Optiemus hits upper circuit on Nothing JV term sheet

Optiemus Infracom Limited (NSE:OPTIEMUS) shares hit their 20% upper circuit limit on September 22, after the board approved a binding term sheet with Nothing Electronics for a smartphone joint venture. Optiemus will hold an initial 51.1% stake in the new entity. The joint venture will handle commercialisation and sale of CMF-branded products, starting with mobile phones and sub-assemblies, and is intended to build India's first full-stack smartphone R&D capability, spanning design, camera, software, and connectivity. Optiemus will acquire its 51.1% stake at face value, subject to conditions precedent and definitive agreements still to be signed. Each company will nominate one director to the JV board. The companies have confirmed this is not a related party transaction. Optiemus is also expected to join Nothing's upcoming Series A funding round for the CMF brand. This builds on an existing manufacturing partnership between the two companies, first disclosed in September 2025. A binding term sheet still requires conditions precedent and definitive agreements to close, and companies do occasionally see deals of this type fail to finalise on the originally announced terms. Optiemus moves from being a contract manufacturer for Nothing's products to a majority equity owner in a dedicated commercialisation and R&D entity. That is a genuinely different business model, ownership economics instead of manufacturing fees, and it changes how much of CMF's India revenue and margin Optiemus actually captures going forward, assuming the deal closes as structured. My stance: the strategic logic is sound, but I am treating this as pending until the definitive agreements are signed. Watching for that signing and the terms of Optiemus's participation in Nothing's Series A round. I do not hold Optiemus Infracom Limited at the time of writing.