Sivers Semiconductors: Pentagon Funding and AI Optics Fever Converge in a 50% Two-Day Surge

Swedish photonics firm Sivers Semiconductors gains 50% in two days after securing second-year CHIPS Act award, but financial losses highlight gap between market hype and fundamentals.

A U.S. defense contract worth $6.6 million has injected fresh momentum into what was already one of Europe’s most dramatic semiconductor rallies. Sivers Semiconductors, the Swedish photonics and RF specialist, announced on May 19 that it secured the second-year award under the Microelectronics Commons program’s EW STAR project — a milestone that ties its technology directly to America’s national security priorities.

Investors responded with a second consecutive double-digit leap. By Monday’s session, the stock had hit 87.70 Swedish kronor, a 20.30% gain on the day, lifting the company’s market capitalization to approximately 21.54 billion kronor. The move followed a 23.45% jump in the prior session from a close of 72.90 kronor, meaning Sivers has nearly added 50% in just two trading days.

A Bet on Broadband Arrays and the CHIPS Act

The EW STAR project, managed through the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition Hub — a network of over 300 organizations across eight northeastern U.S. states — focuses on developing broadband antenna arrays capable of simultaneous transmission and reception for electronic warfare, communications, and radar systems. The year-2 award, backed by federal funds from the CHIPS and Science Act, is performance-based: Sivers received it only after meeting specific technical milestones in the first year.

While the immediate application is military, the underlying beamforming and photonic technologies are also being positioned for satellite communications and AI data centers — the very markets that have fueled the stock’s recent re-rating. Sivers’ roadmap extends into co-packaged optics, mmWave products for 5G and 6G, and LiDAR for autonomous systems.

No Fresh Operating News — But a Reshaped Board

Notably, no new corporate announcement directly triggered Monday’s surge. The preceding days had brought a slate of governance updates. On May 20, the nomination committee proposed five candidates for the board of directors. Returning members Bami Bastani, Todd Thomson, and Karin Raj would be joined by newcomers Joakim Nideborn and Helena Svancar, while Tomas Duffy, Erik Fallstrom, and Keith Halsey were dropped from the list.

The board shake-up aligns with the strategic narrative: Sivers is repositioning itself around AI infrastructure, photonics, and satellite connectivity — areas where the U.S. defense establishment is also making heavy investments.

The Gaping Chasm Between Story and Financials

The challenge for Sivers is that the operating numbers still tell a starkly different story. For the fiscal year 2025, the company reported adjusted revenue of 306.6 million kronor, an operating loss of 177.8 million kronor, and a net loss of 222.6 million kronor. The restatements, tied to Sivers’ efforts to align with U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board standards in anticipation of a potential Nasdaq listing, have eroded prior comparisons.

Revenue for 2024 was revised down to 219.2 million kronor from the originally reported 243.7 million kronor, while the net loss widened to 183.9 million kronor from 116.3 million kronor. Adjustments included reclassification of revenue across periods, changes in inventory valuation, revised fair-value assumptions on share-based compensation, and impairments on previously capitalized development costs.

Valuations That Assume a Future Yet to Arrive

At Monday’s close, Sivers traded at a price-to-sales multiple of 59.69 and a price-to-book ratio of 20.00, with 295.42 million shares outstanding. Those multiples reflect a market that is pricing in a dramatic acceleration in revenue and margin expansion — a bet on the company becoming a core supplier of photonic components for AI data centers and defense systems.

The gap between current fundamentals and the market’s forward-looking narrative is what makes this stock so polarizing. The defense contract provides a tangible proof point that Sivers is embedded in the U.S. technology supply chain, but the financials still show a company burning cash while chasing high-growth but unproven markets.

The next real test will come when operational results begin to reflect the strategic wins — or fail to. For now, the rally is a vote of confidence in Sivers’ role in the coming AI infrastructure buildout, backed by the kind of government patronage that can turn a speculative story into a revenue-generating reality.