I believe the Foxconn, Luxshare, and other agreements show us that we are nearly "there". 

While we wait for the winner's circle bouquet, those of us that follow the story closely are putting 2+2 together. We need to put the past missteps behind us. Inventing is not for the faint of heart. Timelines will slip, customers will disappoint, stuff happens. This should not obfuscate what is coming into focus.

I read here that Suresh skipped collecting NRE's from Foxconn in exchange for permission to announce that they were working together. Think about that; it means that Foxconn has blessed the POET approach so they aren't worried about looking foolish for working with POET. Suresh made the bet that skipping a few $$$ in NRE's was worth it. 

The announcement was months old when it came out. It was worded as if the optical trade show was in the future. That means that Foxconn had already been working with POET for months, so their work had to be going well for them to allow the announcement.

It takes 9,000 companies to make advanced chips at TSMC (NVIDIA's foundry). The NVIDIAs of the world cannot buy all of the subcontractors that make this happen. It is actually better to just buy from many of them, as there is constant competition to make better, faster, cheaper goodies that can become part of the food chain this way. 

I do not see a buyout for POET unless it was structured to preserve POET's independence so that its approaches could have far greater reach with the buyer's largesse. Another approach could be a buyout by a consortium to preserve access from several major players.

I don't think POET is there yet for something like that. But I do see POET as a parallel to ASML, the maker of the magic for TSMC. There are ASML competitors, but not really. It has a 38 Billion Euro backlog, and growth was 30% in 2023, with over 50% margins.

POET has the opportunity to be a smaller version of that, without the constraints that lead to such a backlog. POET has designed its OI to be made in subcontracting foundries. They can just hire more and bigger foundries. The backlogs will be in the customization, the work product of the NRE contracts. The design simplifies this, too. Also, as the uses get more widespread, the customization becomes a lesser modification with "known good parts". 

These elements work best with a nimble, hungry company like POET. Add a bigger bank account to hire more talent, and the growth curve accelerates even more.