Deep Dive: Fabrinet (NYSE: FN), recorded Wednesday, Nov 11, 2026.

Welcome to The Informed Position, a markets podcast from two college students learning finance in public. In our first Deep Dive we take apart Fabrinet, the contract manufacturer that builds the optical transceivers moving data through AI data centers:

• What Fabrinet makes, and why AI data centers are moving from copper to fiber optics (jitter, attenuation and speed)

• Who it builds for (Nvidia, Amazon, Cisco) and why they don't build it themselves: clean rooms and micron-level laser alignment

• Nvidia's share of Fabrinet's revenue has more than halved over the last two years, and Amazon's warrant deal

• Volatility: Fabrinet has been moving more than its options price in, and how tightly it trades with the chip sector

• Valuation: roughly 19 to 24 times earnings, depending on GAAP or non-GAAP

• Where the product goes: U.S. exposure, China, and the Thailand plant

• Switching costs: why customer qualification audits make Fabrinet hard to replace

• The Position: why we don't have a directional trade, and what a straddle or strangle would look like

The Position: none. Neither host holds Fabrinet stock or options.

For reference, the volatility structures we mentioned, priced at the Nov 11 close (FN about $370; options expire Apr 16, 2027):

• Straddle (buy the $370 call and the $370 put): costs about $140 a share ($14,000 per contract pair), which is also the maximum loss. Breakevens at expiry: $230 and $510. It needs a big move either way, or option prices to rise.

• Strangle (buy the $320 put and the $420 call): costs about $98 a share ($9,800 per pair), also the maximum loss. Breakevens at expiry: $222 and $518. It needs an even bigger move.

New episodes: Weekly Recap on Saturdays, Deep Dive on Wednesdays, and occasional guest episodes.

Got a topic, a correction or a question? Email theinformedposition@gmail.com, and we may read it on the show.

Intro and outro music: original, made for the show. Cold-open clips: public-domain U.S. government recordings (presidential addresses, the Treasury, and Federal Reserve press conferences).

We're not registered investment advisers or brokers. Everything here is opinion and education, not advice for your situation, and investing, especially in options, can lose money. Do your own research.

Chapters

00:00 Cold open

00:35 Intro: how we pick a Deep Dive

03:33 What Fabrinet makes

04:19 Why AI data centers are moving from copper to fiber

07:19 Who Fabrinet builds for: Nvidia, Amazon, Cisco

08:27 Why customers don't build in-house: clean rooms and precision

11:15 Nvidia's shrinking share of Fabrinet's revenue

15:54 Volatility: moving more than the options price

20:40 The Position: why we have no trade

25:19 Fundamentals and valuation: GAAP vs. non-GAAP

29:08 Where the product goes: U.S. exposure, China, Thailand

32:43 Beyond the data center: could the business model shift?

37:56 Revenue outside the data center

39:22 Competitors and Amazon's warrants

41:13 Switching costs: customer qualification audits

44:38 Wrapping up: the informed position is no position

46:52 Sign-off