NEW YORK, Jan 30, 2026, 13:05 EST — Regular session
- AAOI shares rose sharply on Friday, extending a volatile two-day stretch in the optical networking name.
- A Form 144 filing this week flagged a planned insider sale.
- Traders are watching short interest and the next data point on bearish bets.
Applied Optoelectronics shares jumped 12.8% to $44.63 on Friday, after swinging between $37.95 and $48.03 in heavy trade. The stock’s session high matched its 52-week high, and volume topped 8 million shares versus a roughly 3 million-share average.
The sharp move keeps AAOI on momentum radars as traders crowd into smaller names tied to the buildout of artificial-intelligence data centers, where faster fiber links matter. The stock has been snapping higher and lower, the kind of tape that tends to pull in short-term money and shake out fundamentals-focused investors.
A Form 144 filed on Wednesday showed company insider David Kuo planned to sell 12,000 shares, with the filing listing an aggregate market value of about $540,671 and an approximate sale date of Jan. 28. The same filing also disclosed a prior sale of 12,500 shares on Dec. 23. 1
Short interest has added to the noise around the name. Applied Optoelectronics had about 12.0 million shares sold short, or roughly 18.5% of the float, with a little over two days to cover, according to data compiled by Fintel from exchange and FINRA sources. Short selling is when traders borrow shares and sell them, aiming to buy them back cheaper later. 2
In a Jan. 28 commentary, Zacks writer Andrew Rocco pointed to what he called a “volume order” for 800G transceivers from a major hyperscale customer, and flagged elevated short interest as fuel for sharp moves when the stock runs. 3
Applied Optoelectronics has leaned into that AI-linked narrative since December, when it said it received its first volume order for 800G data center transceivers from a “major hyperscale customer.” “Our customers need optical solutions that can scale to support the speed and performance required for today’s AI-powered data transmissions,” CEO Dr. Thompson Lin said in that release, adding the company believed it was positioned for “high volume” shipments. CFO Stefan Murry said the same customer had placed orders for nearly $22 million of 400G transceivers for the year-to-date period cited, including $13 million delivered so far in the fourth quarter, and the company said 800G shipments could contribute $4 million to $8 million of fourth-quarter revenue. But the company also warned that results can swing with customer order changes and shipment timing, and it cited reliance on a small number of customers among its risk factors. 4
Transceivers are the modules that turn electrical data from switches and servers into light signals that run over fiber, and back again. “800G” refers to 800 gigabits per second of throughput, a speed class that has been closely watched as cloud operators push more data around inside and between AI-heavy data centers.
Next up, traders focused on short interest will be looking at the official end-of-month short-interest snapshot for the Jan. 30 settlement date, which FINRA’s schedule shows will be published on Feb. 10. 5
