Shares of chip provider Ambiq Micro Inc. jumped more than 60% in their trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange today.

A few hours earlier, the company raised $96 million through its initial public offering. Ambiq originally planned to sell 3 million shares for $22 to $25 apiece, which would have added up to $85 million at the top of the range. The chipmaker instead sold 4 million shares for $24 apiece.

Austin-based Ambiq sells processors for battery-powered devices such as wearables and TV remotes. The company’s flagship chip, the Apollo510, combines a central processing unit with a graphics processing unit that can run artificial intelligence models. There are also cybersecurity modules that perform tasks such as checking the onboard firmware for tempering.

The Apollo510’s CPU is based on Arm Holdings plc’s low-power Cortex M55 core design. The core includes a technology called Helium that helps speed up AI models. Helium extends the CPU’s instruction set, the language in which it expresses computations, with optimizations that make it possible to process vectors more efficiently. Vectors are the data structures in which AI models keep information.

The chip fends off cyberattacks with the help of a mechanism called a physical unclonable function, or PUF. It protects the chip’s root key from theft. A root key is a pre-installed encryption key that a processor uses to protect sensitive data. 

Devices usually keep encryption keys in persistent memory, which means hackers can steal the keys if they compromise that memory. Ambiq’s PUF technology removes the need to store keys in persistent memory. Turning off a PUF-equipped chip makes its root key inaccessible, which lowers the risk of hacking.

Ambiq has also equipped its chips with a technology called SPOT that helps reduce their power usage. Typically, switching a transistor between 1 and 0 requires 0.8 to 1.2 volts. SPOT enables Ambiq’s chips to perform the task using a small fraction of the power, which boosts energy efficiency.

The company’s IPO filing revealed that its silicon powers over 270 million devices worldwide. Ambiq sold more than 40 million chips last year alone and generated $76.1 million in revenue, a 16% increase from 2023. During the same time frame, Ambiq’s annual loss narrowed by about $10.6 million.

The company’s improving financial performance likely factored into its strong trading debut today. The stock price increase may also reflect investor optimism about Ambiq’s long-term growth strategy.

In its IPO filing, Ambiq revealed plans to extend its focus beyond battery-powered devices to other systems such as vehicles and robots. The company will introduce a “broad portfolio” of processors for such systems. One of the products in the works, Atomiq, is a system-on-chip optimized to run AI models.

SPOT, the technology that allows Ambiq’s chips to switch between 1 and 0 using less than one volt, is also a focus of the growth push. The company plans to license the technology to other semiconductor suppliers. Furthermore, Ambiq will adapt SPOT for use in more types of processors including networking chips.

Image: Ambiq Micro