Huawei Speculation
Pretext: this is 100% speculation based on nothing other than my own brain…but what do you guys think?…and yes, I used Gemini to help organize my thoughts and lay them out..
If you look at how the global supply chain is actually built, the argument that Huawei is using POET’s technology through middlemen isn't just wild speculation—it is a logical conclusion based on how these companies operate. Huawei is currently locked out of buying advanced hardware directly from Western tech firms due to strict U.S. sanctions, so they rely entirely on massive domestic Chinese electronics companies to build out their sovereign AI infrastructure. This is where Luxshare Tech comes in. Luxshare is a primary tier-1 systems integrator for China's domestic hardware push, meaning they build the literal racks, cables, and optical transceiver modules that power Huawei's massive domestic data centers. When Luxshare places large orders for high-speed optical engines, they aren't just sitting on them; they are packaging them into finished 800G or 1.6T transceivers destined for the hungriest AI clusters inside China, which are overwhelmingly driven by Huawei’s Ascend NPU hardware.
The human element behind this connection makes the case even stronger. When POET originally set up its Super Photonics Xiamen (SPX) subsidiary to capture the Chinese domestic market, they didn't just hire random administrators—they stacked the leadership team with heavy hitters straight out of Huawei’s own inner circle. They recruited Dr. Xiaozhong Zheng to be the General Manager of SPX and brought in Dr. Yonghong Hu as the head of R&D. Both of these men spent crucial parts of their careers leading advanced photonics and hardware divisions at Huawei and its chip-design arm, HiSilicon.
Even though POET recently bought out its Chinese partner and moved the physical manufacturing equipment to Malaysia to shield its intellectual property from Western export restrictions, the business relationships remain intact. By supplying raw, off-the-shelf optical interposer engines from a neutral hub like Malaysia to a massive contract manufacturer like Luxshare, POET keeps its hands completely clean. Luxshare takes those components, builds the finished modules inside China, and supplies them to local enterprise clients like Huawei. Ultimately, POET gets to act like an un-sanctionable "Intel Inside" component provider, successfully capturing massive infrastructure revenue from both sides of the geopolitical divide.