Super Micro and Arista Blow Past Their Own Forecasts

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 3 — SuperSuper Micro Computer said on Tuesday that its sales reached $19.9 billion in the three months to Sept. 30, about a third above the middle of the $14.5 billion to $15.5 billion it had forecast in August. That was nearly four times its sales a year earlier, and above even the $18.5 billion to $19.5 billion it had estimated on Oct. 20.

The same afternoon, Arista Networks and Astera Labs, which sell the switches and chips that tie AI servers together, reported quarters above their own forecasts too. Arista’s revenue of $3.66 billion was $358 million more than the $3.3 billion it had guided to.

The three companies supply the servers, switches and connecting chips inside AI data centers, and in the summer quarter all three sold more than they themselves had expected. The bill showed at Super Micro, which builds the servers: its gross margin fell to 12.7 percent from 17.5 percent in the June quarter, and its operations used $434 million of cash.

The Assembler

The figures are preliminary, Super Micro said, because its closing procedures for the quarter are not complete.PreliminarySuper Micro said its independent accounting firm had not audited or reviewed the figures, and that its actual results “may differ materially” from them. “Supermicro’s transformation into a Total AI and IT Datacenter Solution provider continues to accelerate,” Charles Liang, its founder and chief executive, said in the release.

The margin was lower than June’s but higher than the company had planned. On Oct. 20 Super Micro estimated it at 12.0 to 12.5 percent, against guidance of 10.4 to 10.8 percent, “primarily due to customer and product mix.” It was 9.9 percent in the March quarter and 9.3 percent a year ago. Gross profit, at $2.54 billion, was 31 percent higher than in June, by our arithmetic.

The cash went into goods and customers’ unpaid bills. Changes in receivables and inventories absorbed $3.56 billion and $2.48 billion of operating cash, according to the cash-flow statement; a year earlier, operations used $917.5 million. Super Micro ended September with $6.9 billion of cash and $8.6 billion of bank debt and convertible notes.

It expects $19.5 billion to $21.5 billion of sales in the December quarter, and raised its forecast for the year to June to $72 billion to $82 billion, from $65 billion to $72 billion. The LSEG consensus had been $69.17 billion, CNBC reported.The Second HalfThe first quarter’s sales and the middle of the December range add up to $40.4 billion, by our arithmetic. The yearly range leaves $31.6 billion to $41.6 billion for January to June.

The Network

Arista’s revenue rose 58.5 percent from a year earlier, to $3.66 billion. “Arista registered another momentous quarter with the highest year-over-year revenue growth since our IPO and record profitability, surpassing even my high expectations,” Jayshree Ullal, its chief executive, said in the release. Its non-GAAP operating margin was 49.1 percent. For the December quarter it expects $3.9 billion to $4.0 billion, about 8 percent more than September at the middle, by our arithmetic, after a 20.5 percent rise from June to September. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected $3.60 billion, CNBC reported.

Arista registered another momentous quarter with the highest year-over-year revenue growth since our IPO and record profitability, surpassing even my high expectations.

Arista’s deferred revenue rose to $6.84 billion on Sept. 30 from $5.37 billion at the end of 2025, by its balance sheet. With AMD, Arm, Broadcom, d-Matrix, Meta, Microsoft and Qualcomm, it launched rack-scale designs for AI networks, among them Etherlink SU-144, “supporting up to 144 accelerators per rack in a single hop.”

Astera’s revenue of $584.9 million topped its own range of $540 million to $560 million; it rose 154 percent from a year earlier and 49 percent from June, and its Scorpio fabric switches became its largest product family, it said. It expects $730 million to $750 million in the December quarter, about 26.5 percent more at the middle, by our arithmetic.

Per dollar of sales, Super Micro kept 12.7 cents of gross profit; Arista kept 63.6 cents and Astera 72.3 cents, on their GAAP figures.Who Does WhatBy their own descriptions: Super Micro, of San Jose, sells server, storage and switch systems; Arista, of Santa Clara, Calif., networking for AI, data-center, campus and routing environments; Astera Labs, of San Jose, semiconductor-based connectivity for rack-scale AI.

After the Bell

Super Micro closed Tuesday at $31.39, before its report. In after-hours trading its last trade, at 7:59 p.m. Eastern, was $33.65, up 7.20 percent. Arista, which closed at $169.91, touched $202.00 at 4:51 p.m. and last traded at $185.10 at 7:59 p.m., up 8.94 percent. Astera, which closed at $233.62, swung from 8.67 percent up to 7.97 percent down in about two minutes and last traded at $225.99 at 7:59 p.m., down 3.27 percent. In trading before the open, as of 5:10 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, CNBC quoted Super Micro up 7.52 percent, Arista up 11.81 percent and Astera up 3.76 percent.

Qualcomm and Arm, two of Arista’s partners on those designs, report after the close on Wednesday, with calls at 4:45 p.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern. They report a day after AMD said it was planning for PC unit shipments to fall by a double-digit percentage in 2027, according to Investing.com’s transcript of its call. CoreWeave reports on Nov. 10, Applied Materials on Nov. 12 and Nvidia on Nov. 17.