POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) shares climbed 16% on Thursday after the company announced a supply and development agreement with Lumilens that includes an initial $50 million purchase order for optical engines.
The agreement creates a joint commercial and technology partnership centered on wafer-level photonic integration for artificial intelligence optical networking applications.
Initial Order Could Expand Into Multi-Year Supply Relationship
Lumilens placed an initial order valued at $50 million for the production of Electrical-Optical Interposer-based engines.
POET said the deal represents the first stage of a broader supplier relationship that could grow to as much as $500 million in cumulative purchases over a five-year period.
Warrant Agreement Linked to Future Purchase Volumes
As part of the arrangement, POET granted Lumilens a warrant allowing the purchase of up to 22,921,408 common shares at an exercise price of $8.25 per share.
The warrant is immediately exercisable for 2,292,140 shares, while the remaining shares will vest in stages tied to cumulative payments from Lumilens on future purchase orders totaling up to $500 million.
The warrant will remain exercisable for nine years.
Companies Target AI Optical Network Expansion
The partnership is focused on advancing POET’s Electrical-Optical Interposer platform, which combines wafer-scale optical engine manufacturing with optical chipsets and advanced production technologies.
The companies said the platform is designed to replace traditional active-alignment manufacturing methods used in optical engine production with more scalable wafer-level processing techniques.
Product Roadmap Extends Through 2027
POET and Lumilens plan to develop the technology across a multi-year roadmap covering 800G and 1.6T pluggable transceivers, along with Near-Package Optics and Co-Packaged Optics solutions.
Engineering samples from the joint programme are expected to become available in late 2026, while production scaling is scheduled to align with customer deployments beginning in 2027.
The companies noted that fulfillment of purchase orders and associated revenue generation will depend on the successful qualification of the modules and the expansion of manufacturing capacity.