Amphenol's interconnect business for data centers is growing sharply as AI infrastructure demands more connectivity solutions—copper, fiber-optic, and power systems.
The company's IT datacom segment grew 89% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, with AI-related products driving almost all the growth.
An acquisition of CommScope's connectivity business further strengthens Amphenol's optical interconnect position, allowing it to capture expanding interconnect content across evolving AI data-center architectures.
What happened
Amphenol's IT datacom business, which accounted for 43% of second-quarter 2026 sales, grew 89% year over year and 63% organically, with AI-related products driving virtually all of the 22% sequential growth. The company's recent acquisition of CommScope's Connectivity and Cable Solutions business further strengthens its optical interconnect capabilities, and third-quarter IT datacom sales are expected to increase in the mid-teens sequentially.
Why it matters
Data centers powering AI applications require increasingly complex interconnect infrastructure—high-speed copper, fiber-optic, and power solutions—across multiple connectivity layers. Amphenol's portfolio spans technologies supporting bandwidth of up to 1.6 terabits per second, positioning it to capture rising interconnect content as AI infrastructure architectures evolve, rather than remaining tied to a single connectivity approach.
What to watch
Third-quarter IT datacom sales growth in the mid-teens sequentially will serve as a near-term indicator of sustained AI-driven demand. CommScope's IT datacom business is expected to account for just under half of its 2026 sales, up from about one-third in 2025, reflecting accelerating adoption of optical interconnects for AI workloads.
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Amphenol's rapid expansion in AI interconnect reflects a structural shift in data-center infrastructure. As AI models and training workloads grow more complex, they require not just faster processors but also dramatically increased connectivity between chips, racks, and systems—a trend the body identifies as driving 89% year-over-year growth in the company's IT datacom business. The acquisition of CommScope's Connectivity and Cable Solutions business is not incidental; it signals Amphenol's strategic intent to own multiple connectivity layers (copper, optical, power) rather than depend on a single technology as data-center designs mature.
The body indicates that AI-related products drove virtually all of Amphenol's 22% sequential growth in the second quarter, underscoring how directly AI infrastructure buildout translates to near-term revenue. CommScope's IT datacom business itself nearly doubled year over year in the same period, and is now expected to account for just under half its 2026 sales (up from about one-third in 2025), showing that optical interconnect adoption is accelerating industry-wide. Third-quarter guidance for mid-teens sequential IT datacom growth suggests the cycle is still in early stages—each data-center refresh and AI cluster expansion creates fresh demand for these interconnect solutions.
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