#China Export Controls

AXT: A Real Indium Phosphide Bottleneck, Priced Well Ahead of the Business

AXT is a U.S.-listed, China-manufactured supplier of compound semiconductor substrates whose economics now hinge on indium phosphide demand from the AI optical build-out and on Chinese export-permit timing. The stock rose roughly 40-fold from its August 2025 low to today's $57.21 close on real InP backlog growth and two large equity raises, yet still trades around 35-40 times trailing sales while remaining loss-making and fully dependent on Beijing's permit cadence. Rating Avoid: the bottleneck is real, but the price already assumes a cleaner, faster payoff than the business has actually earned.