APAC Wrap: 17 June 2026

Hello, lots to update on over the last week and will have to keep this short and quick. Please reach out if you want more colour.

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Optics: Weakness yesterday attributed to Dongshan expansion plans

Sorry, don’t have a better source than Futu.

Some concerns about VCSEL as well, and I’d expect Funda will have something to say about that soon.

Austin Lyons@austinsemis

PicoJool announced 200G VCSELs today. And it’s compelling. The company is sampling quad 100G, quad 200G, and 32x50G NRZ uVCSELs next quarter, with high-volume ramp targeted for early 2027. The 200G parts clock in at 37GHz bandwidth, a meaningful threshold for 200G-per-lane

Pat Gelsinger @PGelsinger

One of the most important transitions ahead is the shift from copper to optical connectivity at AI scale. PicoJool’s 200G VCSELs and MicroVCSELs are an important step forward, combining record bandwidth with a mature GaAs supply chain already proven at hundreds of billion-chip

5:48 PM · Jun 15, 2026 · 58K Views

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4 Replies · 13 Reposts · 46 Likes

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Kingboard Holdings / Laminates

Doubled since it was flagged to us on 12 May. Price hikes + vertical integration make this quite a popular name with Asian investors.

On top of that, AT&S will potentially be this newsletter’s first 10 bagger (more on that below the paywall).

The “bottleneck trade” is very much alive, contrary to sniping on X. We’ll follow up on our Musashi-adjacent idea soon.

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Semicap: Penang / Kulim takeaways

I was in Penang last week and have been reporting live to the Substack chat, which has been very entertaining.

Takeaways below: