Planoptik's capacity ramp sets up a strong 2027, though it is not an AI story. Order intake rose 145% as it ramps wafer production at cleanrooms in Hungary and Germany, and management expects new customers' series ramps to lift revenue significantly from 2027. Revenue grew 5.7% and EBITDA 8.9%, at about 22x LTM EV/EBITDA, with FY26 guidance below 10% growth. Heavy capex should now show in revenue and margins. The new customers are in microfluidics, with no evidence of an optical-switch benefit. … Show more

PlanOptik sits upstream of Lumentum's optical circuit switch supply chain, a link the market is only starting to price. Silex research materials and patent language directly mention PlanOptik as a glass wafer substrate supplier, and Silex, the leading pure-play MEMS foundry, is a key optical-switch supplier to Lumentum. That puts a €50M-market-cap German glass wafer maker in the middle of the AI data center buildout. Credit to @vlmkapital for the finding. x.com 

Plan Optik is not a buyable way into glass substrates for AI chip packaging, even as a leading glass wafer maker serving Infineon, Samsung and Bosch. With €11 million of annual revenue and extreme illiquidity, it is closer to an acquisition bet than a position that can be built normally, and a 90% one-day move without fundamental news is not a buy signal. Glass substrates' option value is real but arrives in 2027-2028; 2026 is a qualification year with lower yields and 2-3x higher costs. x.com 

Plan Optik's revenue has not yet grown with Lumentum's because Lumentum is currently growing through pluggable optics, while Plan Optik supplies co-packaged optics. Its payoff is therefore more of a 2027-2028 story. x.com 

PlanOptik looks massively mispriced at a €35M market cap if it is the bottleneck for the glass wafers behind Silex's MEMS business ahead of the 2027 ramp. Per @ren_stocks, PlanOptik's specialty glass wafers feed Silex Microsystems' MEMS mirror dies, which go into Lumentum's optical circuit switches for Google's AI data centers. Silex earned a 34% EBIT margin in Q1 2026, and its IPO valued it at SEK 8.9 billion. x.com 

Plan Optik is not an AI or high-performance computing play, because all of its material is about wafers and it has no panel capability whatsoever. The glass panel cited as evidence was made with SCHMID and 4JET, not Plan Optik, and SCHMID is effectively a competitor in etching, deposition and metallization. Plan Optik has never said it targets HPC or AI, and it does everything in-house rather than through an OSAT, aiming at much smaller-scale applications. x.com  x.com 

IC substrates are Schmid's more relevant growth driver today because demand is already high and rising. Schmid customers Ibiden and Unimicron are expanding capacity with NVIDIA support; higher order intake supports the prospect of more equipment orders. Its balance sheet has improved, and the risk/reward looks attractive at current levels despite volatility. Glass substrates may take another one to two years to matter commercially. This is a personal assessment, not a buy recommendation. x.com  … Show more

X-FAB's earnings confirmed direct exposure to co-packaged optics and the 800V shift, which should drive a re-rating as markets price growth ahead. Management said it is progressing in CPO, with three silicon photonics projects and photonics volume production expected in 2028, a timeline not in revenue models yet. The 800V transition supports SiC and GaN demand, with three new SiC data center design wins pointing to a 2027 ramp. Current revenue is unimpressive, so some waiting is needed. x.com  … Show more

Corning is a big supply-chain bet because co-packaged optics are set to explode over the next one to two years, and glass could become 50x more important inside data centers over the next few generations of Nvidia systems. Corning is a one-of-a-kind, American-made technology leader, and its latest earnings call remarks focused entirely on co-packaged optics. Nvidia may push for glass as soon as 2027. At 83x trailing earnings the valuation is fair given a TAM many times its current business. … Show more

LPKF Laser & Electronics is one of the most asymmetric bets in the AI optics chain at about 7.8 times EV to gross profit, while peers trade at premium multiples. Co-packaged optics needs glass substrates, and its LIDE tools lead in crack-free through-glass vias; over 80% of major players preparing glass ramps are qualifying with its gear. Nvidia's Feynman era should multiply glass volumes and tool sales. Q1 revenue fell 27% on a temporary solar slump, and glass is still pre-volume. x.com