I think that's incorrect on a couple of different levels.
The first and by far the most critical error is that KBLB and AMSilk are on vastly different curves, as they have vastly different approaches with different limits. It's the nature and structure of the limits that matters most, in the long term. KBLB has fewer producibility limits up front (worms make silk)... and huge limits at the tail, tied to permanently longer lead times and major costs with vastly less benefit in potential. AMSilk has major producibility limits up front (which they appear to have succeeded in overcoming now in a first generation tech) and they have virtually none of the limits KBLB has as tail risks, with a wide open field enabling innovation in doing things with materials in a competition that KBLB can't ever hope to participate in.
Then, for anyone who's been following this for a while, it's pretty hard to be convincing while flogging the incorrect concept that KBLB isn't pretty well behind on the effort being made following their own curve. To remain relevant, KBLB needed to be where they are now... three or four years ago. I don't think the delay they've experienced over the last year should be ignored. It clearly highlights ongoing process risks some would prefer to ignore, even as they're realized... but, the bigger issue being highlighted, by far, is the element in the organizational risks versus the technical. KBLB clearly is challenged in the truthiness department... while more focused on promoting the stock than improving their competitive position. Red flags abound.
Looking beyond the technical aspects, KBLB is vastly less limited by the natural limits in the technology... than they are by the range of problems apparent in the management of the effort.
But, the primary issue in the competition itself is that the KBLB curve has very significant limits in potential that result from the vastly larger fixed limits inherent in the natural production systems versus the artificial... which mean KBLB's products will never be capable of exceeding the performance attained at that limit... which is a limit reached by KBLB at the point where the AMSilk curve is just beginning. AMSilk's entering argument... begins with solving the problems that are the source of KBLB's limits. And, AMSilk is there... now. AMSilk will be slower to develop, at first, given the first tier technical challenges in the artificial spinning process... but, then, AMSilk will accelerate... while KBLB remains mired in the slog you've seen them muddling through for the last three years plus.
Vastly different trajectories... vastly different potentials.
I agree with others who are noting that KBLB, with a better effort in management, and a more significant success than they've shown capable of managing thus far in adapting the effort to market requirements, might hope to eventually carve out a market niche in providing fiber for the garment industry... and that's about it. That focus basically limits their potential to being a niche player within the already established silk industry. But, the effort you see that is being made... applies additional limits. Being a niche provider or even top dog among existing silk producers... is not the goal that drives the scientific and big market interest in silk as an engineered technical fiber...
What Wall Street is looking for... is the curve that begins where KBLB's curve ends...
The limits inherent in the not yet ready for prime time KBLB management effort... has prevented KBLB from ever becoming more relevant than they are now.
That's probably why you see more evidence they're gearing up for promotion... than you can see evidence that they're gearing up for production...
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