Astera Labs Inc. reported second-quarter earnings well above expectations, posting adjusted profit of $0.44 a share versus analysts’ $0.11 estimate. Revenue jumped 150% from a year earlier to $191.9 million, outpacing the $172.5 million consensus, as demand for its data-center connectivity chips accelerated. The company generated net income of $51.2 million and recorded a gross margin of 75.8%. For the third quarter, the Santa Clara-based firm projected earnings of $0.38 to $0.39 a share and revenue of $203 million to $210 million, both topping Wall Street forecasts. Management said growth is being propelled by a volume ramp of PCIe 6 devices and initial shipments of its Scorpio Switch products. Astera also highlighted deeper partnerships with Nvidia, AMD’s UALink consortium and chip designer Alchip to address surging investment in artificial-intelligence infrastructure. The upbeat results and guidance sent Astera shares up roughly 9% in late trading. The release adds to a series of strong reports from hardware vendors tied to AI spending; network-equipment maker Arista Networks also climbed about 9% after its own earnings beat earlier in the evening.