Private equity firms have all of the fun. First, the internet boom, then the birth of social media, now AI. They always get there first, while the rest of us wait in line behind the ropes for the grand opening of an IPO, and hope for the best from the scraps we are left. But we may not have to wait after all.
Take Celestial AI, a private company, who on April 11 topped off an initial $56 million capital raise from private investors like Koch Disruptive Technologies,
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220204005002/en/Celestial-AI-Raises-56-Million-Series-A-to-Disrupt-the-Artificial-Intelligence-Chipset-Industry-with-Novel-Photonic-Electronic-Technology-Platform
with this fresh off the presses $95 million infusion:
http://edgar.secdatabase.com/1759/156761923005625/filing-main.htm (See Section 13 Offering and Sales Amounts)
CAI’s AI chipset’s photonic-electronic platform uses light to drive data within and between chips. This recent capital raise indicates that It is poised to become a multi-billion dollar leader in what will be a trillion dollar AI market. But you can’t invest directly in CAI unless you are already a multi-millionaire.
Enter POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET), which has been quietly engaged with CAI to develop this critical external light source for their extraordinary photonics driven chipset. On April 25, POET announced this purchase order from CAI:
https://www.semiconductor-digest.com/poet-technologies-introduces-poet-starlight-for-the-artificial-intelligence-market/
“Starlight”, a multi laser array based on POET’s LightBar platform, is mass produced at chip scale at a 75% reduction in cost to competing technologies, with superior performance in signal loss and power consumption. It is a critical hardware component necessary to drive this CAI chipset.
Per the recent Zacks report below, completed in part with data supplied by POET, each CAI chipset will have 4 POET chips, at a cost of $200 per chip. Per the report, “Celestial could represent $800 million in revenue by itself.” Also notable from the report, “We believe most if not everything Celestial is planning to sell contains POET”.
https://s27.q4cdn.com/906368049/files/News/2023/Zacks_SCR_Research_04102023_POET_Thompson.pdf
POET represents a perfect proxy for early entry into what will be the explosive AI growth to come. While CAI is POET’s first announced AI customer, others are engaged.
POET’s technology platform is already commercialized in the data/com sector with 100/200/400G products released to production, and proven 800G/1.6T products coming later this year.
POET is mired at an eye-blinking $150 million market cap and a share price of $3.70. It is de-risked, debt free, incredibly undervalued, thinly traded and tightly held, all the while poised to explode as further AI engagements and unmatched data products to 1.6T and beyond emerge over the near and intermediate term. Institutional investment is largely inhibited by the sub $5 share price. When that barrier is removed, expect an influx of institutional interest with the recognition that POET technology has moved from potential to commercialized reality.
