Astera Labs Inc at Raymond James TMT and Consumer Conference Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : <_ALACRA_META_ABSTRACT>So this morning, kicking it off with a fireside chat with Astera Lab. And we have with us Nick Aberle, who's the VP of Finance and Investor Relations. So fireside format, some Q&A that we prepared. Let's kick it off with how would you like to introduce the company to a potential investor who may be new to the story, trying to get a ramp up and understand where Astera fits into the world?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : So I think you guys have coined this term, AI infrastructure 2.0. I feel like you sort of have alluded to that but maybe sort of solidify that for the audience in the sense of sort of like what's the old architecture and what's the new architecture and what makes it 2.0.

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : And so how would you describe your competitive moat? So what's the advantage in that if you think about the semiconductor space, there are so many companies that could potentially be playing and competing against you and you seemingly had a leadership position. What's sort of gotten you there? And what keeps you there?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : So maybe it would help to map some of the product because you've mentioned some of the product names, just a little bit sort of educational as to what do they do? Because I've got the sense that Aries is sort of the anchor foundational where this LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 09, 2025 / 1:40PM, ALAB.OQ - Astera Labs Inc at Raymond James TMT and Consumer Conference company got, it's sort of big start and now Scorpio is sort of the cool thing that's growing fastest. But think about financial analyst level of understanding they need to take away, but I often sort of get these questions of prioritize these products, where is the growth coming from? What's most important? Maybe walk people through sort of the layman's version of the functions.

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : So I feel like your stock gets knocked around with headlines on different competitive shifts among the hyperscalers and among the XPU suppliers. And I sort of sometimes scratch my head a bit because it seems like you're everywhere. So maybe it's a question of share in different types. Help folks understand sort of your exposure, whether it's Blackwell, Trainium and Trainium generations or the ASIC options in that I think you have the ability to address all, but is sort of something more important? Is something greater content?How should we think about the importance of the different architectures and options for XPUs?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : So there's a section in our report with the sort of subject adding alphabet soup because there are this sort of variety of protocols that you have to deal with. And so it feels like PCI Express is kind of home base. UALink is sort of what's ramping. And I feel like the debate is around Ethernet and flavors of Ethernet and then NVLink Fusion, which, if I understand correctly, is sort of the version of NVLink that is for others. How do you think these stack up in terms of what are the market preferences and where do you have advantages or where are you threatened? LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 09, 2025 / 1:40PM, ALAB.OQ - Astera Labs Inc at Raymond James TMT and Consumer Conference

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : And is the right strategy for Astera to sort of be really, really good at sort of betting on a horse to win? Or is it to support every protocol?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : So I want to pivot a little bit. You recently made an -- or closed an acquisition of a company. I'm going to say at AI Xscale? Is that the sort of --

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : aiXscale. So it's photonics. And the reason I think this is intriguing is that one of the risk statements is when the world goes to co-packaged optics, do we need as many retimers? What does that do to your business? And so now you've made an acquisition to, I think, address that opportunity set. Can you help us understand how you think about the opportunity set, the time line, the risk statement I've made, is that a valid statement? How are you thinking about it?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : I like it. I refer to optics as the one thing I actually understand. So it makes sort of brings it closer to home to me. But when I think about this acquisition, I sort of can envision a couple of other paths. Do you look at it as sort of a feature technology that gets incorporated into the Scorpio family? Or do you look at this as a building block to future products? How should we think about the use of it?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : And then Marvell recently did this acquisition, Celestial AI. It sounds similar, but different. Do you look at this as competition, validation? How do you sort of think about what's going on across the industry?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : So you know how they say time flies when you're having fun? Yes. Our time is up. I want to ask one question to close out, which is what do you consider either the least appreciated or most misunderstood aspect of the Astera story?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : Great. Nick, thanks for joining us. Thanks, folks, for joining us. This is Astera Labs.