POET Technologies — the Next NVIDIA
POET Technologies is a semiconductor company with a proprietary, disruptive product that offers a foundational, core component that is at the heart of AI ; as NVIDIA is to GPU’s, POET will be to AI infrastructure; basically, the company has “semiconductorized” the electrical field of photonics by producing optical devices much like standard CMOS chips; the company’s goal is to become the low-cost, wafer-scale standard for AI optical engines/transceivers, and this feat will make them a valuable gold nugget to own — which in the low $4 range is possible now.
The company’s disruptive technology is called the POET Optical Interposer™; it’s a novel wafer-level semiconductor process that enables seamless, chip-scale integration of electronic and photonic devices into a single multi-chip module; this eliminates traditional wire bonds, reduces RF crosstalk and enables higher speeds up to 3.2 Tbps (trillion bits per second) with up to ~70% lower power costs, ~50% reduced laser needs, and human labor reduction of up to ~90%; in simple terms, the company has come up with a better mousetrap.
POET’s tech doesn’t fully eliminate humans, but it drastically reduces human labor by automating –90% of the traditionally manual steps, making production more like consumer electronics fabs than boutique photonics assembly. Conventional photonic integration relies on “artisanal” active alignment — manually or robotically positioning ~50 components with nanometer precision (20–50 nm), which is error-prone, slow, and labor-heavy.
Interestingly enough, what’s in a name? — everything! Some consider POET to be named after Photonics Optical Engine Technology which sounds right, but it is not! Instead, it is a passionate name chosen to evoke the idea of “poetry in motion” or innovative, elegant engineering in photonics — reflecting the company’s focus on simplifying complex optical integrations.
For a company to reach NVIDIA heights, marketing is everything. At the OFC 2025 in San Francisco in April, POET showcased their groundbreaking tech and won the top industry award right at the event’s start; this boosted their visibility and generated significant buzz in the optical communications and AI hardware arenas. At the OFC, POET impressed with live demos and solidified partnerships, positioning them as a frontrunner in next-gen optical tech for AI and data centers. In addition, POET won the “ Most Innovative Chip-scale Packaging/Optical Sub Assembly Product” award at the ECOC Awards in September, so they clearly have some serious momentum behind them.
POET is a mature company; they’ve been developing their core technology for ~40 years; their leader, CEO Dr. Suresh Venkatesan, is an industry veteran with over 22 years of experience in semiconductor development and holds over 25 US patents and has co-authored over 50 technical papers. When Dr. Venkatesan was the Senior VP at GlobalFoundries, he led the development and scale of 28nm semiconductor technology and was instrumental in the tech transfer and qualifications down to 14nm. The company’s CFO, Thomas Mika, is also an industry veteran with over 30 years managing major company finances. Company management is critical for success, and POET has it.
POET has raised over $350M in cash which should be enough runway to get them through 2027, and by that time either they’ll have started generating serious commercial revenue and be profitable, or they’ll get acquired. In order to raise that capital, they’ve had three capital raises. Of the three, the last one did not have any warrants attached, and very interestingly, the monies raised came in at $7.25 per share.
They have serious partnerships with Sivers Semiconductors, NTT Innovative Devices, Quantum Computing Inc, Foxconn Interconnect Technology (FIT), Luxshare Tech, Celestial AI, Adtran, Semtech Corporation, Globetronics and NationGate. POET shipped samples of 400G/800G optical engines to three unnamed major technology leaders in March, 2025, likely including some of the partners aforementioned. In Q3 2025, two unnamed key customers placed initial production orders totaling over $5.6M, proving active commercial activity. Other potential partners like Mitsubishi Electric, MultiLane, and Lessengers are in discussions or expected to place orders in late 2025. These partnerships focus on AI-driven applications, with POET’s tech enabling lower power, smaller form factors, and cost-effective scaling.
They have serious partnerships with Sivers Semiconductors, NTT Innovative Devices, Quantum Computing Inc, Foxconn Interconnect Technology (FIT), Luxshare Tech, Celestial AI, Adtran, Semtech Corporation, Globetronics and NationGate. POET shipped samples of 400G/800G optical engines to three unnamed major technology leaders in March, 2025, likely including some of the partners aforementioned. In Q3 2025, two unnamed key customers placed initial production orders totaling over $5.6M, proving active commercial activity. Other potential partners like Mitsubishi Electric, MultiLane, and Lessengers are in discussions or expected to place orders in late 2025. These partnerships focus on AI-driven applications, with POET’s tech enabling lower power, smaller form factors, and cost-effective scaling.
Current photonic tech is expensive due to fragmented assembly — active alignment equipment, wire bonds, multiple yield-killing touch points, and high material waste. POET’s Interposer cuts costs by streamlining wafer-level integration which leverages existing CMOS infrastructure for economies of scale without massive new CAPEX. Compared to competitors like Ayar Labs, a TSMC-backed CPO, or traditional pluggables, POET’s tech targets lower cost-per-bit while being smaller and lower-powered. Quantified savings vary by POET products but are significant.
POET Technologies is already manufacturing at scale with sites in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Xiamen, China, which was acquired in December, 2024; they also have R&D operations in Shenzhen, Singapore and Toronto. POET has also outsourced production in Penang, Malaysia, to Globetronics and NationGate.
It’s news of potential orders hitting in Q4 from big customers like FoxConn, Quantum et al that will move the needle; this bet could be a serious windfall for retail investors. Hope you can get some POET before it pops. As always, please do your own due diligence, and spend only that which you are willing to lose. Good luck. |
