AOI awarded $21M TSIF grant to expand operations in Texas

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (AOI), a provider of advanced optical and HFC networking products powering AI, has announced it was awarded a Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund (TSIF) grant for approximately USD 20.9 million to support the company’s manufacturing expansion plans in Sugar Land, Texas.

The TSIF fund provides grants to higher education and state entities for research and development, and to businesses for economic development related to semiconductor design and manufacturing. 

AOI’s 2026 expansion plans are underway to occupy an additional 210,000-square-foot manufacturing facility adjacent to its current headquarters in Sugar Land, the company said in a press release. 

“This investment by AOI to expand their operations in Sugar Land will create hundreds of high-skilled jobs and advance our state’s leadership in innovation and semiconductor manufacturing,” said Texas Governor Greg Abbott.  

“With this investment, we can continue to expand our Texas-based capacity for production of the advanced high-speed optical transceivers that interconnect today’s AI data centers, helping cloud providers improve network performance while making their data centers more energy efficient and scalable,” said Stefan Murry, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Strategy Officer, AOI. 

The company has R&D facilities in Atlanta and R&D, engineering and manufacturing facilities at its corporate headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, as well as in Taipei, Taiwan and Ningbo, China.