Jabil Inc. (NYSE: JBL) has delivered a resounding start to its fiscal year 2026, shattering Wall Street expectations and raising its full-year guidance on the back of insatiable demand for data center infrastructure. The electronics manufacturing giant reported its first-quarter results on Wednesday, revealing that the global race to build out artificial intelligence capabilities is fueling robust growth across its intelligent infrastructure operations.
Shares of the contract manufacturer climbed approximately 6% in premarket trading immediately following the release, signaling strong investor confidence in the company’s pivot toward high-growth cloud and networking sectors. The company reported first-quarter net revenue of $8.31 billion, a significant 18.9% increase year-over-year, comfortably beating analyst estimates which had hovered around $8.07 billion. This performance underscores Jabil's critical role as an "invisible architect" behind the hardware powering the world's largest tech companies.
The star of the report was undoubtedly the company’s bottom line. Jabil posted a core diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.85, surpassing the consensus estimate of $2.70 and marking a substantial 42.5% jump compared to the same period last year. CEO Mike Dastoor highlighted the momentum in a statement, noting that fiscal 2026 is "off to an excellent start" with performance exceeding expectations across revenue, margins, and earnings. The primary catalyst for this financial strength is the booming demand within Jabil's Intelligent Infrastructure segment. As hyperscalers and enterprise clients rush to deploy AI-ready data centers, the need for complex networking equipment, power management solutions, and liquid cooling technologies has skyrocketed. Dastoor pointed to accelerating orders across cloud, data center infrastructure, and capital equipment as key growth engines that are effectively offsetting softer trends in other parts of the electronics market.
Buoyed by these results and improved visibility into future order flows, Jabil raised its outlook for the full fiscal year 2026. The company now expects net revenue to reach approximately $32.4 billion, up from prior forecasts and well above the average analyst projection of $31.6 billion. Furthermore, Jabil lifted its core EPS guidance to $11.55, suggesting that the efficiency gains and mix of high-margin infrastructure projects are translating directly to shareholder value.Looking ahead to the second quarter, the company projected revenue between $7.5 billion and $8.0 billion, with core diluted EPS expected in the range of $2.27 to $2.67. Beyond the headline-grabbing data center numbers, the report also indicated resilience in Jabil’s other diversified sectors, including Regulated Industries and Connected Living, which performed better than anticipated. As the AI infrastructure build-out shows no signs of slowing, Jabil appears well-positioned to capitalize on this secular trend, securing its place as a bellwether for the hardware side of the artificial intelligence revolution.
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