Poet Technologies' stock craters nearly 50% in record drop, as Marvell relationship sours

By Christine Ji Investors are dumping the Poet shares after the company disclosed that chip maker Marvell is walking away from a key AI partnership Poet Technologies shares hit a multiyear high of $15.50 last week before Monday's disclosure triggered a record-breaking selloff. After a meteoric rise last week, shares of Poet Technologies plummeted almost as quickly on Monday after the company disclosed cancellations of several purchase orders. Shares of Poet (POET) fell more than 48% on the news that Marvell Technology (MRVL) had canceled all purchase orders between Poet and Celestial AI. Marvell, which recently acquired Celestial AI, delivered the written notice of cancellation on April 23, citing alleged breaches of confidentiality by Poet. A Poet spokesperson directed MarketWatch to the press release announcing the cancellation, which stated that the company "remains focused on executing its strategic priorities and advancing product development within the AI and optical-networking markets to meet increasing demand." The press release also confirmed that Poet remains committed to fulfilling product deliveries for other customers, including another recently disclosed purchase order with a customer valued at approximately $5 million. Read: Poet Technologies' stock is rocketing. What's behind the company's controversial AI-powered rise. Poet produces optical interposers that are used to connect optical lasers to microscopic fiber-optic cables. With data centers increasingly using optical solutions, investors - especially retail traders - had bought into the stock as an artificial-intelligence play. Last week, the stock traded as high as $15.50 after Poet CFO Tom Mika confirmed an order from Marvell on Tuesday. Mika had also shared that the company was waiting on updates on orders from existing customers Foxconn (TW:2317) and Luxshare (CN:002475). Today's decline is the largest on record for Poet shares based on available data going back to 2011, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The announcement of the cancelled order was met with outrage from the stock's retail fan base, with many taking to Reddit to air out grievances with Poet management. Some investors were upset that the company knew about the cancellation on Thursday but didn't disclose it until Monday. The stock rallied 29% on Friday. "I'm out completely," one user wrote in a post on the subreddit r/POETTechnologies. "Governance issues. Keeping the cancellation to themselves for several days, CFO being an idiot and breaching NDA." The Marvell order cancellation is the latest controversy for the company. Earlier this month, Wolfpack Research released a short-seller report on the company accusing Poet of paying influencers to promote the stock, repeatedly pivoting its business model and triggering tax penalties for U.S. investors by qualifying as a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC - a foreign company for which a large share of the income is passive. In response, POET shared that it did not believe it was a PFIC, but would be moving its headquarters to the U.S. from Canada to avoid any potential complications. -Christine Ji This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. (END) Dow Jones Newswires 04-27-26 1436ET