AI Optical Executives Sell Off Hundreds of Billions in Shares

Executives of U.S. AI‐optics company Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: LITE) have sold hundreds of millions of Korean-won–worth of shares on the open market in May under prearranged Section 10b5-1 trading plans. Director Brian Lilly, on May 11, sold roughly 10,000 shares of common stock in multiple transactions, realizing about $10.3 million (approximately KRW 13.9 billion) and reducing his direct holdings from around 24,000 to 13,000 shares. Ian Small and Pamela Fletcher also disposed of portions of their stakes—Small on May 8 sold about $3.19 million (roughly KRW 4.3 billion), and Fletcher on May 14–15 offloaded about $2.93 million (around KRW 4.0 billion), according to SEC filings.

In its third quarter of fiscal 2026, Lumentum posted significant revenue and profitability gains driven by strong AI data-center demand. The company also secured a strategic investment of about $2 billion from NVIDIA, underscoring its role as a core supplier of AI-optics components. Buoyed by its NVIDIA partnership and a robust order backlog extending through 2028, Lumentum recently earned a credit-rating upgrade from S&P and is drawing increased market attention amid expectations of inclusion in the Nasdaq-100 index.

Lumentum Holdings Inc., spun off from JDSU in Silicon Valley, designs and manufactures lasers, optical modules and subsystems for data centers and telecommunications networks. Through acquisitions such as Oclaro and NeoPhotonics, it has broadened its high-speed optical-communications portfolio and is widely regarded as a key beneficiary of expanding AI infrastructure and next-generation network investments.