Sivers Semiconductors: The Perfect Storm That Sank a Photonics-Fueled Surge

Sivers Semiconductor shares crashed 15.8% on Friday amid insider selling, a fund manager's criticism, and a short-seller report, wiping out recent gains from an AI partnership.

Sivers Semiconductors saw its blistering rally come to a brutal halt on Friday, as a triple threat of insider selling, a fund manager’s scathing criticism, and a short-seller report conspired to send the stock into a tailspin. The shares ended the session at €6.70, a staggering 15.8% collapse from the prior close, although some intraday figures showed a more modest 11% drop to €7.12. The reversal was all the more jarring given that the stock had touched a 52-week high of €10.23 just two days earlier.

The immediate trigger for the sell-off came from an unexpected corner: the airwaves of Swedish television. Richard Bråse, a portfolio manager at Protean Aktiesparfond Norden, appeared on Di TV and delivered a blistering indictment of the company, labeling the management “completely unserious” and accusing it of trying to manipulate the share price through “unrealistic press releases.” The blunt accusation resonated instantly with investors who had watched the stock surge more than 50% over the prior month.

That rally had been ignited by a headline-grabbing announcement on June 2: a strategic collaboration with GlobalFoundries to develop silicon photonics solutions for AI data centers. Silicon photonics is widely viewed as a key technology for faster, more energy-efficient data transmission in hyperscale computing, and the market seized on the deal as proof that Sivers could ride the AI boom. The stock rocketed to its 52-week high the following day.

But the euphoria was short-lived. Just as the partnership was lifting sentiment, a wave of counter-narratives began to build. The short-selling firm Ningi Research published a report questioning Sivers’ revenue recognition practices and the substance of its customer contracts. Then Rosen Law Firm, a U.S.-based investor-rights law office, announced it was investigating whether the company had issued misleading business information. The combination of a short-seller attack and legal scrutiny is a potent one for any growth stock.

Adding fuel to the fire, a member of Sivers’ management sold approximately 1.4 million shares during the week. While insider selling is not unusual after a sharp run-up, the sheer size of the transaction — and its timing just days before a key corporate event — sent a clear signal to the market that even those closest to the business were cashing out. That event was the record date for the annual general meeting, which fell on June 5, the very day of the crash. The AGM itself is scheduled for June 15, and it will determine the composition of the board and set the strategic direction for the second half of the year.

Despite the carnage, the stock still shows a weekly gain of nearly 8% and a 30-day advance of roughly 44%. The earlier move was so violent that the current price remains 71% above its 50-day moving average of €3.91 (one source puts the average at €3.92 and the premium at 82%). The relative-strength index has cooled to 55-57.5, indicating that the stock is no longer in historically overbought territory. But the annualized 30-day volatility is hovering around 244-247%, a level that underscores how unpredictable this name has become.

Operationally, Sivers continues to work on its so-called “audit uplift” — a process to bring its financial reporting in line with U.S. PCAOB standards, a prerequisite for the planned secondary listing on Nasdaq in New York. That project, along with the outcomes of the short-seller allegations and the insider sale, will dominate investor attention as the AGM approaches. For now, the stock sits roughly 34% below its recent peak, caught between the promise of a photonics-powered AI story and the weight of governance and credibility concerns that have suddenly piled onto the same crowded trade.