7 Trillion Won Vanishes in AI Optical Communication Leader

Coherent Corp. (NYSE: COHR) plunged 6.69% to close at $380 on the New York Stock Exchange on the 26th. Its market capitalization stood at approximately $74.3 billion (about ₩114 trillion), erasing over $4.7 billion (roughly ₩7 trillion) in a single day, with about 3.32 million shares traded.

Recently, NVIDIA announced a strategic investment of around $2 billion (approximately ₩3 trillion) in Coherent to strengthen its next-generation AI data-center photonics infrastructure, and secured a long-term purchase agreement worth several trillion won for optical components over multiple years. At the end of May, Rosenblatt Securities raised its target price for Coherent—citing a 40% year-over-year increase in data-center revenue—and hailed the company as a key supplier in AI networking.

Coherent is a U.S. photonics firm headquartered in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, manufacturing engineered materials, lasers, and optical components for the industrial, communications, electronics, and instrumentation markets. Originally listed as II-VI, the company rebranded after acquiring Coherent in 2022. Today, it is seen as a prime beneficiary of the AI data-center build-out, thanks to its ultra-high-speed optical transceivers and silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors.