DigiTimes复述3M财报电话：EBO扩产合作方实为玉晶光而非大立光，核心利好已在10月19-20日定价

3M Chairman and CEO Bill Brown outlined the latest progress in the company's expanded beam optics (EBO) technology during its third-quarter earnings call, highlighting a contract manufacturing agreement with Taiwan's Largan Precision and the technology's potential US$2 billion market opportunity.

On the supply side, 3M recently signed a contract manufacturing agreement with Largan Precision and plans to acquire a 4.7% stake in the company through a private placement to strengthen the strategic partnership.
Brown described Largan as a trusted and proven supplier of components for high-end consumer devices. Beyond 3M's own capacity expansion plans, Largan will help accelerate technology development and expand EBO mass-production capacity.
Brown said 3M has doubled its internal EBO capacity and can now produce more than 10 million ferrules annually, with further increases planned. Given Largan's current scale in consumer-device applications, its monthly capacity could be several times that figure.
3M plans to gradually expand Largan's capacity from the fourth quarter through early 2027.
When asked whether the combined capacity of 3M and Largan would be sufficient if all cloud providers currently conducting proof-of-concept projects moved to full adoption, Brown said it should be sufficient. However, he added that 3M's internal capacity alone could never meet market demand, and the company could bring in additional manufacturing partners to meet customers' requirements for supply diversification.
3M expects EBO revenue to reach approximately US$40 million in 2026 and double to between US$80 million and US$100 million in 2027. The potential market size is approximately US$2 billion around 2028.
According to an 8-K filing 3M submitted the night before its earnings call, the company issued warrants to Amazon exercisable for up to 3.2 million shares, equivalent to approximately 0.6% of 3M's common stock.
The conditions for granting the warrants include cumulative sales of optical connectivity and other data-center-related products reaching US$6 billion over the next seven years, along with other event-based milestones.
Brown said the warrants will be granted in stages rather than amortized evenly on a proportional basis. 3M expects the related business to begin ramping in the second half of 2027 and become more significant in 2028.
He stressed that the agreement includes no volume commitment. Brown added that US$6 billion represents Amazon's expectations for the next seven years as well as an important target for 3M.
From a data-center business perspective, Brown said 3M expects data-center-related revenue to reach approximately US$700 million in 2026, up from about US$550 million in 2025.
3M Chief Financial Officer Anurag Maheshwari said the semiconductor and data-center businesses maintained strong double-digit growth in the third quarter. The company's electrical markets business is also on track for full-year double-digit growth, driven by products such as medium-voltage connectors, and Brown expects this momentum to continue in 2027.
On the customer side, 3M announced last quarter that it had formed a strategic partnership with Microsoft to deploy EBO in Microsoft Azure data centers. The company is also conducting proof-of-concept projects with five other global hyperscalers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS).