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We just covered the 12 Best AI Data Center Stocks to Buy Right Now and Astera Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALAB) ranks 10th on this list.

Astera Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALAB) is becoming a hedge fund favorite as it is at the forefront of solving the compute-to-data bottlenecks. The firm’s Aries smart retimers and Scorpio smart fabric switches are essential for maintaining signal integrity as data moves between GPUs and memory. If they do not have these, AI clusters cannot physically scale beyond a few thousand chips without massive performance lag. Another catalyst for the shares is PCIe Gen 6 adoption. In early 2026, PCIe Gen 6 products reached a tipping point, contributing over 20% of total revenue for the firm. This transition is a boost for the stock as Gen 6 infrastructure is significantly more expensive and higher-margin than previous generations.

Astera Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALAB) financials are also painting a rosy picture. For Q4 2025, the company reported $270.6 million in revenue, up 91.8% year-over-year, beating analyst estimates by a wide margin. The company maintains a 75.6% gross margin, which is at the very top of the semiconductor sector. Investors are monitoring the launch of the Scorpio smart fabric switch as well. By moving into switches, Astera Labs is expanding its Total Addressable Market. Analysts at Loop Capital recently raised their price target on the stock to $250, citing strong demand for Scorpio as the industry standard for backend AI networking. Major hedge funds like D.E. Shaw and Atreides Management have maintained large positions, betting that the firm will become the Arista of the motherboard, managing the internal traffic of the AI server rack.

While we acknowledge the potential of ALAB as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

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