Celestica Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
July 28, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Q2 results exceeded guidance: Revenue rose 62% year over year to $4.7 billion, adjusted EPS increased 83% to $2.54, and adjusted operating margin reached a company-record 8.2%.
  • Positive Sentiment: Celestica raised its full-year 2026 outlook to $20.5 billion of revenue, $11.30 in adjusted EPS, and $600 million of free cash flow, up from prior targets of $19 billion, $10.15, and $500 million, respectively.
  • Positive Sentiment: Demand for AI infrastructure and networking remains exceptionally strong, with 800G programs ramping, 1.6T programs entering mass production in the second half of 2026, and multi-billion-dollar opportunities tied to OpenAI and AMD’s Helios platform expected to ramp in 2027.
  • Negative Sentiment: Component availability remains the primary constraint, with demand exceeding supply and some lead times above 52 weeks; inventory increased to $3.4 billion, while planned 2026 capital expenditures remain high at approximately $1 billion.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Celestica Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

Skip to Participants
Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Celestica Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results and Conference Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Matthew Pallotta, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Matthew Pallotta
Matthew Pallotta
Head of Investor Relations at Celestica

Good morning. Thank you for joining us on Celestica's Q2 2026 financial results conference call. On the call today, we have Rob Mionis, Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, and Mandeep Chawla, Chief Financial Officer. Please note that during the course of this call, we will make forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the future performance of Celestica, our business outlook, guidance for the third quarter of 2026, our 2026 annual outlook, and anticipated trends in our industry and their anticipated impact on our business. These are based on management's current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions as of July 27th. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations, and their potential impact on our results cannot be reliably predicted at this time.

Matthew Pallotta
Matthew Pallotta
Head of Investor Relations at Celestica

For identification and discussion of the material assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, please refer to our public filings with the SEC and on SEDAR+, as well as the Investor Relations section on our website. We undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements unless expressly required to do so by law. In addition, during this call, we will refer to various non-GAAP financial measures. We have included in our earnings release, found in the Investor Relations section of our website, a discussion of those non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP measures. Unless otherwise specified, all references to dollars on this call are to U.S. dollars, all per share information is based on diluted shares outstanding, and all references to comparative figures are a year-over-year comparison. With that, I will now turn the call over to Rob.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Thank you, Matt. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's call. As we cross the mid-year mark, we continue to see sustained and accelerating momentum across our portfolio. In the second quarter, we delivered revenue of $4.7 billion and adjusted EPS of $2.54, both exceeding the high end of our guidance ranges. This performance was backed by an adjusted operating margin of 8.2%, a new high for the company. These results reflect strong operational execution across both segments, alongside record demand from our CCS customers. Within CCS, we continue to expand with leading hyperscale customers through close alignment on multi-year capacity roadmaps. Rapid progression and technology upgrade cycles in networking and AI compute are driving broad demand, and we are in the process of ramping a number of significant new programs expected to launch in the second half of the year and into 2027.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

At the same time, our ATS segment continues to see strong profitability improvements alongside solid revenue growth during the quarter. Before I provide an update on our longer-term business outlook, I would like to turn the call over to Mandeep, who will take us through our Q2 results and Q3 guidance. Mandeep, over to you.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Thank you, Rob, good morning, everyone. Revenue in the second quarter was $4.70 billion, up 62% and above the high end of our guidance range as strong demand and solid operational execution led to higher than expected revenue in our ATS segment and both of our CCS end markets. Our non-GAAP operating margin was 8.2%, up a robust 80 basis points with solid margin expansion in both segments, resulting primarily from improved operating leverage. Our adjusted earnings per share was $2.54, exceeding the high end of our guidance range at an increase of $1.15 or 83%. Moving on to some additional metrics. Adjusted gross margin was 11.5%, down 20 basis points, largely due to mix in our CCS segment. Our second quarter adjusted effective tax rate was 20%.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Lastly, our strong earnings growth and disciplined working capital management led to adjusted ROIC of approximately 55%, higher by 20 percentage points compared to the prior year. Turning now to our segment performance. Revenue in our CCS segment was $3.81 billion, up 84% compared to the prior year period, driven by very strong growth in both our communications and enterprise end markets. In the second quarter, the CCS segment accounted for 81% of total company revenue. Our communications end market revenue was up 62%, higher than our outlook of approximately 50%, primarily driven by growth in our 800G networking switch programs, complemented by continued strong demand in our 400G programs.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Revenue in our enterprise end market was up by 167%, well above our outlook of approximately 130%, driven by the accelerated ramp of an AI ML compute program with a hyperscaler customer and supported by stronger than expected demand in storage programs. In our HPS business, revenue was $1.9 billion in the second quarter, representing growth of 58%, driven by ramping 800G switch programs across multiple hyperscaler customers. Our HPS business accounted for 41% of total company revenue in the second quarter. ATS revenue for the quarter was $888 million, higher by 8% and above our outlook of a mid-single-digit percentage increase. The solid performance was driven by revenue growth in each of our businesses. Our ATS segment accounted for 19% of total company revenue in the second quarter. Moving on to segment margins.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Our CCS segment margin was 8.7% in the second quarter, an improvement of 40 basis points, driven by strong operating leverage from significantly higher volumes. Our ATS segment margin was 6.3%, up 100 basis points year-to-year, driven by operating leverage and higher engineering-driven product mix. In the second quarter, three customers each accounted for 10% or more of total revenue, accounting for 32%, 17%, and 14% respectively. Turning to working capital. At the end of the second quarter, our inventory balance was $3.4 billion, a sequential increase of $0.7 billion, and higher by $1.5 billion compared to the prior year, driven by continued scaling to support significant growth and upcoming program ramps in our CCS segment, as anticipated. Cash cycle days for the quarter were 47, representing a 19-day improvement over the prior year, and an eight-day improvement sequentially. Moving on to cash flows.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

We generated $147 million of free cash flow in the second quarter and $285 million year-to-date. Our capital expenditures were $264 million, or approximately 5.6% of revenue, compared to 1.1% of revenue in the prior year quarter. Consistent with our prior outlook, our full year 2026 capital expenditure guidance remains unchanged at approximately $1 billion. Our capital expenditure investments are intended to support the significant anticipated growth from currently ramping and awarded programs. They are underpinned by strong demand visibility and close alignment on multi-year capacity planning with our key customers. At the end of the second quarter, our cash balance was $536 million, while our gross debt was $740 million, resulting in a net debt position of $204 million. We had no draw outstanding on our revolver at the end of the quarter.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Our gross debt to non-GAAP trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio was 0.5x turns, an improvement of 0.1x turns sequentially and 0.4x turns versus prior year. Our cash balance, in combination with our recently upsized revolver, provides us with approximately $2.3 billion of available liquidity. As of June 30th, we were in compliance with all financial covenants under our credit agreement. We did not repurchase shares for cancellation during the second quarter. While we continue to approach share repurchases on an opportunistic basis, our highest priority at this time is to reinvest in our business to support the unprecedented growth we anticipate over the coming years. We maintained a disciplined approach to capital allocation, deploying to the highest return opportunities in order to drive long-term shareholder value. Moving on to our guidance for the third quarter.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Third quarter revenue is projected to be between $5.25 billion and $5.55 billion, representing growth of 69% at the midpoint. Adjusted earnings per share is anticipated to be between $2.88-$3.08, representing an increase of $1.40 at the midpoint or 89% growth compared to the prior year. Assuming the achievement of the midpoint of our revenue and adjusted EPS guidance ranges, our adjusted operating margin is expected to be 8.4%, which would represent an increase of 80 basis points. We anticipate our adjusted effective tax rate for the third quarter to be approximately 20%. Let's review our revenue outlook for each of our end markets. In our CCS segment, we expect revenue in our communications end market to grow approximately 60%, driven primarily by hyperscaler-led growth in 800G programs, as well as the commencement of mass production ramps in our first 1.6 Terabit programs.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

In our enterprise end market, we expect growth of approximately 190%, driven in large part by the continued ramp in hyperscaler AI/ML compute, as well as improved demand in storage. In our ATS segment, we anticipate revenue to be up in the mid-teens percentage range, driven primarily by strong demand in our capital equipment business, as well as by new program ramps in our other businesses. With that, I will now turn the call back over to Rob to provide an update on our 2026 annual financial outlook and additional color on the latest developments in our business.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Thank you, Mandeep. We are once again raising our full year 2026 annual outlook, driven by our strong first-half performance and strengthening second-half customer forecast supported by improved component supply. Our revenue outlook increases from $19 billion-$20.5 billion, representing very strong growth of 65%. We are also raising our adjusted EPS outlook to $11.30, up from $10.15, representing growth of 87%. Reflected in our outlook is full year adjusted operating margin of 8.4%, higher than our previous outlook of 8.1%. Finally, we are increasing our free cash flow outlook for 2026 from $500 million-$600 million, which includes approximately $1 billion in planned CapEx. Our outlook maintains a prudent view on component availability and the timing of new program ramps. Looking beyond 2026, our visibility is very strong.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

This is driven by multi-year global capacity alignment with our key customers, along with improved component supply planning to effectively manage extended component lead times. For 2027, as a result of exceptionally strong customer demand and new program wins, we expect our revenue growth rate to accelerate as compared to the 65% growth expected in our 2026 annual outlook. As we continue expanding our adjusted operating margins, we anticipate our adjusted EPS growth rate to outpace our revenue growth. We look forward to providing a detailed full-year outlook for 2027 later this year. Moving on to discuss the business outlook for our segments and beginning with CCS. Based on our updated 2026 annual outlook, we now anticipate CCS revenue to grow by approximately 85%.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

In Communications, we expect strong momentum to continue through the rest of the year, driven by continued growth in 800G Ethernet switch programs, alongside the launch of mass production for 1.6T programs with two hyperscaler customers beginning in the third quarter. In 2027, we expect that the combination of continued growth in 800G volumes alongside the acceleration of 1.6T ramps across our customer base will drive very strong growth. Within our Enterprise end market, our outlook for the second half of 2026 remains exceptionally robust as we see strengthening demand in our AI Compute portfolio. We expect to continue this strong growth into 2027, driven by the ramp of multiple compute programs. Later this year, we expect to commence initial deliveries of custom racks for our digital native customer, whom we are pleased to share is OpenAI.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

In our role as a strategic systems partner, Celestica will collaborate with OpenAI and Broadcom in support of their multi-generational custom accelerator roadmaps, beginning with a Jalapeno accelerator with mass production planned in 2027. As OpenAI's custom accelerator roadmaps advance towards future generations, Celestica will continue to provide its expertise to support their multi-gigawatt scale deployments. Moving on to our ATS segment. We are updating our full-year outlook, which now calls for revenue growth of approximately 10%. Growth is accelerating in the second half of the year, largely driven by sequential growth in our capital equipment business, where stronger wafer fab equipment demand tailwinds are anticipated to continue into 2027. This momentum will be complemented by continued growth across the rest of our portfolio, supported by new program ramps. We also remain positive on the trajectory of strengthening ATS segment margins.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

We anticipate that this momentum will continue as the portfolio benefits from both improving mix and leverage from returning revenue growth. Looking ahead, our demand pipeline remains at record levels across key customer programs. We continue to see improving multi-year visibility into AI infrastructure investments, which reinforces our confidence in our growth trajectory through the remainder of 2026 and into 2027. Combined with strong operational execution and disciplined capital allocation, we believe we are well-positioned to expand margins, deliver EPS growth, and return strong long-term value for our shareholders. With that, I will now turn the call over to the operator to open the line for questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and rejoin the queue if you have a follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality, and if muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Tim Long with Barclays. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Tim Long
Tim Long
Analyst at Barclays

Thank you. Yeah. One question, and then I'll have a follow-up after. I know you don't want to get too into the 2027, but the acceleration of growth is obviously pretty meaningful. We're looking at, I don't know, $13 billion or so of incremental revenues. Could you maybe at a high level, talk about how much those new programs are contributing? I think there's the OpenAI that you mentioned and two others, AMD and the 1.6T CPO switch. If you could just give us a little bit of color on new versus existing, and then I'll have a follow-up right after that.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Sure, Tim. Good morning. Yeah, what we're seeing in 2027, first is we see scaling of 800G programs and also the scaling of the 1.6T switch programs. This is complemented on top of very strong growth, or I should say, continued growth of 400G. 400G, as we go from 2026 to 2027, is remarkably resilient

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

On top of that, half of 2027, we have ramps of next generation AI ML compute programs. To your question, we have our new customer rack deployments with OpenAI and AMD. Both are several billion-dollar opportunities that we see in 2027, specifically on the AMD Helios scale-up platform. The pipeline on that program continues to grow. Again, that's a multi-billion dollar program in 2027. On top of that, ATS is also really coming into its own. Its margins are improving and the growth fueled by capital equipment is really adding fuel to the fire for 2027.

Tim Long
Tim Long
Analyst at Barclays

Okay. Great. Thanks. If I could just follow up on gross margin. It seems like a solid performance in the quarter. Maybe just a little bit how we should think of that as the complexion of the business changes. A lot of these newer programs are pretty scale and some of them, I think they're mostly HPS. Just a high level on profitability and how HPS can impact that over the next year.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Yeah. Hey, Tim, it's Mandeep here. We're pleased with where gross margin is coming in at right now, up a little bit sequentially, and we do believe that we should be able to maintain being around the mid 11s as we go through 2026. As we look into 2027, still dialing in some of the specifics, to your point, we do have some positive benefits coming through. We're going to be seeing accelerated growth in HPS, the ramping of network switches, which are primarily in HPS, and so that definitely helps us. We're still working through the mix impacts as we look at the rest of the portfolio. What I'll point you back to then is operating profit, where we have a lot of confidence right now that we will see operating profit expansion for yet another year as we go into next year.

Tim Long
Tim Long
Analyst at Barclays

Okay. Thank you, guys.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Thanks, Tim.

Operator

A reminder to please limit yourself to one question. Your next question comes from the line of Joseph Cardoso with JPMorgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Joseph Cardoso
Joseph Cardoso
Analyst at JPMorgan

Good morning. Thanks for the question. Maybe as a follow-up to the revenue guidance, it's great to see the increase here for this year and next year as well. Maybe just given the context of the broader supply constraints we're seeing in the industry, both perhaps direct and indirect, can you maybe talk to how those have tracked through the quarter or through the quarter to date, and to what extent are they acting or still acting as limiters to the guidance? Are you seeing it materialize worse or are you seeing it more easier to navigate? Thanks for the question.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Thanks, Joe. Yeah, we performed better than we expected this quarter. The team has really been outstanding in navigating a very tight supply chain. Demand across the AI data center infrastructure continues to outpace the global component supply. However, in our 2026 commitments and our 2027 outlook, we are appropriately hedged, and frankly, we find it manageable. We're continuing to work closely with our customers and our suppliers to secure even improved capacity as we move into 2027, and it's an ongoing process. Ultimately, the positive side of this is that the supply tightness that we're seeing really reflects the strength and the multi-year durability of the underlying demand pipeline that we see. Frankly, the unprecedented levels of demand visibility is enabled by extended lead times.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

This supply chain constraint is really helping us do a better job of planning with our suppliers and with our customers, and it's giving us confidence in our longer-term outlook.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Just one thing to maybe add to that would be, if you just look at it holistically through 2026 and through 2027, we have the capacity in place to execute the demand that's there for 2026. We have the capacity plans in place to execute the demand in 2027. However, the constraint is really around material. So we've taken that into consideration when providing the figures that we're providing, the demand does exceed the revenue figures that we've been sharing.

Joseph Cardoso
Joseph Cardoso
Analyst at JPMorgan

Great. Appreciate the color. Thank you.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Thanks, Joe.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ruben Roy with Stifel. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Ruben Roy
Ruben Roy
Analyst at Stifel

Yes, thank you. Rob, to start with, can you maybe spend a minute on how you're thinking about 1.6T ramps? There's been a lot of discussion about pace of those ramps, et cetera. Obviously 800G is continuing to do well for you guys, and you're talking about continued expansion into 2027. I'm just wondering if you could maybe talk about what customers are thinking in terms of 1.6T ramps and if you think there's a crossover coming in 2027, or if not, if you give us how you're thinking about the mix, that would be helpful. Thank you.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Sure. 1.6T really starts ramping, coming into its own in the back half of 2026 and really surging in 2027. Again, we have 10 active 1.6T programs in the mix, and they'll start really picking up in 2027 on top of some very strong growth, year-over-year growth in 800G. On top of that, the pipeline for 1.6T in terms of sales pipeline is continuing to grow, and we probably will end up booking some additional awards here in the coming quarters. There's some programs still in development that will also start kicking in in the latter half of 2027.

Ruben Roy
Ruben Roy
Analyst at Stifel

Thanks, Rob. I know I only have one question, but if you could maybe just comment on CPO as well, any of the one win. Is that sort of on track with the way you're thinking about timing and any additional customer discussions around CPO? That's all I have. Thank you.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

You're welcome. Yeah. The samples for that CPO win will come out in the first half of 2027, and mass production for that program will start in the second half of 2027. We continue to work with that customer on next-generation technologies to kind of further their technology roadmap.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Ng with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Michael Ng
Michael Ng
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Hi. Good morning. Thank you so much for the question. I just wanted to ask for a few more details on the 2027 revenue growth guidance improvement. Could you just talk a little bit about what changed most significantly to raise the growth outlook? Was it more on the communication side or the enterprise side? Any specific programs or deals that give you that confidence and visibility to increase the outlook at this stage of the year? Thank you.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Sure. Just some 90 days ago, our AI/ML compute demand has significantly increased for 2026 and also leading into 2027. That has given us confidence. The demand pipeline for the next generation racks, for AMD next generation racks also continue to increase. Our base demand across networking for our 800G programs has also just dramatically increased for 2027. As Mandeep mentioned earlier, we do have the capacity to support that demand, hence we raised our outlook for 2027.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Michael, maybe I'll just add on to Rob's comments. We've talked about this a little bit over the last six months or so, the capacity planning discussions we're having are allowing us to have some very forward-looking conversations with our customers. We're having demand conversations in 2027, for 2028, and in some cases even for 2029. To Rob's point, the demand is continuing to strengthen. The forecast visibility, in many cases, is widening. Really what's changed in the last three to six months is you got to start ordering the materials. With extended lead times now with some products being well above 52 weeks, we really needed to solidify the demand outlook for next year. With those orders now in place, it gives us just that one extra level of confidence to be able to share the numbers that we did.

Michael Ng
Michael Ng
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Great. Rob, Mandeep, thank you so much for the thoughts.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Thanks, Michael.

Operator

A reminder that you are welcome to rejoin the queue if you would like to ask a follow-up. Your next question comes from the line of Ruplu Bhattacharya with Bank of America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Ruplu Bhattacharya
Ruplu Bhattacharya
Analyst at Bank of America

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I have one question, but as you may have guessed, it's going to be in two parts. The first question is, Rob, you're guiding very strong growth for fiscal 2027, much stronger than we had expected. What are two or three of the key assumptions that are embedded in this outlook that investors should monitor over the next six months or so? I'm trying to get at what are some of the risk factors that investors should keep in mind. The follow-up for Mandeep, because of all the geopolitical uncertainty, are you getting requests for more regional manufacturing and do you see this as an opportunity to expand out in North America versus in Southeast Asia and other places? Thank you.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Sure. In terms of the risk factors, they always continue to be the same. It's largely at this stage of the game around continued material supply and continuity of supply. That being said, as Mandeep mentioned earlier, the lead times for components are quite long. Our suppliers, I mean, our customers have placed non-cancellable, non-refundable orders for long-lead silicon, which gives us confidence for that. We've also have supply agreements on hard-to-find components such as memory and PWBs, things along those lines. We think we've effectively managed the risk on the downside. In terms of the upside, just unprecedented demand increases across the board, specifically in AI/ML compute, and also in networking. We feel like we're gaining share across the board, driven by our ability to execute and execute well at scale. That's also enabling us to provide a solid 2027 guidance.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Again, for 2027, we feel that it's continuing to unfold and we're refining it. We're not placing a ceiling on the upside at this time, the guidance that we gave, we felt very comfortable at this stage.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Ruplu, just to also address your question around the operational footprint, I'll tie it back to dollars as well because I'm sure that this is top of mind as well. We still think the $1 billion of CapEx for this year is the right number. It may move around a little bit just based on timing of payments. We think the $1.5 billion is a good placeholder still for next year. We'll give a number in October, because if that number is to go up in May, it'll really be reflective of the demand that we're seeing in 2028. When you look at where that capacity is being deployed, it really is quite global in nature. We are adding capacity in Thailand, which is one of our flagship locations supporting a number of the highest growth customers. Just a fantastic execution track record in Thailand.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

We're making expansions in Japan at the request of our customers as well, and moving some switching business into Japan. We're making significant investments in the United States. In particular, in Richardson, Texas, we're expanding our existing footprint. In Fort Worth, Texas, we are already bringing online some new capacity, and more capacity will come online next year as well. We're finding that our customers right now are looking for an equal amount of growth in Asia as well as in the United States.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Thanks, [Ruplu].

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Vogt with UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

David Vogt
David Vogt
Analyst at UBS

Great. Thanks, guys, for taking my questions. I have more of a thematic, philosophical question for you guys. When you think about the demand that you're seeing that I think you called out, Rob, as unprecedented demand over the next several years, can you help us understand I understand all the programs that are ramping 1.6T CPO, are the bands wider in terms of what you're hearing from your customers? What I mean by that is, are you seeing sort of a wider range of potential outcomes from your customers, given the supply chain uncertainty? Outside of CapEx, maybe Mandeep, what kind of capital support or working capital support are your customers asking for at this part of the cycle, given how strong demand is and potentially some limitations on capital at some of your potential customers going forward? Thank you.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Hi. I would say earlier in the year, as the demand started picking up, our customers' demand signals were very dynamic. Just to use an analogy, I think all our customers threw a bunch of spaghetti on the wall, and they tried to figure out what would stick or not. After the broad supply chain tried to understand its true capacity and what it could scale, the demand signals then normalized and strengthened around the theory of constraints, if you will. Right now, what we're really just seeing is a very constant and growing set of demand signals from our customers, and hence we've been working methodically with our suppliers to expand it. I think the noise has calmed down quite a bit. Our customers, again, continue to want more than the supply chain could supply, that is, again, not perishable demand.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

It's just giving us more visibility into the future when we're able to responsibly scale to achieve it.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

David, to your question around the engagement with our customers, look, we're servicing the best customers in the world right now. We have very open and detailed conversations around balance sheet strength on both sides, ensuring that the commitments that we're making are supported by strong credit, to be very kind of blunt about it. To be equally blunt, we're not a bank, so we don't go and fund our customers' ability to grow. We feel comfortable that when we're signing up for programs, that we have the right contractual terms in place to protect both sides. We do work very collaboratively with our customers. Long-term forecasting and increasing levels of visibility is where it really starts. In some cases, we have binding forecasts that go out 12-18 months in order to secure the materials.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

We do work with our customers on specialized equipment or non-recurring expenses to be covered by them. We'll cover the majority of the rest of it. Really, we take a dynamic approach by customer based on their individual situations. We have no concerns across our customer base at this time.

David Vogt
David Vogt
Analyst at UBS

Great. That's helpful. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Thanos Moschopoulos with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thanos Moschopoulos
Thanos Moschopoulos
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Hi, good morning. On AMD Helios, there's obviously been a lot of programs announced. Could you give us some color in terms of, at this point, how many you're involved in, what may represent potential opportunities, and to what extent do you expect some of this revenue to start kicking in later this year? Thank you.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Sure, Thanos. Again, for the AMD Helios, we're the R&D design and manufacturing partner for the scale-up networking switch, and this switch forms the interconnect backbone for the entire rack. We are shipping samples towards the end of 2026, and the ramp begins in earnest in the first half of 2027. Again, this rack has interest and demand and orders from several customers, and the pipeline is growing. At this stage of the game in 2027, we view this as a multi-billion dollar pipeline and growing.

Thanos Moschopoulos
Thanos Moschopoulos
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Should we assume that you're involved in most of those programs, or is it up to each hyperscaler to determine the configuration of the rack?

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

No, we're involved in all of these programs.

Thanos Moschopoulos
Thanos Moschopoulos
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Great. I'll pass it along. Thank you.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Thanks.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Robert Young with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Robert Young
Robert Young
Analyst at Canaccord Genuity

Hi. I just wanted to dig deeper on the CCS margin outlook. It looks like the non-HPS elements of that business are tracking at margins approaching HPS. I was curious what the driver is. If you could also discuss the margin profile for 400G, which is remaining at higher levels of demand than you expected, what it looks like in 800G and 1.6 Terabit going forward. Is it a similar margin profile, or is there something to understand there?

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Hey, Rob. Nice to talk to you. Look, the CCS business is performing very well from a margin perspective. Record margins in the last quarter, we think that there continues to be an opportunity to see expansion there. You're hitting on a couple of different points, how I would maybe bring it up a level is, are we growing in HPS or are we not? The vast majority of our switching programs are HPS, meaning a lot of our design is incorporated in there, a lot of our know-how, and that does allow us to have that reflected in price. As we see an acceleration of networking growth next year, that will clearly be a benefit. We're still working through mixed impacts. Non-HPS business is not as margin-rich as HPS products, we're working through that piece right now.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

The other area that we have very clear line of sight to is the operating leverage. We will continue to be very disciplined on our OpEx spend, we do believe that we're going to see another year of very good operating leverage coming through on the back of really double-digit productivity across the majority of our sites. CCS is performing very well. Just lastly, I'll talk about ATS. ATS is really benefiting us as well. We're really happy to see that the business has returned to growth. We see that growth accelerating in the back end of this year. We see growth next year as well. From a margin perspective as well, ATS just has the highest margins in its history at 6.3%.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

We think that based on the mix of our portfolio, that there's an opportunity for expansion there as well as we go into next year. Really multiple contributors right now to the margin story.

Robert Young
Robert Young
Analyst at Canaccord Genuity

Okay, thanks.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Thanks, Rob.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of George Notter with Wolfe Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Analyst at Wolfe Research

Hey, guys. This is [Terron] for George. Can you talk a little bit more about what you're seeing in the scale-up landscape? Are there any other scale-up program opportunities beyond Helios? What you guys are seeing over the next couple of years? Great. Thanks.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Yeah. On scale-up, obviously there is Helios, but there's also the OpenAI rack that we're doing with respect to OpenAI timing. We're starting to deliver samples in 2026, then that program will ramp in 2027, well into 2028 as well. We view this revenue opportunity as, again, as a multi-billion dollar revenue opportunity from this. Regarding broader scale-up opportunities, broadly speaking, we have numerous engagements and discussions with folks to go into scale up. Scale up for us really started with 1.6T, as we continue to win awards for integrated rack systems, we expect this to be a huge opportunity for us.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Yeah. To add from a customer logo perspective, to Rob's point, we're going to be seeing a lot of scale-up demand with OpenAI as well as AMD, but we're also winning a number of networking programs from one of our largest customers that is also in scale up. We find this to be really encouraging. The TAM is expected to grow in scale up, between now and the next three years, quite substantially. That's tracking for us because we're seeing it come through in the wins that we have.

Analyst at Wolfe Research

Awesome. Thank you.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of John Shao with TD Cowen. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

John Shao
John Shao
Analyst at TD Cowen

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to ask about the turnkey versus consignment considerations, especially for new programs in 2027. Any changes on how you recognize the revenue, given some of your peers are choosing more consignment? And any implications when it comes to OpenAI program, given that it's more end-to-end? Thank you.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Yeah. Hey, John. The answer is, maybe I'll start with OpenAI. I think it's fair to assume right now that that will have the dynamics of a consigned program. Therefore, the material cost will not be flowing through our revenue. As you know, the vast majority of our networking has the silicon included, and the vast majority of our compute does not have the silicon included. Those dynamics are really holding as we go into next year. No big change in the accounting side that's impacting our revenue.

John Shao
John Shao
Analyst at TD Cowen

Thank you.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Thanks, John.

Operator

A reminder that if you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. Your next question comes from the line of Bastien Faucon-Morin with SIG. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Bastien Faucon-Morin
Analyst at SIG

Hi, Rob and Mandeep. Thank you for taking my question. I guess my question is on the fiscal year 2026 outlook. You've raised both revenues and margin outlook for the year. When I look at the incremental margins on that $1.5 billion revenue, I get about 12% of operating margin of incremental. I was wondering, how should we think about the drivers behind that margin improvement? Is that your cost of component supply that is improving, or are you able to capture more value out of customers? As a follow-up, if you were to have more supply unlocked, how should we think about the incremental margins on this upside? Thank you.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Yeah. Hi, Bastien. Nice to talk to you. I am going to try and answer that at a little bit of a higher level, which is we are seeing margin expansion quarter to quarter. It is being driven by two main things. The first one is that CCS margins are accretive to the company. CCS is growing at a record rate this year. CCS is going to be growing close to 85% year-over-year. We are going to see a similar level of growth next year. Naturally as CCS becomes a bigger part of the pie, margins do have that benefit. Within CCS, it is the two things that I had talked about. One is we are seeing an increasing level of HPS or ODM content that allows strong pricing because of the value add that we are bringing. We are seeing operating leverage.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Our factories right now are running at a high level of utilization. It is not by accident. It is intentional, because we know that you can drive very strong productivity in that type of environment. We are seeing the benefits of operating leverage. To your point on if revenue was to continue to accelerate, while we do not expect to add an SG&A dollar for every revenue dollar, I would say the operating leverage flow-through should be there. The rest of it would really be mix dependent.

Bastien Faucon-Morin
Analyst at SIG

Great.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

Thanks for your question.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Paul Treiber with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Paul Treiber
Paul Treiber
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Thanks so much, and good morning. You mentioned that you're gaining market share across the board. Can you elaborate further on market share momentum within both enterprise and communications? Specifically with programs becoming larger and larger, are you seeing the competitive intensity of those programs increasing in how you retain share going forward?

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Yeah. Sure, Paul. Broadly speaking, our customers are valuing continuity and surety of supply. One of the things that we do very well is that we're able to deliver high complex products to our customers reliably at scale. In many cases where products were dual-sourced, and that's very common in our industry as products get awarded initially, we're usually the ramp partner. As they get mature, sometimes they get offloaded a second source for us to ramp the next generation. In many cases, what we're seeing is our customers are asking us to pick up, take back some share that was potentially awarded to other providers because we can more reliably produce those products at scale, if you will.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

We're seeing that across the board, and why we're able to rise to the occasion is that material is already pipelined, so we don't have to get back in line. We're actually able to pick up that supply chain and just put it through our proven manufacturing processes. We're seeing that certainly in Enterprise and also in Communications.

Mandeep Chawla
Mandeep Chawla
CFO at Celestica

One thing I would add to that, Paul, is one of the things that we're hearing from our customers is the amount of value that is placed on the transition from designing a program to ramping a program. It is not easy. One of the differentiators we think that Celestica has is we have a very sizable design engineering organization, which we've been investing in for over a decade. That organization will be close to 2,000 engineers by the end of this year. Being able to design the product in collaboration with our customer and then being able to work very collaboratively with the manufacturing side of the business to ramp it successfully, we believe, to Rob's point, has led to some market share gains.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Some people do design, some people do manufacturing. We do both, and that's part of our secret sauce. Thanks for the question, Paul.

Paul Treiber
Paul Treiber
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Yeah, thanks for taking the question.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Rob Mionis, CEO, for closing remarks.

Rob Mionis
Rob Mionis
Chair of the Board and CEO at Celestica

Thank you. Our strong second quarter performance and momentum carrying us into the second half of the year gives us confidence to raise our full year 2026 outlook. Continued exceptionally strong customer demand and strategic investments in our infrastructure are enabling us to accelerate our 2027 revenue growth past the 2026 65% mark. Again, thank you for your support, and we are looking forward to update you next quarter.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Matthew Pallotta
      Matthew Pallotta
      Head of Investor Relations
    • Rob Mionis
      Rob Mionis
      Chair of the Board and CEO
    • Mandeep Chawla
      Mandeep Chawla
      CFO
Analysts
Powered by Quartr