Taiwanese chip packaging firm Chipbond is surging as optical networking orders pile up, good news for investors betting on the AI data center buildout.

• Chipbond stock jumped as much as 8.8% in early trading, on heavy volume.
• August sales hit a record for the second month running, up 44% from a year earlier.
• The company is holding more than 30 optical networking projects and is pushing into a newer plug-in optical technology used in data centers.
• Big institutional investors — foreign funds, local funds, and brokers — all turned sellers the day before, but the buying pressure overwhelmed them.

Outlook: Analysts expect Chipbond's optical networking business to grow 30% this quarter, which should lift profit margins.