A UK filing shows Richard Griffiths at 5.56% of IQE, a quarter in derivatives, as MACOM plans rival lasers
A TR-1 published November 9 shows Jersey investor Richard Griffiths jumping from under 3 percent to 5.56 percent of IQE, a quarter of it in cash-settled CFDs, days after MACOM disclosed its own equity stake and a plan to sell competing AI lasers from 2028. Two camps are now accumulating the same scarce wafer maker, and two forthcoming documents will price both bets.
Vincent Jiangthree-minute read
A regulatory filing landed on the London Stock Exchange wire on November 9 and nobody wrote it up 1. The TR-1, the form UK companies must file when a shareholder crosses 5 percent, shows Richard Griffiths, a private investor registered in St Helier, Jersey, moving from under 3 percent of IQE plc+2.41% — IQE plc, up 2.41 percent today to 5.56 percent, with the threshold crossed on November 6 1. Kalkine ran a headline; the filing itself went unexamined 3.
It deserves the reading, because IQE is the Cardiff company that grows the indium phosphide wafers inside the lasers carrying data around AI datacentres, and its ownership is quietly changing hands in two different currencies.
The stakes: one wafer maker, two kinds of money
The filing splits the position in two. Griffiths holds 53,392,362 shares outright, 4.01 percent of the voting rights, plus 20,620,062 cash-settled CFDs, derivatives that carry the economics of 1.55 percent more without owning a single share 1. The derivatives are the tell: a financial bet that can scale again without ever surfacing on the share register until the next threshold trips.
The other owner is strategic. MACOM Technology Solutions−2.20% — MACOM Technology Solutions, down 2.20 percent today, the Nasdaq-listed chipmaker, disclosed a "recently completed" equity investment in IQE in its fiscal-year release on November 5 and targets entry into the continuous-wave laser market for 2028, selling 800G, 1.6T and 3.2T lasers against Lumentum−1.81% — Lumentum, down 1.81 percent today, the laser maker Marvell−0.87% — Marvell, down 0.87 percent today agreed to buy for $115 billion six days earlier 2. IQE appointed two MACOM executives to its board in July, when MACOM's stake was reported at 11.5 percent 4.
Two camps in IQE: MACOM's 11.5% dwarfs Griffiths's 5.56%, a quarter of it in derivatives
The strategic holder is still more than twice the size of the new financial one
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| MACOM stake (reported) | 11.5% |
| Griffiths direct shares | 4.01% |
| Griffiths CFDs | 1.55% |
The complication: the shareholder is also becoming the competitor
Here is the tension in one sentence: MACOM funds and supplies the wafer maker while building the product that competes with IQE's customers from 2028 5. IQE raised revenue guidance on November 6, citing accelerating indium phosphide demand for AI datacentre photonics, and the shares closed up 5.3 percent at 36.60p 5.
The backdrop sharpens the stakes: China holds about 70 percent of world indium phosphide supply, wafer prices rose roughly 250 percent in June, and IQE's chief executive Jutta Meier has named export controls a key industry risk 6. Whoever holds the wafers holds pricing power.
The receipts and the counterpoint
The receipts: first-half 2026 revenue of £64.6 million, up 43 percent, with photonics up 45 percent to £38.5 million and adjusted EBITDA positive at £6 million 7; an £81 million April fundraise built around MACOM's investment and long-term supply agreements 2; no bank debt 5. The counterpoint is fair: Marvell's takeover news knocked 36 percent off its own stock and 31 percent off Lumentum in a week, so AI-optics enthusiasm can invert fast 8. And a CFD position is a rental of conviction; it can leave as fast as it arrived.
The open door: two documents settle the size question
MACOM's fiscal 2026 Form 10-K will state how much of IQE the buyer owns, and IQE's next regulatory news statement will show whose demand the raised guidance assumes, customer or future rival 2. Watch also for Griffiths's next TR-1: a holder who built from under 3 percent to 5.56 percent partly in derivatives can do it again without buying a share 1. Until those documents land, IQE's register holds a strategic owner planning to compete and a financial one betting early, and neither has said why.
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