POET Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: POET) experienced a dramatic stock collapse on Monday, falling over 44% after Marvell Technology abruptly canceled all outstanding purchase orders. The cancellation, which Marvell formally notified POET of on April 23, was triggered by an alleged breach of confidentiality by POET's Chief Financial Officer, Thomas Mika.
The chain of events began when CFO Mika, in an interview with the financial media platform Stocktwits, explicitly named Marvell as a major customer and confirmed that POET had received a purchase order tied to Marvell's hardware ecosystem. While the disclosure was intended to validate POET's "Optical Interposer" technology to retail investors, Marvell argued it violated strict non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) typical of high-stakes semiconductor partnerships. The canceled orders included initial production units that POET had first announced in April 2023.
The timing of the cancellation was particularly damaging. POET stock had surged approximately 76% in the week prior to the cancellation news, trading close to its 52-week high of $15.50. The stock had experienced wild swings — rising on the initial order disclosure, then dropping sharply as investors took profits, before recovering on Friday. Monday's sell-off erased most of those gains, with the stock falling 44.37% and approximately 94 million shares trading, compared to an average daily volume of about 10.52 million over the past three months.
Despite the major setback, POET pointed investors toward other active business. The company confirmed it still has a purchase order valued at approximately $5 million with a separate technology company and stated it "remains focused on executing its strategic priorities and advancing product development within the AI and optical networking markets." POET has also maintained recent partnerships, including a deal with Lessengers to develop a 1.6T optical transceiver module for AI clusters and hyperscale data centers, and an agreement with LITEON Technology to co-develop optical communication modules.
Even after Monday's steep drop, POET stock remained up 27.8% year-to-date and approximately 250% higher over the past 12 months. However, the company's fundamentals remain weak — it lost nearly $63 million in 2025 on only $1 million in total revenue. Short-seller Wolfpack Research has disclosed a short position, raising concerns about tax compliance issues and calling the company a "stock promotion." Marvell's own stock also fell 5.77% on the day.
