Optical communications stocks POET violated confidentiality obligations, and Celestial canceled its order, causing the stock price to plunge 44%

Optical communications-themed company POET Technologies announced on April 27 that Marvell Semiconductor has officially canceled all purchase orders previously placed by Celestial AI with POET, including the initial mass-production unit orders that POET first disclosed on April 25, 2023. After the news was released, POET’s stock price plunged 44.47%, reflecting market concerns about the order cancellations and changes in the customer relationship.

POET violated its confidentiality obligations, so Celestial canceled the orders

According to a POET announcement, after acquiring Celestial AI, Marvell notified POET in writing on April 23, 2026, that it would cancel the related purchase orders. Marvell stated that the reason for canceling the orders was that POET had disclosed the purchase-order and shipment information, violating its confidentiality obligations. In other words, this was not simply caused by weakening demand or changes in product technology, but instead related to the information-disclosure and confidentiality clauses in the contract between both parties.

POET Technologies is a design and development company focused on high-speed optical engines, optical source products, and customized optical modules. Its target markets include AI systems and hyperscale data centers. Its core technology, the POET Optical Interposer platform, emphasizes chip-level integration by combining photonic and electronic components, and is used in high-speed optical communications and AI network architectures.

As AI data centers increase their demand for high-speed interconnects and optical communications, POET has also been viewed by the market in the past as one of the small- and mid-sized supply-chain companies that could potentially benefit from upgrades to AI optical networks.

POET’s orders were canceled by Celestial; the stock price fell 44%

However, this time the cancellation of Celestial AI-related orders has dealt a clear blow to market confidence in POET. Celestial AI originally focused on optical interconnect and AI memory interconnect technologies, and after Marvell later acquired it, outsiders were left wondering whether POET could further penetrate larger semiconductor and AI infrastructure customers through its Celestial AI supply-chain relationship. However, Marvell’s cancellation of all related purchase orders means that cooperation between POET and that customer line will, at least in the short term, face significant uncertainty.

In its announcement, POET said the company will continue to focus on executing its existing strategic priorities and will keep advancing product development for the AI and optical networking markets to meet market demand. The company also emphasized that, aside from Celestial AI-related orders, it is still fulfilling product deliveries for other customers, including a purchase order from another technology company disclosed recently, valued at approximately $5 million.

However, in its forward-looking statements, POET also acknowledged that multiple risks remain in the future, including whether it will be able to rebuild its relationship with Marvell Semiconductor, whether it can secure Marvell’s future product purchase orders, whether it can fulfill existing purchase orders, and whether existing orders may be increased, decreased, canceled, or delayed, and that counterparties may not necessarily bear significant penalties.

What happens next will still need to be observed to see whether the cooperation relationships among POET, Celestial AI, and Marvell have actually broken down in a substantive way. At the same time, as the AI optical engine and optical interconnect theme is highly sought after, whether the market is pricing in too early the order prospects and mass-production outlook that have not yet fully materialized remains a question.

The article, “Optical Communications Sector: POET Violated Its Confidentiality Obligations and Had Orders Canceled by Celestial, Its Stock Price Plunged 44%,” first appeared on Lian News ABMedia.