Hedge Funds Pile Into POET as CFO Exits and Class-Action Clock Ticks

Despite aggressive institutional buying including Citadel's 273% stake increase, POET faces a CEO/CFO shakeup, securities class action, and a stock halved from May peak, while targeting $500M Lumilens deal.

The narrative surrounding POET Technologies is splitting in two. On one side, an aggressive institutional buying spree — Citadel Advisors alone ballooned its stake by 273% in the first quarter. On the other, a C-suite shakeup, a looming shareholder class action, and a stock that has surrendered half its May peak. Striking a balance between those forces will determine whether the AI photonics play can deliver on its ambitious production targets.

Leadership in flux at a critical juncture

Chief Financial Officer Thomas Mika has told the board he intends to retire this year after a decade in the role. A search for his successor is underway. The timing adds a layer of uncertainty: Mika and CEO Suresh Venkatesan are both named defendants in a securities lawsuit accusing POET of concealing its status as a Passive Foreign Investment Company (PFIC) from US investors, potentially exposing them to adverse tax treatment. The deadline to name a lead plaintiff in that case falls on June 29, 2026.

To steady operations, POET recently installed Dr. Sandeep Kumar as Chief Operating Officer. Kumar brings 18 years of global operations experience from Silicon Labs, plus earlier stints at Agere Systems, Lucent Technologies and AT&T Bell Labs. His compensation includes 410,397 restricted stock units vesting in three equal annual tranches under the 2025 incentive plan. Kumar’s immediate mandate: oversee the roughly tenfold capacity expansion planned at the wafer fabrication and optical assembly facility in Malaysia, with high-volume production targeted by 2027.

Big money moves in during the volatility

While retail traders may have been spooked by the stock’s violent swings, institutional investors saw buying opportunity in the first quarter. Citadel Advisors snapped up approximately 1.85 million shares. Group One Trading built a new stake of roughly 1.2 million shares. Tudor Investment Corp entered the register for the first time with about 978,000 shares, and Millennium Management added a fresh position of around 718,000 shares. Trexquant Investment LP chipped in with nearly 585,000 shares.

Not everyone was bullish. Susquehanna International Group slashed its holding by 88.6%, a stark outlier. Overall, 68 institutions raised their positions while 58 cut them — a net positive tilt that suggests informed money is betting on the long-term thesis despite the noise.

The revenue picture and the $500 million carrot

That thesis rests heavily on the Lumilens partnership. In May, POET announced a development and supply agreement covering 800G optical transceivers, with an initial order of $50 million and potential follow-on purchases totaling up to $500 million. First engineering samples from the Lumilens program are expected by the end of 2026, with production ramping alongside hyperscaler customers in 2027.

Revenue remains tiny by comparison: just $503,000 in the first quarter of 2026, though that was more than triple the year-ago figure. The net loss stood at $12.3 million. The global 800G transceiver market is projected to reach $9.8 billion by 2032, growing at 22.8% annually — a prize that justifies the heavy upfront investment if POET can execute.

Dilution overhang from the $400 million raise

The stock’s recent weakness traces back to a capital structure shock. POET completed a $400 million private placement in May, selling roughly 19 million new shares plus an equal number of warrants at a package price of $21 per unit to a single investor. The resulting dilution has created a technical overhang that the market is still absorbing.

That explains the price action: after rocketing from $6.97 on May 1 to above $20 on May 14, the shares reversed course and recently closed at $13.26. The 52-week range stretches from $3.87 to $20.81. There is no specific new catalyst for the decline — just the arithmetic of a massively expanded share count meeting a consolidation phase.

Voting on a US domicile to solve the PFIC problem

The board has proposed redomiciling POET from Canada to the United States, a move that would eliminate its classification as a foreign corporation and thereby end the PFIC designation. Shareholders will vote on the reincorporation at the annual meeting on June 26, 2026. Management expects that for the current fiscal year 2026, POET will not meet the PFIC threshold regardless, and will continue to monitor the status.

If the vote passes and Kumar can deliver the Malaysia ramp on schedule, the institutional conviction seen in the 13F filings could prove prescient. If legal distractions or execution delays mount, the stock’s recent slide may prove only a waypoint.