up early as LITE +5% CEO order books sold out through 2028. TSM +2% on solid sales numbers to round out Q1. CRWV +4% early on a new Anthropic deal. PANW/CRWD +2% on more Mythos news - this time Bessent meeting with bank chiefs ahead of the release.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Let’s get to it…

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LITE: Lumentum Sees AI Filling Orders Through 2028

Bloomberg:

Lumentum Holdings Inc. said demand from the biggest US tech companies for its optical components is accelerating and on track to fill its order books through 2028.

“The capex numbers from the US hyperscalers are enormous and there seems to be no end in sight,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Hurlston said in an interview in Tokyo Friday. “We’re falling further and further behind the demand. We would be sold out though all of 2028 within two quarters.”

Hurlston’s projection extends the company’s previous disclosure that it’s sold out until at least the end of 2027. It underscores expectations that demand for equipment to fill artificial intelligence data centers will remain resilient, even as the war in Iran rattles oil markets and the global economy.

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CRWV/Anthropic: Anthropic Will Rent CoreWeave AI Capacity to Power Claude

According to Bloomberg, Anthropic has signed a multiyear deal to rent data center capacity from CoreWeave Inc. to support increasing demand for its Claude AI models, with the capacity including various Nvidia chip architectures across US data centers. The agreement comes as Anthropic works to build computing infrastructure, having committed $50 billion toward new AI data centers and recently securing a $30 billion funding round. CoreWeave, a "neocloud" specializing in AI computing, now serves all four major AI model makers including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and Meta, and recently secured a $21 billion commitment from Meta.

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Anthropic: Anthropic weighs building its own AI chips, sources say

Reuters:

Artificial intelligence lab Anthropic is exploring the possibility of ​designing its own chips, three sources said, as the company and ‌its rivals respond to a shortage of AI chips needed to power and develop more advanced AI systems.

The plans are in early stages and the company may still decide ​to only buy AI chips and not design any, according ​to two people with knowledge of the matter and one ⁠person briefed on Anthropic’s plans. The company has yet to commit ​to a specific design or put together a dedicated team to ​work on the project, one of the sources said.

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TSM: TSMC March sales look like +50%-51% in USD terms. First “clean” month in the year since Jan and Feb were distorted by CNY moving around 26’ vs 25’. 1Q26 overall +41% USD, right at the top end of their guide (h/t PandaBMU). In NT, Q1 NT$ sales up 8.4% QoQ, ahead of the NT$ sales guidance of +4.5% to +8.1%

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NOW: UBS Downgrades to Neutral, Cuts PT to $100 — Reassessing AI Impacts and Budget Crowding