Herman Jin
Formerly in Asia FICC at Goldman Sachs, Macro & Semiconductor Investing
Sivers Semiconductors' results are likely to disappoint because it lacks production capacity. Optical results are a simple function of capacity: Lumentum and Coherent should post strong numbers as capacity comes online, but Sivers has no meaningful increment to add. It reports results only once a year, and each report card has sunk the stock. x.com x.com x.comÂ
Sivers Semiconductors' break-even hurdle puts market expectations far beyond what it can realistically deliver in the next 12 months. Revenue would need to multiply several times just to break even, before further R&D or foundry expansion spending. Its recent cash raise means near-term dilution is not expected, but much of the cash will go toward the foundry as quarterly losses continue. Hype could still lift the stock without improving the fundamentals, leaving huge short-term risk. x.com x.comÂ
China's already-shipping CW lasers make Sivers' Chinese pluggable pipeline depend on price and qualification speed. Yuanjie says its 70/100mW chips, the classes Sivers lists, are in continuous large-volume delivery. It guides Q3 revenue up 265-293% and expects new capacity from end-2026 to early 2027, before Sivers' Q4 2027 Glasgow expansion. Yuanjie's 120/300/400mW parts remain in customer validation; Western hyperscaler qualification is probably where Sivers still has time. x.com x.com x.com … Show more
Sivers is less exposed to tighter AI financing because its 700M SEK raise funds a buildout largely reliant on external foundries. It is qualifying with Ayar, Jabil, GlobalFoundries and O-Net for potential tier-one hyperscaler pluggable, CPO and NPO deployments. Higher rates may strain neoclouds needing billions for GPUs, but optical content and aggregate demand should still rise even if hyperscaler AI capex falls, especially as new players start qualification. x.comÂ
Sivers Semiconductors is still a startup, not a volume supplier, until it announces purchase orders with clear amounts and gives year-by-year revenue guidance. Its growing opportunity pipeline rests on management's discretion, not contracts, so it is noise. Management dodged forward guidance, reported no qualifications or production orders while CPO should grow triple digits, and conceded it trails Lumentum everywhere. Its margin target would be remarkable versus Coherent's ~40%. x.comÂ
Sivers Semiconductors' management is letting a generational InP bottleneck pass it by. Burning cash on incremental fab tweaks keeps it just a laser vendor, and the call gave generic evasions on the two metrics that move the stock: its six pluggable engagements and foundry allocations. The CFO's hedging on a US dual listing shows timid complacency that will keep Sivers priced like a sleepy European component supplier rather than a high-multiple tech engine like SK hynix or ASML. x.comÂ
Optics and photonics should be among AI's biggest winners as faster GPU networks need optical connections that suppliers cannot expand quickly enough. Lumentum says some components are sold out through early 2029; Sivers is investing $30M to target more than 100M lasers a year, with operations expected in Q4 2027. Potential US restrictions on Chinese transceivers could reshape supply in 2027. Applied Optoelectronics and Sivers are the favorites. x.com x.comÂ
Sivers Semiconductors' $30M expansion of its Glasgow InP fab, targeting over 100M CW DFB lasers a year by Q4 2027, likely means hard dilution. As @PhotonCap notes, the plan shifts Sivers toward hybrid manufacturing, and its capacity target and customer ramps remain forward-looking rather than committed volumes. x.comÂ
Sivers Semiconductors was turned into something bigger than it was, is, or probably ever will be by market hype, not by management. Management never really tried to pump the stock and kept mmWave and lidar, the most operationally relevant businesses, at the center of its reporting; the opportunity-pipeline story emerged only once share-price pressure became extreme. The Glasgow expansion replaces outdated capacity but costs money upfront and will take a while to generate meaningful revenue. … Show more
Sivers Semiconductors is crossing from an engineering and NRE model to a product-led component model, a shift that earns very different multiples. FY2025 revenue rose 25% to SEK304.1m, product revenue reached SEK85.7m (about 28% of sales), and it entered 2026 with a $453m non-binding pipeline. Wireless is the nearer-term, more de-risked engine; photonics for AI interconnects carries larger long-duration upside. The risk is that losses and negative cash flow dilute equity before products scale. … Show more
Applied Optoelectronics' case now hinges on visible production progress. Its drop on OpenAI's revenue run-rate figures reflected an accounting question, not any change in laser or memory supply, per Carrio Research. If AAOI fails again next quarter and pushes its timelines out another quarter, it will be ugly. x.comÂ
