Canadian Halal Investor.

NASDAQ Shariah screener · October 2026

Is Astera Labs, Inc. (ALAB) Halal?

FAIL

Astera Labs, Inc. · NASDAQ: ALAB · Technology

The short answer

Astera Labs fails this Shariah screener: its semiconductor connectivity business is permissible and it carries zero debt, but interest income of $44.73 million is 5.25% of FY2025 revenue, just over the 5% non-compliant income ceiling.

Gate 1 — Business activity: PASS

Gate 1 — business activity: PASS. Astera Labs, Inc., headquartered in San Jose, California, is a fabless semiconductor company that designs connectivity hardware and software for AI and cloud infrastructure. Per its FY2025 Form 10-K (Item 1, Business), its four product families are Aries PCIe/CXL Smart DSP Retimers and Smart Cable Modules, Taurus Ethernet Smart Cable Modules, Leo CXL Memory Connectivity Controllers, and Scorpio Smart Fabric Switches, built on its software-defined IC architecture with the embedded COSMOS software suite. TSMC fabricates all of its ICs.

Customers are hyperscalers, leading AI accelerator vendors and system OEMs — the top three end customers represented about 86% of 2025 revenue. The company is not an interest-based lender and is not involved in tobacco, gambling, pork or alcohol. The business passes gate 1.

Gate 2 — Debt and cash: PASS

Gate 2 — interest-bearing debt: PASS (0%, ceiling 33%). Astera Labs carries no interest-bearing debt. Per its FY2025 Form 10-K balance sheet (December 31, 2025), total liabilities were $168,189 thousand, composed of accounts payable and accrued liabilities ($133,042 thousand) and other non-current liabilities ($35,147 thousand) — there are no borrowings, no credit-facility drawdowns and no bonds outstanding.

$0 of interest-bearing debt against a market capitalization of about $60.95 billion (Finnhub, October 2, 2026) is 0%, well under the 33% ceiling. Cash and cash equivalents of $167,611 thousand plus marketable securities of $1,021,205 thousand total about $1.19 billion, roughly 1.9% of market cap.

Gate 3 — Non-compliant income: FAIL

Gate 3 — non-compliant income: FAIL (5.25%, ceiling 5%). Astera Labs' FY2025 Form 10-K separately discloses interest income on its Consolidated Statements of Operations: interest income of $44,730 thousand in fiscal 2025, against total revenue of $852,525 thousand. That is about 5.25% — just over the 5% non-compliant income ceiling.

The 10-K notes that interest income consists primarily of interest earned on short-term investments held in cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities. Note: the Q2 2026 earnings release reports only a combined 'Interest and other income' line ($13,577 thousand for the quarter), so the verified FY2025 figure is used for this gate. The overall result is FAIL because this gate fails.

Key figures used

Frequently asked questions

What does Astera Labs do?

Astera Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALAB) is a global fabless semiconductor company headquartered in San Jose, California, that designs hardware and software connectivity solutions for AI and cloud infrastructure. Its four product families are Aries PCIe and CXL smart retimers and smart cable modules, Taurus Ethernet smart cable modules, Leo CXL memory connectivity controllers, and Scorpio smart fabric switches, plus the COSMOS software suite. It sells to hyperscalers, AI accelerator vendors and system OEMs.

Is Astera Labs' business Shariah compliant?

Astera Labs sells semiconductor connectivity hardware and software - retimers, cable modules, memory controllers and fabric switches for data centers - not interest-based lending, and it is not involved in tobacco, gambling, pork or alcohol. Its FY2025 Form 10-K describes a fabless model (TSMC fabricates its chips) and customers that are hyperscalers, AI accelerator vendors and system OEMs. Nothing in the disclosed business is a non-compliant industry, so the business passes this screener's first gate.

How much interest-bearing debt does Astera Labs have?

Astera Labs carries no interest-bearing debt. Its FY2025 Form 10-K balance sheet shows total liabilities of $168,189 thousand made up of accounts payable, accrued liabilities and other non-current liabilities - there are no borrowings, no credit facility drawdowns and no bonds outstanding. $0 of interest-bearing debt against a market capitalization of about $60.95 billion (Finnhub, October 2, 2026) is 0%, well under the 33% ceiling.

How much interest income does Astera Labs earn?

Astera Labs' FY2025 Form 10-K separately discloses interest income on its Consolidated Statements of Operations: interest income of $44,730 thousand in fiscal 2025 against total revenue of $852,525 thousand. That is about 5.25% - just over the 5% non-compliant income ceiling, so this gate fails. The company notes the interest income is earned on short-term investments held in cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities. (Its Q2 2026 earnings release reports only a combined 'Interest and other income' line, so the verified FY2025 figure is used.)

What do third-party Shariah screeners say about Astera Labs?

Zoya publishes an Astera Labs (ALAB) page and confirms the filing figures - $44,730 thousand of interest income on $852,525 thousand of FY2025 revenue, i.e. 5.25% - though its page text is internally contradictory about the resulting compliance status, so treat its published reasoning with caution. Musaffa publishes an ALAB page and currently classifies the stock as halal under its AAOIFI methodology (October 2026), which disagrees with this screener's gate-3 result. I could not verify a ShariaPortfolio rating for ALAB from public sources. Third-party screeners apply different assumptions and update on different schedules - always check the latest screening before investing.

Sources

Screened 2026-10-02 from published company figures and market data. Figures change; this page is educational, not financial advice and not a religious ruling.

Screened with our two-gate Shariah screening methodology (business-activity gate, then AAOIFI-style financial ratios).