RT Investing visuals
A breakdown of the photonics value chain and best positioned business:

Layer 1: Materials & wafers
• $GLW
• $AXTI
• $IQE
• $AIXA
• $AMS

Layer 2: Core photonic devices
• $IPGP
• $COHR
• $LITE
• $LASR
• $SIVE

• Layer 3: Components & modules
• $AAOI
• $MTSI
• $FN
• $VIAV
• $LPTH

Layer 4: Systems & equipment
• $ASML
• $BESI
• $ASM
• $LPKF
• $MKS

Layer 5: Test, metrology & yield
• $CAMT
• $FORM
• $AEHR
• $ONTO
• $VIAV

Investing visuals: Photonics stocks are going parabolic:

• $LITE +1621%
• $AAOI +1434%
• $COHR +529%
• $CRDO +377%
• $VIAV +353%
• $FN +281%
• $MTSI +189%
• $MRVL +186%
• $IPGP +136%
• $POET +127%

My thesis on $PENG:
_
Beautiful short-film created by @zizonchain

Starting: @aleabitoreddit @ParadisLabs @pennycheck

yazan: Marvell cancelling the $POET partnership was INSANE.

Most FinX content tells us what to buy to make money.

This one is about the mystic @pennycheck who consistently warns us before things happen.

Up or down, you’re in good hands with the mystic.

episode 3
pls enjoy

Wall Street haven’t figured $PENG role out yet.. when they do, it will explode.

Here’s everything you need to know and why $NVDA $AAOI $MU $SNDK will need to rely on them, at one point:

$PENG provides the *end-to-end architecture* required to make components work as a unified system.

They design, build, and manage "AI Factories" such as massive data centers optimized for AI training.

Their portfolio covers:
> Computing
> Memory
> Managed Services

They solve the "Memory Wall" (the bottleneck between the processor and data) by owning memory technology and system integration expertise.

And acts as the integrator layer, the "glue" that assembles raw components into a functioning supercomputer.

Penguin’s uniqueness lies at the intersection of Memory and HPC (High-Performance Computing). Most integrators focus only on the compute (GPUs), but Penguin understands that the "Memory Wall" (the speed gap between the processor and the data storage) is the BIGGEST bottleneck in AI. They are one of the few players that own the memory technology (through their SMART Modular brand) and the system-level integration expertise.

To give you an understanding of their position:

Tier 1: Component Providers (The Raw Materials)

$NVDA provides the Blackwell GPUs that serve as the engines of the factory.

$MU provides High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM), while $MRAM provides persistent memory for reliability.

$SNDK provides high-speed SSDs, and $P provides the all-flash arrays required to feed massive datasets to GPUs without lag.

$AAOI provides the "nervous system" through 800G and 1.6T optical transceivers that move data between GPUs.

$POET and $SIVE provide photonics to replace copper wires with light-speed links.

$LPK provides precision manufacturing for the circuit boards these components inhabit.

Tier 2: The Architect & Integrator (The Brain)

This is the center. Penguin takes the chips $NVDA, memory $MU, storage $P, and networking $AAOI and "weaves" them together.

They perform the "racking, stacking, and testing".

Tier 3: Infrastructure Operators

$NBIS & $IREN. These are the customers. They build the physical power, shells, and the AI cloud.

They rely on Penguin for the technical deployment and managed services to keep fleets running 24/7.

If the AI revolution is a gold mine, $NVDA and $MU are the pickaxes, $P and $AAOI are the conveyors and bins, $IREN and $NBIS are the ‘owners’, and $PENG Solutions is the engineering firm that builds and manages the entire operation.

-BP

NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE.

This is a valid post I agree with.

Bearlovesbull: 🚨 $POET $MRVL: THE PODCAST WAS THE TRIGGER. REPLACEABILITY WAS THE REASON.

A CFO goes on a podcast, talks too much, and then a big deal goes away. Billions of dollars in market value lost. Simple explanation, right? I don't think so

Now, an NDA breach is a big deal and I'm not

this $POET story is just incredible

- only photonics stock to do nothing all year
- short report 2 weeks ago takes it down to $6.80
- CFO confirms a $MRVL order on a podcast a few days later
- stock jumps from $6.80 to $17
- Marvell comes out and says that was a breach of confidentiality
- stock down 45% in a day

the crazy thing about this is that the CEO of POET owns…7,000 shares.

what do people think? is it a buy the dip because their optics tech will be used somewhere else? CFO leaking news is just a never touch stock?

the south koreans are HEAVY in this name, many of them have been forming groups for the past year and sharing their DD.

last week was a huge win for them which created more fomo on this name across the world but today feels like a material reason for the stock to be down over the short report from a few weeks ago.

still has $430M in cash but barely any revenue and with a big order getting canceled…the hope of that revenue growth seems to be the reason the stock is getting hit.

how are people thinking of this one?

Wall Street talks about the hyperscalers: $AMZN, $GOOG, $META, $MSFT. That is where the headlines are.

But the money flows through the supply chain. Capex is tracking above $1 trillion this year.

That is six times the level of 2022

Here is the full stack, sector by sector, of who actually gets paid:

Power Infrastructure:
$IREN, $CIFR, $NBIS, $WULF

The compute layer requires power first. These are the companies building and owning the megawatt-scale facilities that hyperscalers cannot build fast enough themselves.

Optical Networking:
$AAOI, $COHR, $LITE, $POET

GPU clusters are useless without the interconnects that move data between them at 800G and 1.6T speeds. This sector is capacity-constrained and just had its export inputs tightened by China this week.

Space & Infrastructure:
$RKLB, $ASTS, $PL, $SATL, $FLY, $ONDS, $KTOS

Golden Dome. Autonomous systems. Satellite constellations. The government is funding the next generation of distributed compute and surveillance infrastructure from orbit.

Critical Materials:
$AXTI, $ALMU

The raw substrate layer that the entire photonics stack sits on. Severely undersupplied. Almost zero retail coverage.

Launch & Deployment:
$RKLB, $ASTS

Getting infrastructure into orbit requires reliable, affordable launch. One company owns this market. The public comp is scaling fast.

Every sector on this list has either hyperscaler contract backing, government funding, or a physical supply constraint that makes demand inelastic.

Save this for later.

-BP

Please note this is not financial advice.

$AAOI, $COHR, $LITE have already run 150-250% and trade at extreme multiples.

The UPSTREAM play is where the undiscovered leverage sits.

Here is what most people are missing in the photonics chain:

Transceiver makers:
$AAOI, $COHR, $LITE, visible, crowded, already priced for growth.

Laser / substrate suppliers:
$COHR InP fabs (Texas + Sweden), $AXTI (35% of global InP substrate supply)

Emerging platform plays:
$POET (optical interposer, integrates lasers and electronics on one chip, Foxconn-backed). $ALMU (Aeluma, compound semiconductor materials, defense + photonics)

Critical materials: InP wafer demand exceeds supply by 70%. China tightened export controls this week.

The companies sitting closest to the constraint are not the ones that already ran. The supply chain analysis points to what has not moved yet. The companies that control the material chokepoint tend to reprice when the downstream bottleneck becomes undeniable.

We are close to that moment.

-BP

Please note: This is not financial advice. Your money, your decision.

Paradis Labs: @babybluecream The real asymmetry to watch is if $POET lands a Tier-1 hyperscaler before the next dilutive raise?

If yes, the short squeeze potential on a ~$1B float name could be violent.

If no, I think the stock drifts toward cash value while longs rotate into $LITE, $MRVL, or $AAOI on

THE AI SUPPLY CHAIN — COMPLETE MAP

I've spent a few hours mapping the entire AI supply chain. Hyperscalers are spending $750 billion. These are the 42 companies building, powering, and deploying AI from start to finish.

Every layer. Every sector.

Bookmark it. Feel free to add companies in the comments.

Layer 1: Chip Equipment (the machines that build the machines):
$ASML
$AMAT
$LRCX
$TSEM

Layer 2: Foundry & Fabrication (where chips are born): $TSM
$GFS
$INTC

Layer 3: GPU / ASIC / CPU (the AI compute engines): $NVDA
$AVGO
$AMD
$MRVL

Layer 4: Memory & HBM (the bandwidth bottleneck): $MU
$WDC

Layer 5: Photonics & Optical Interconnects:
$COHR
$LITE
$AAOI
$POET
$MTSI
$ALMU

Layer 6: Data Center + Space (the physical home of AI):
$IREN
$NBIS
$CIFR
$WULF
$EQIX
$RKLB
$ASTS
$PL

Layer 7: Cybersecurity (every new AI system is a new attack surface):
$CRWD
$PANW
$ZS
$NET
$S
$FTNT

Layer 8: AI Software & Automation (where the ROI shows up):
$PATH
$PLTR
$NOW
$HIMS
$DDOG
$SNOW
$MDB
$SOFI

Layer 9: Defense & End-Use (where AI becomes operational):
$ONDS
$OSS
$RKLB
$AMPX
$LHX
$RTX
$NOC
$PNG.V

Every company on this list has either government budgets, hyperscaler contracts, or can potentially benefit from the AI build it somehow.

Save this. And if you found this valuable, you should follow me.

The market won't be red forever.

-BP

Please note: This is not financial advice.

RT TacticzHazel
$LITE $COHR $AXTI $POET $AAOI
Photonics stocks are hot. And I believe there are many ways to play it.

You can follow @aleabitoreddit who is great at catching momentum (and/or creating it).

There are accounts like @PhotonCap @crux_capital_ @damnang2 @FinnStockinger @KawzInvests @insane_analyst who provide deep research.

But the best way to go about this, is to do you own research.

You HAVE to know what you own!

I see a lot of borrowed conviction right now.

If there's one thing I've learned FROM trying to understand photonics, is that it's hard.

Very hard.

It takes time.

I think a lot of people overestimate what they know, and underestimate what they do not.

And that's especially true for tricky sectors like Photonics.

So therefore I started writing down my thoughts, and I started from the absolute bottom.

And in this beginner's guide I share it with all of you!

Please check it out, bookmark it, and share it!

PS. I have not invested in any of the photonics companies yet, I first really want to understand the overall sector, plus the companies better.

TacticzHazel: http://x.com/i/article/2034195018273923072

$LITE $COHR $AXTI $POET $AAOI
Photonics stocks are hot. And I believe there are many ways to play it.

You can follow @aleabitoreddit who is great at catching momentum (and/or creating it).

There are accounts like @PhotonCap @crux_capital_ @damnang2 @FinnStockinger @KawzInvests @insane_analyst who provide deep research.

But the best way to go about this, is to do you own research.

You HAVE to know what you own!

I see a lot of borrowed conviction right now.

If there's one thing I've learned FROM trying to understand photonics, is that it's hard.

Very hard.

It takes time.

I think a lot of people overestimate what they know, and underestimate what they do not.

And that's especially true for tricky sectors like Photonics.

So therefore I started writing down my thoughts, and I started from the absolute bottom.

And in this beginner's guide I share it with all of you!

Please check it out, bookmark it, and share it!

PS. I have not invested in any of the photonics companies yet, I first really want to understand the overall sector, plus the companies better.

TacticzHazel: http://x.com/i/article/2034195018273923072

Great overview of photonics companies to track.
$LITE $COHR $AAOI $POET

Gaetano: What Photonics companies should I buy?!
$LITE $COHR $AAOI $POET $LWLG

I get asked this question often.

I can't tell anyone what to buy.

So instead, let me lay out all the companies I track.

The reality is is that if it has decent optics exposure, I'm probably tracking it

Why $ALMU, $POET, and $AAOI are all flying today and is the NEW bottleneck:

Everyone’s asking why photonics is melting up.

Let me connect the dots.

Nvidia just committed $2 BILLION each into Lumentum and Coherent to secure the AI photonics supply chain.

Read that again.

$NVDA isn’t betting on more GPUs. They’re betting on the pipe that carries the data BETWEEN the GPUs.

Here’s what Wall Street is just now figuring out:

1. You can stack 100,000 H100s in a rack

2. But if the optical interconnects can’t move data fast enough, your compute is bottlenecked

3. 800G → 1.6T → 3.2T transceivers are the NEW chokepoint

$AAOI isn’t up 22% on hype. It’s up 22% because they just beat Q4 earnings AND guided Q1 2026 above estimates.

Management is calling $1B+ revenue in 2026 as 800G/1.6T production scales. This is revenue acceleration meeting an Nvidia-validated sector.

$POET is up 12% because their optical interposer solves the ASSEMBLY bottleneck everyone’s ignoring. Scaling 1.6T/3.2T transceivers isn’t just a chip problem, it’s a packaging problem.

$POET owns that solution. Revenue ramp expected H2 2026.

$ALMU is the asymmetric micro-cap play. No direct Nvidia contract. But they’re integrating III-V materials on silicon for AI sensing and quantum applications, exactly the architecture photonics is scaling toward. $38.6M cash. DoD-compliant domestic production. Nasdaq flagged it as high upside.

When $NVDA writes a $4B check into your sector, the whole neighborhood moves.
The pattern here is identical to what happened in power infrastructure.
Everyone was buying GPUs.

Then they realized you can’t run GPUs without power.

Now everyone’s buying compute. And they’re realizing you can’t scale compute without photonics.

Bandwidth is the NEW bottleneck.

> $AAOI is the revenue play.
> $POET is the infrastructure play.
> $ALMU is the asymmetric lottery ticket.

Three different risk profiles.
One macro thesis.

Photonics is the next layer of the AI buildout.

And $NVDA just told you exactly where they’re putting their money.

I was planning to take a small position in $POET today. But I wasn’t fast enough.

Congrats to everyone that made it.

I’ll be monitoring, watching over, and looking for a pullback.

-BP

Note: This is NOT financial advice.

RT Black Panther Capital
Why $ALMU, $POET, and $AAOI are all flying today and is the NEW bottleneck:

Everyone’s asking why photonics is melting up.

Let me connect the dots.

Nvidia just committed $2 BILLION each into Lumentum and Coherent to secure the AI photonics supply chain.

Read that again.

$NVDA isn’t betting on more GPUs. They’re betting on the pipe that carries the data BETWEEN the GPUs.

Here’s what Wall Street is just now figuring out:

1. You can stack 100,000 H100s in a rack

2. But if the optical interconnects can’t move data fast enough, your compute is bottlenecked

3. 800G → 1.6T → 3.2T transceivers are the NEW chokepoint

$AAOI isn’t up 22% on hype. It’s up 22% because they just beat Q4 earnings AND guided Q1 2026 above estimates.

Management is calling $1B+ revenue in 2026 as 800G/1.6T production scales. This is revenue acceleration meeting an Nvidia-validated sector.

$POET is up 12% because their optical interposer solves the ASSEMBLY bottleneck everyone’s ignoring. Scaling 1.6T/3.2T transceivers isn’t just a chip problem, it’s a packaging problem.

$POET owns that solution. Revenue ramp expected H2 2026.

$ALMU is the asymmetric micro-cap play. No direct Nvidia contract. But they’re integrating III-V materials on silicon for AI sensing and quantum applications, exactly the architecture photonics is scaling toward. $38.6M cash. DoD-compliant domestic production. Nasdaq flagged it as high upside.

When $NVDA writes a $4B check into your sector, the whole neighborhood moves.
The pattern here is identical to what happened in power infrastructure.
Everyone was buying GPUs.

Then they realized you can’t run GPUs without power.

Now everyone’s buying compute. And they’re realizing you can’t scale compute without photonics.

Bandwidth is the NEW bottleneck.

> $AAOI is the revenue play.
> $POET is the infrastructure play.
> $ALMU is the asymmetric lottery ticket.

Three different risk profiles.
One macro thesis.

Photonics is the next layer of the AI buildout.

And $NVDA just told you exactly where they’re putting their money.

I was planning to take a small position in $POET today. But I wasn’t fast enough.

Congrats to everyone that made it.

I’ll be monitoring, watching over, and looking for a pullback.

-BP

Note: This is NOT financial advice.