AI Infrastructure Beneficiary CEO Sells Shares Worth Billions

Ciena Corporation (CIEN) President and CEO Gary B. Smith sold roughly 2,952 shares on both May 15 and June 1 under a pre-established Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, securing about $1.7 million per transaction (approximately KRW 2.02 billion). After these sales, Smith still directly owns around 270,000 shares—including unvested RSUs and PSUs—worth approximately $150 million (about KRW 200 billion) based on the stock price at the time of filing. In a separate Form 8-K filing, the company reported Q2 FY2026 revenue of about $1.57 billion (around KRW 2 trillion), up 40% year-over-year to a record quarterly high. Cloud and AI data-center interconnect demand accounted for the high-40% range of that revenue, driving improvements in both profitability and cash flow.

In its Q2 results released June 4, Ciena raised its full-year guidance and reaffirmed that strong growth will continue, fueled by AI-driven high-speed networking demand. The company also noted that its $1 billion share-repurchase program remains underway.

Headquartered in Maryland, USA, Ciena Corporation supplies optical network equipment and software—offering long-haul transport systems and data-center interconnect solutions to telecom carriers and cloud/hyperscale providers. Leveraging high-speed optical transmission technologies like WaveLogic 6 and AI networking products, Ciena cites global telecom and cloud investments to address rising AI traffic as its primary growth driver.