Just finished reviewing the post-GTC reactions, and it's quite interesting. Many people thought that Jensen Huang would fully ignite the optical communication sector this time, but instead, what we saw was the most painful scene for the market—it's not negative news, but rather "not as positive as expected."

Honestly, before Jensen Huang took the stage, the market wasn’t waiting for a speech; it was waiting for a spark. The optical communication sector has been hot for a long time—ranging from CPO to silicon photonics, from optical modules to high-speed interconnects—everyone has been stacking all their AI infrastructure upgrade ideas on top of it. The OFC conference was held the same week, with technical sessions and exhibitions, pushing the enthusiasm to its peak. What the market wanted to hear wasn’t “the future direction is fine,” but a clearer message: in the next phase, optical will be the main focus.

But Jensen Huang didn’t say that. Of course, he mentioned optical, and he emphasized it strongly. The problem is, what he actually said was: optical is important, but copper cables won’t be phased out in the short term. NVIDIA plans to continue using copper cables in upcoming platforms, while also introducing newer optical technologies.

It’s this small difference that caused the market to change its tone immediately.

This is also the most painful part for the stock market—what’s most feared isn’t necessarily bad news, but that the positive news isn’t as strong as expected. The market originally anticipated optical to take over immediately, but what it heard was coexistence of copper and optical, and this gap was enough for stocks that had been driven up by sentiment to start pulling back.

More importantly, Jensen Huang’s comments actually change not the direction but the timeline. According to NVIDIA’s official technical blog, many internal rack connections will still be dominated by copper, and only larger-scale, cross-rack connections will be primarily optical. Simply put, it’s a layered application—copper remains the mainstay, optical will gradually penetrate, but it won’t replace everything immediately.

So, the most obvious change after the speech is the divergence. The previous theme of “as long as it’s connected to optical, it will rise” has shifted back to a more differentiated valuation—who truly benefits, and who is just riding the wave of sentiment.

Looking at individual stocks makes this even clearer. Lumentum continues to be discussed repeatedly, not just because it belongs to the optical sector, but because the market sees it as a candidate for “truly entering the next-generation interconnect system.” So even with short-term volatility, the market’s understanding remains at the level of “changing pace,” not “disappearing logic.” Coherent’s position is similar but priced differently, because once the focus shifts from “telling big stories” to “focusing on tangible results,” investors will pay more attention to the timing of realization and expected fulfillment. Ciena is relatively special; it reminds everyone that the final competition isn’t just about devices but the entire network capability. Applied Optoelectronics exemplifies the fate of highly flexible stocks—fast gains, full expectations, and if the catalyst isn’t strong enough, they get hit first. Credo reveals another important shift: it’s no longer just about benefiting from copper connections; the market will ask more detailed questions—specifically, which segment of copper connection benefits the most.

Ultimately, what’s most noteworthy about these stocks isn’t who rises or falls, but that the market is starting to treat them as assets with different positions, different realization timelines, and different levels of certainty. Previously, everyone was willing to lump them together; now, that basket is being unpacked. AI interconnects aren’t about “optical versus copper,” but about “who uses what where”—a division of roles.

Jensen Huang didn’t deny the importance of optical; he just didn’t frame his message in the way the market wanted to hear most. So after GTC, the market isn’t just looking at “whether there’s a story,” but at “who is closer to realization.” That’s also why, even within the optical communication sector, stock performances are beginning to diverge noticeably.

In the previous phase, many companies could still be traded together; now, the market is paying more and more attention to finer details. The real gap isn’t about who can tell the better story, but who can turn the story into results earlier. The divergence has just begun.