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Luke Kawa

POET Technologies soars as Marvell’s acquisition of Celestial AI validates its potential role in the AI boom


POET Technologies is ramping in premarket trading as investors believe that Marvell Technology’s acquisition of Celestial AI validates its technology and bolsters its sales outlook.

Along with its Q3 results released after the close on Tuesday, Marvell announced that it was acquiring Celestial AI for at least $3.25 billion in cash and stock, an amount that could go up by an additional $2.25 billion if Celestial hits certain revenue targets within roughly two years.

During Marvell’s earnings call, CEO Matt Murphy raved about Celestial AI’s ability to play a crucial supporting role in the AI boom:

“Copper-based interconnects used in todays scale-up systems are approaching their fundamental limits in reach and bandwidth, creating compelling need for optical solutions. Celestial AIs photonic fabric technology platform was purpose-built for this inflection. It enables large AI clusters that scale both within and across racks using a high-bandwidth, low-latency, low-power and cost-effective optical fabric. This breakthrough enables a true optical solution with greater than two times the power efficiency of copper interconnects, but with far longer reach and significantly higher bandwidth.”

What’s good for Celestial is presumably good for POET.

POET and Celestial are, loosely speaking, in different parts of the same business: speeding the transmission of data using photonics. POET is more upstream, offering the technology that enables these solutions, while Celestial applies this technology to its system for use in data centers.

Celestial was listed as a “customer” of POET in previous annual reports. Back in 2022, the two firms announced that POET’s key technology, its optical interposer, would be supplied to Celestial.

“The customized Optical Interposer platform that we have co-developed with POET is among the most advanced of its kind in high-speed computing,” David Lazovsky, founder and CEO of Celestial AI, said at the time.

Retail trader interest in POET has certainly been re-piqued. As of 7:49 a.m. ET, the ticker is among the most mentioned on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit over the past 12 hours, per SwaggyStocks.

SwaggyStocks POET
Source: SwaggyStocks

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Hedge funds are following retail traders into the Magnificent 7

Hedge funds are following retail traders into the stocks the masses never stopped buying.

“As we kick off earnings for megacap tech stocks, this stood out: [hedge funds] have started buying Mag7 stocks again this month though positioning remains well below the peak levels seen in early 2016,” writes Goldman Sachs’ Cullen Morgan.

Goldman PB Mag 7
Source: Goldman Sachs

In early April, JPMorgan strategist Arun Jain noted that retail investors had basically been selling everything but the Magnificent 7 stocks as part of a more cautious stance due to the Iran war.

(Apple has been a longstanding exception to this trend, presumably because retail traders aren't fond of its hands-off approach to AI.)

JPM Retail flows

Last August, Jain discussed how retail activity tended to “crowd in” institutional buyers in meme stocks, while Goldman’s John Marshall advised clients to piggyback on stocks beloved by retail traders. Speculative, retail-geared assets proceeded to go on a tremendous run that soured in October.

But there are some early indications that a similar bout of speculative fervor is bubbling up once more.

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POET Technologies surges above $10 for first time in 4 years amid explosion in call volumes

POET Technologies is up nearly 40% this week as options market activity goes haywire in a faint echo of what got the stock on retail traders’ radars in October.

As of 11:12 a.m. ET, more than 10 calls have changed hands for every put traded. This bullish impulse has propelled the stock above the $10 threshold for the first time since March 2022.

Shares of the optical communications firm briefly dipped last week after Wolfpack Research said it was short the company because its investors would be exposed to an “IRS tax nightmare.”

The company responded that day saying it was taking measures for US shareholders that “should mitigate certain potential adverse US federal income tax consequences to it that could otherwise result from the Company’s status as a passive foreign investment company.”

markets

GE Aerospace falls after leaving earnings guidance unchanged

Jet engine maker GE Aerospace slid in early trading Tuesday, as its better-than-expected Q1 results were overshadowed by uninspiring guidance.

It reported:

  • Q1 adjusted revenue of $11.61 billion vs. the $10.71 billion consensus expectation.

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $1.86 vs. the $1.60 consensus estimate.

But management left full-year 2026 adjusted EPS guidance where it was at between $7.10 and $7.40, compared to a consensus expectation of $7.49 from analysts.

“Were holding our full-year guidance across the board, given the macro uncertainty, though, with our strong start to the year, we are trending toward the high end of that range,” CEO Larry Culp said on the conference call.

GE Aerospace hit an air pocket in March as the start of the US war against Iran sent energy prices soaring and hurt expectations for the profitability of commercial carriers. A rally in April had pushed the stock close to positive territory for the year, but it’s solidly in the red after the results today.

markets

Trump says he doesn’t like potential United-American merger but would “love somebody to buy Spirit”

President Trump on Tuesday told CNBC that he doesn’t like the idea of a United Airlines-American Airlines merger, but would “love somebody to buy Spirit.”

“Maybe the federal government should help that one,” Trump said on Tuesday, referring to Spirit’s attempts to emerge from bankruptcy.

Trump’s thoughts on United-American are an update from last week, when White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the potential megamerger was “not something the president or the White House have an ​opinion on or are weighing in on.”

American and United shares dipped following Trump’s comments, as did Spirit rival Frontier Airlines.

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