AI optical communication stocks have recently significantly underperformed other tech stocks, with losses continuing in pre-market trading.

BlockBeats news, October 15 — The AI optical communications supply chain continued its sharp correction. According to TradingBeats monitoring, as of press time, the AAOI contract on Hyperliquid fell about 14.90% in 24 hours, while Lumentum (LITE) and Coherent (COHR) dropped 11.71% and 11.66% respectively, last quoted at $82.70, $861.24, and $253.90, with declines continuing in pre-market trading.

The selloff spread across the high-speed interconnect and optical networking supply chain. Over the same period, Credo (CRDO) fell 12.28%, Ciena (CIEN) dropped 9.83%, and Corning (GLW) declined 7.71%. The sector has notably underperformed other popular stocks and sectors since the CPI release.

Among them, the LITE contract with higher trading volume saw about $23.32 million in 24-hour turnover, with OI at approximately $7.11 million; AAOI recorded about $5.08 million in turnover over the same period, with OI at approximately $2.78 million.

According to MarketWatch, the Magnificent Seven ETF has outperformed the semiconductor ETF for 8 consecutive trading days. Market attention toward AI is shifting from pure hardware demand growth to whether companies can sustain financing, fulfill orders, and generate profits. The market is beginning to worry whether funding can support such massive long-term procurement plans.

On October 12, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan noted that the primary constraint on AI infrastructure expansion is shifting from hardware supply to capital access. Subsequently, U.S. CPI came in above expectations, further reinforcing market concerns about high interest rates and the sustainability of AI capital expenditure.

Optical communications manufacturers are a key supply link in AI data center construction, with future growth highly dependent on large cloud service providers continuing to expand computing infrastructure. As the market begins to reassess customers' financing capacity and return on investment, companies that previously enjoyed high growth premiums due to order shortages may also face more pronounced stock price corrections.

Morningstar analyst Martin Szumski also pointed out that optical communications companies are highly dependent on the capital expenditure of large cloud service providers, and any slowdown in downstream investment will directly impact suppliers' revenue growth.