$POET Tech(POET.US) | Wedbush on POET Technologies Inc: 'We'd note that the news will likely be viewed as positive'.
"Lumilens, POET: Emerges from stealth with $700M in additional funding and a hyperscale customer View: The optical startup yesterday announced that it has raised an incremental $700M, bringing total funding to $900M to date and valuing Lumilens at $5.51B. In addition, the company indicated that it has secured a multi-billion supply contract with one of the four large US hyperscale accounts. We'd note that the news will likely be viewed as positive for POET Technologies which earlier this year had announced a $50M Lumilens purchase order for EOI based engines."What's on your mind?
- S
Earlier today, optical interconnect company Lumilens "emerges from stealth" at a $5.5B valuation, after raising $700m.
Just as a recap from $POET Tech(POET.US) / $SIVE Linkedin OSINT mapping I shared earlier, Lumilens was supplying a top 3 hyperscaler customer. So we got confirmation of that a month later, along with the material figure that Lumilens has a "multi-billion-dollar customer agreement". And just for reference, $POET Tech(POET.US) has existing contracts with Lumilens ($50m purchase order, up to $500m) + contracts with $SIVE (depending on product lines). I actually took tiny positions in POET again after reading this news, since it finally gives them visibility into extremely well funded hyperscaler suppliers (on top of Poet's really large balance sheet). But TLDR: > Lumilens around similar (or even higher) valuations as Lightmatter/Ayar, bigger than markets thought with hyperscaler customers. > nice read through upstream on $POET Tech(POET.US) (derisking) / $SIVE.> Great for optical valuations in general, seeing a company go to $5.5B in 2 years. - P
For $SIVE, Q2 earnings from $GlobalFoundries(GFS.US) yesterday is strong third-party confirmation of Sivers' 2027-2028 photonics ramp.
Reminder: In June, Sivers signed a collaboration with Global Foundries that puts their lasers into GF's SiPh reference designs and CPO platform.Read-throughs from $GlobalFoundries(GFS.US) earnings transcript:1. $GlobalFoundries(GFS.US) silicon photonics revenue to "more than double in 2026". NPO ramp in 2027 / CPO ramp in 2028.- Important external validation of $SIVE's entire photonics thesis.2. $GlobalFoundries(GFS.US) 2027 NPO / 2028 CPO cadence lines up with Sivers' own guidance.- "Production ready status in 2027".- Multiple ramps in 2027.- Sivers estimated CPO SAM of $1.0-1.4B by 2028.- So GF is effectively narrating the demand curve into which Sivers has positioned their Glasgow ops + Win Semi capacity.3. $GlobalFoundries(GFS.US) CID grew 20% sequentially and 62% YoY which is the fastest quarterly growth since 2022. Growth guidance raised to 50-60% YoY.- Direct demand validation for the platform Sivers plugged into, from their collaboration in June. Growing demand.- GF's acceleration is the leading indicator Sivers earnings in 2027+ with funnel filling upstream before Sivers seeing the units.4. $GlobalFoundries(GFS.US) CEO: "We now expect our silicon photonics revenue to more than double in 2026 compared with the year prior"- Clean revenue funnel logic if GF SiPho more than doubles and Sivers is the partnered external laser route into GF reference designs.- Sivers has guided its own laser qualification to "production ready status in 2027" so Sivers captures this as design-in/NRE in 2026 and unit revenue in 2027+, not coincident with GF's 2026 doubling.5. $GlobalFoundries(GFS.US) secured 7 new optical networking design wins with customers from transceiver suppliers and hyperscaler players. - All are a potential downstream pull for external laser content. - Sivers has been building this coverage independently: $Jabil(JBL.US) 1.6T LRO, $POET Tech(POET.US) ELS, O-Net/Enablence ELS, and legacy Ayar Labs. - Looks like Sivers' Q1'26 disclosure of an opportunity pipeline up 77% YTD to $799M is the mirror image datapoint to GF's design win momentum.6. $GlobalFoundries(GFS.US) have "more than 40 customers today in SiPho" with customers telling GF "I don't have enough secured." - This just corroborates Sivers' narrative of an InP laser chokepoint and supports their pre-emptive capacity build via WIN Semi. - If GF customers are scrambling, the matching external laser capacity is just as scarce = pricing power for Sivers.7. $GlobalFoundries(GFS.US) could "10x photonics capacity" - GF ramping PIC output 10x at existing fabs implies a proportional pull on external light sources. - For Sivers, they need to scale InP output in lockstep or lose allocation to $Lumentum(LITE.US) / $Coherent Corp.(COHR.US).- Sivers' answer is the WIN outsourcing + Glasgow expansion (historically framed as targeting >1,000 wafers/week). - Interested to see if Sivers report capex/capacity commitments scaled to GF's 10x narrative.Just as a list of the main read-throughs you can draw from Global Foundries' comments to Sivers. - H
โก ๐๐๐๐๐๐: Trump Administration Drafting Ban on New Chinese Data Center Component Imports - $POET Tech(POET.US) $Coherent Corp.(COHR.US) $Lumentum(LITE.US)
๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐น๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐๐:โค Trump administration is drafting a ban on new ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ฟ component imports.โค Proposal targets new Chinese ๐ผ๐ฝ๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ models used in AI data centers.โค ๐๐๐ is preparing the measure and aims to publish it this year.โค Officials cite risks including ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ณ๐, malware, and service disruption.โค Proposal could impact ๐ญ๐ต๐ผ๐ป๐ด๐ท๐ถ ๐๐ป๐ป๐ผ๐น๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐, which holds a ๐ฎ๐ณ% global market share.โค ๐๐ผ๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ and ๐๐๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐๐บ could benefit as alternative suppliers.โค Ban may increase infrastructure costs for U.S. cloud providers, including ๐๐ช๐ฆ.โค FCC has recently expanded restrictions on Chinese drones, routers, robots, and inverters.โค Proposal remains under review and could still be modified or shelved.๐ ๐ช๐ต๐ ๐ง๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐:โค Could reshape the AI data center supply chain in the United States.โค May accelerate supplier diversification away from Chinese networking hardware.โค Could benefit U.S. optical networking companies if restrictions are implemented.โค Highlights continued U.S.-China technology and national security tensions affecting AI infrastructure.๐ ๐๐ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐:๐๐ถ๐๐๐ฎ๐ป๐๐ต ๐๐ฎ๐๐๐ต๐ถ๐ธ, AI Policy Expert at Beacon Global Strategies:"Transceivers definitely pose a risk. As the data center buildout scales up, you want to make sure the data center supply chain is secure from the get-go."๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ฒ ๐๐บ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ช๐ฎ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด๐๐ผ๐ป:"China will take all necessary measures in response to any action that causes material harm to its interests." - E
Morgan Stanley on CPO:
What are the Transmission Approaches As Industry Eventually Hits "Copper Wall"?"Co-packaged optics (CPO) is emerging as a critical architectural shift for AI datacenter networking, driven by the rising power, bandwidth, and density constraints of traditional pluggable optical modules""Reduced interconnect power is the most tangible near-term benefit, with CPO potentially lowering optical interconnect power consumption by roughly 50-80%""Key participants include Broadcom and NVIDIA in switch platforms, Lightmatter, Ayar Labs, Marvell/Celestial AI, and POET in optical engines and photonics, TSMC, GlobalFoundries, and Tower in silicon photonics foundry capacity, and Lumentum, Coherent, and Sivers in laser supply." - S
$SIVE is raising ~$61M (600M SEK) to expand manufacturing capacity for InP lasers and optical amplifiers.
Sivers operates as a fab-lite model so this is likely hinting at foundry allocation/scaling for CW DFB laser ramp across Jabil, and their other partners. It could also point to broader foundry allocation/scaling beyond the already announced WIN partnership. My feedback is that it's very bullish if it's comprised of long-only institutions and there's no heavy discount (30 day VWAP). Otherwise, would need to reaccess if there's arb or short term investors. This is the perfect time to get ideal strategic investors like $GlobalFoundries(GFS.US) on the cap table. As well as focusing on having more US institutional support. Especially considering $56M is a small check to a single US institution that want photonics exposure (eg. look at Poet's $400M registered direct offering for sentiment). A lot of it is "it depends when more info comes out", but this looks like a very positive signal for mass production given Siver's fab-lite models. - H
๐ข ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐: $POET Tech(POET.US) POET Reaffirms Production Ramp, Targets 1 Million Monthly Units by 2027
๐ ๐๐๐ฒ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐ฌ:โค POET expects ๐ฏ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ ๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ฉ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ of optical engines to begin in ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.โค Production capacity is targeted to reach ๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง units per month by ๐๐ง๐-๐๐๐๐.โค POET raised ๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง in equity, with up to ๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง more through warrants.โค Company plans an initial ๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง capital equipment investment in ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.โค POET Blazarโข remains on schedule for ๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐ ๐-๐ฌ๐๐๐ฅ๐ deployment in ๐๐๐๐.โค More than ๐๐ active customer engagements could generate ๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ซ ๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง in annual revenue.โค Recent wins include the ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ฌ agreement, an ๐๐๐๐ optical engine order, and a new ELS NRE contract.โค POET plans to expand its workforce by ๐๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐ employees from the current ๐๐๐.๐ ๐๐ก๐ฒ ๐๐ญ ๐๐๐ญ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ฌ:โค Production ramp positions POET for growing ๐๐ and hyperscale data center demand.โค Capacity expansion supports potential ๐ซ๐๐ฏ๐๐ง๐ฎ๐ growth from existing customer pipeline.โค Strong capital position enhances manufacturing scale and ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ก๐๐ข๐ง resilience. - S
Just some notes on $POET Tech(POET.US) AGM and read through on optical markets:
- "The top three laser suppliers control 68% of the market, and theyโre completely sold out for the next two years"$Lumentum(LITE.US) CEO said into 2028, so POET implicitly confirms laser shortage is going into 2029 now.- NRE with a new customer, building on POETโs interposer for high-power external light source.This is high confidence $SIVE as laser supplier given the Sept 29, 2025 PR on ELS, and new customer qualification would be material for revenue if it goes into volume ramp. - Poet expects Lumilens commercial agreement to scale to over $500 million over the next 5 years.Lumilens claimed a top-3 hyperscaler was their initial customer (Linkedin OSINT)- $830M cash on hand on balance sheet (this is more for Poet fundamentals).- "The entire optical components industry today is facing a severe shortage of critical components."Reaffirming what we know already regarding optical bottlenecks.- "Production ramp in the second half of 2026 this year." Just production timelines H2. In terms of $POET Tech(POET.US) volumes:- existing capacity around 1 million optical engines per year- projected demand exiting 2027 around 1 million optical engines per month- roughly 10x capacity expansionI don't own Poet, but if management delivers on these projections it directionally looks very positive.However something to note is that unlike other suppliers that have named hyperscaler customers to to back up capacity revenues like $Applied Optoelectronics(AAOI.US): $POET Tech(POET.US) seems more questionable.But this does look like a very positive outlook for $POET Tech(POET.US) if they match projections. - S
Fun new information discovery from Poet OSINT community:
Seems likely that $POET Tech(POET.US) / $SIVE are going to power a Top-3 hyperscaler (either Amazon, Microsoft, Google). Given a Linkedin update from Ankur Singla (CEO of Lumilens). Who stated their customer is one of the top 3 hyperscalers with their post focusing on CPO/NPO. With that clue, seems more likely the Sivers CW DFB light source path over other EML suppliers given it's CPO Scale Out/NPO. If you don't remember, Sivers is the laser supplier to Poet. And Poet has purchase agreements with Lumilens.Always fun to find major potential breadcrumbs in the wild before they're officially confirmed. (Disclosure, long Sive) - H
โก ๐๐๐๐๐๐: Optical cable maker WCFO to add Cambodia capacity amid AI boom - $Lumentum(LITE.US) $Corning(GLW.US) $Coherent Corp.(COHR.US) $Nokia Oyj(NOK.US) $Applied Optoelectronics(AAOI.US) $POET Tech(POET.US) $Amphenol(APH.US)
Hong Kong manufacturer WCFO will roughly double production capacity for fiber-optic cable components in Cambodia to meet rising demand for data centers as the boom in investment related to artificial intelligence spreads to Southeast Asia.
