Arm-backed Ambiq debuts on NYSE: CEO talks IPO, AI demand
finance.yahoo.com
Chipmaker Ambiq Micro ( AMBQ) — backed by Arm Holdings ( ARM) — debuted on the NYSE on Wednesday. The company aims to make wearables last longer and work smarter with ultra-low power chips.
Fumihide "Humi" Esaka, CEO of Ambiq, joins Market Domination to discuss the initial public offering (IPO) and explain how edge artificial intelligence (AI) and energy efficiency are driving demand as the company makes its public debut.
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Shares of the Austin-based company closed at $38.53 each on Wednesday in New York, above the IPO price of $24 apiece. The stock was halted twice for volatility. Ambiq’s offering of 4 million shares was marketed in a range of $22 to $25 each.
The trading gives Ambiq a market value of $680 million, based on the outstanding shares listed in its filings. Including stock options, warrants and restricted stock units, Ambiq has a diluted value closer to $741 million.
Ambiq’s platform promises to deliver as much as five times lower energy consumption versus traditional chips, the filings show. The Arm Holdings Plc-backed company’s chip technology is helping to move AI computing power from the data center to wearable products such as smartwatches and fitness trackers, whose power limitations have previously hampered their AI potential.
“In phase one of the company we saw customers extend the battery life of devices, but the real value proposition that matters is when we enable the same battery life and add AI functions that were not viable before,” said Scott Hanson, Ambiq’s chief technology officer.
Other potential applications of Ambiq’s technology could include embedding large language models on devices such as augmented- and virtual-reality glasses, Hanson said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
Largest Customer
Ambiq has a relatively concentrated customer base. Its largest customer in the first quarter of this year, which it didn’t identify, accounted for 38% of revenue in the period, according to the filings. End customers accounting for 10% or more of net sales during the quarter included Garmin Ltd., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and another unidentified customer. In 2024, China’s Huawei Technologies Co. accounted for 41% of net sales, while Garmin had 24% and Google had 21%. |
