Sivers Semiconductors: A Credibility Storm Hits a Photonics-Fueled Rally

Swedish fund manager accuses Sivers of stock manipulation; shares drop 15.8%. The stock had rallied 2,400% since March on AI partnership, but weak Q1 earnings raise doubts.

A blistering rally that lifted Sivers Semiconductors shares more than 2,400% since March has slammed into a wall of doubt after a prominent Swedish fund manager accused the company of manipulating its stock. The accusation, levelled in a live television interview, triggered a sharp reversal that erased nearly a third of the value from the week’s peak.

Richard Bråse, portfolio manager at Protean Aktiesparfond Norden, appeared on Di TV on Friday and did not mince words. He called the semiconductor firm’s management “completely unserious” and charged it with issuing “unrealistic press releases” designed to drive the share price higher without substantive backing. The market reacted instantly: the stock tumbled by as much as 11% during the session, and by the close had shed 15.8% to land at €6.70. That left the stock roughly 30% below the 52-week high of €10.23 touched just two days earlier, on June 3.

The spectacular run had been ignited by a June 2 announcement that Sivers had partnered with GlobalFoundries to develop silicon-photonics solutions for the AI infrastructure market. Sivers’ laser arrays will be integrated into reference designs on GlobalFoundries’ silicon-photonics platform, targeting co-packaged optics and linear pluggable optics for AI data centres. The company attached a $25 billion addressable market to the pluggable optics segment by 2030, a figure that gave the rally its narrative fuel.

Yet the credibility issue is not the only headwind. On May 29, just days before the partnership news, Sivers reported first-quarter results that painted a far less flattering picture. Revenue fell to SEK 61.9 million, a decline of 22% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA came in at negative SEK 13.8 million, and operating cash flow was negative SEK 49.2 million. The company blamed the US government shutdown in the fourth quarter of 2025, delayed defence budgets, unfavourable exchange rates, and rising costs tied to building out sales resources and preparing for a potential US dual listing.

The counterweight to those weak numbers is a growing opportunity pipeline, which has swelled by 77% since the start of the year to $799 million. A share issue in May raised fresh capital from institutional investors and gives the company some breathing room to execute on its plans. The capital increase added 8.62 million shares, bringing the total to roughly 320 million.

Volatility remains extreme. The annualised 30-day volatility stands at 247%, and the stock still trades about 70% above its 50-day moving average of €3.91. The relative strength index has cooled to 55 after the recent pullback, suggesting the stock is no longer in overbought territory — though that does little to clarify which direction the next move will take.

All eyes now turn to the annual general meeting scheduled for June 15 in Stockholm. Shareholders entitled to vote must have been registered in the Euroclear registry by June 5, with the deadline for attendance set for June 9. The central question hanging over the room is whether the photonics pipeline can begin converting into revenues fast enough to justify a valuation that, at its peak, had run far ahead of the fundamentals. The gap between the current share price and last week's high — 34% — shows how quickly the market is reassessing that equation.