What's Going On With Tower Semiconductor Stock Monday?

Benzinga · 4d ago

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM) stock rose Monday after the company announced a strategic collaboration with LightIC Technologies to manufacture silicon photonics–based Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) LiDAR sensors, targeting automotive, robotics, and emerging "Physical AI" applications.

The stock initially rose following the announcement, but later gave up its gains and turned lower.

Under the agreement, Tower will leverage its mature silicon photonics platform to support LightIC's Lark long-range automotive LiDAR and FR60 compact LiDAR products.

Also Read: Wedbush Downgrades Tower Semiconductor Stock To Neutral, Shares Slide

The partnership extends silicon photonics manufacturing, widely adopted in AI data-center networking, into sensing applications that require tightly integrated optical functionality, including coherent ranging and instantaneous velocity detection.

Automotive LiDAR Market Growth Accelerates

According to research from Yole Group, the global automotive LiDAR market is projected to grow from $859 million in 2024 to $3.6 billion by 2030, representing a 24% compound annual growth rate. Yole estimates the broader LiDAR market will reach $6.3 billion by 2027 as adoption expands into industrial automation, smart infrastructure, and robotics.

Tower said the scaling of AI networking has accelerated silicon photonics process maturity and manufacturability, creating a foundation for deploying the technology in automotive and sensing-driven Physical AI systems.

Path To Commercial 4D FMCW LiDAR

"We are excited to expand our silicon photonics market beyond that of AI infrastructure into new sensing applications," said Dr. Ed Preisler, vice president and general manager of Tower Semiconductor's RF Business Unit, citing opportunities in robotics, Physical AI, and automotive markets.

LightIC CEO and co-founder Jie Sun said Tower's platform enables complex coherent LiDAR optical functions to be integrated directly into silicon on a scalable manufacturing process, supporting product qualification and long-term production.

The companies said the collaboration is aimed at improving size, weight, power, and cost, helping transition velocity-aware 4D FMCW LiDAR from advanced development to real-world automotive deployment.

TSEM Price Action: Tower Semiconductor shares were down 1.44% at $119.99 at the time of publication on Monday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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