Ambiq Micro's Successful IPO Signals Strong Investor Interest in AI-Driven Chip Technology

Kleiner Perkins-backed Ambiq pops on IPO debut | TechCrunch

Ambiq Micro, a 15-year-old manufacturer of energy-efficient chips for wearable and medical devices, closed its first day of trading on Wednesday at $38.53 a share, a 61% increase from the $24 IPO price the company set the previous day. The success of the IPO signals strong investor demand in the public market for new small-cap companies benefiting from AI innovation. Ambiq closed its first day as a public company with a valuation of $656 million (excluding employee options). This represents a significant increase from its last private funding valuation of $450 million in 2023, according to PitchBook. Ambiq has pitched itself as well-positioned to capitalize on the growth driven by AI. "Because we're so low energy, we can put more intelligence and more AI on board" of edge processors, the company's CTO Scott Hanson told TechCrunch. For the three months that ended March 31, Ambiq posted a net loss of $8.3 million against revenues of $15.7 million, the company's S1 filing shows. The Q1 results mark a slight improvement from the first quarter of 2024, when the company reported a $9.8 million loss on $15.2 million in revenue. Kleiner Perkins and EDB Investments, a Singaporean state-backed entity, are the largest outside backers of Ambiq, according to the filing. Wen Hsieh, who was a general partner at Kleiner Perkins until 2023, first backed Ambiq when the company raised its Series C in 2014. Hsieh also invested in Ambiq after he launched his own venture firm, Matter Venture Partners, two years ago.

Arm-Backed Chipmaker Ambiq Raises $96 Million in IPO

Ambiq Micro Inc., a maker of ultra-low power semiconductors for artificial intelligence applications, raised $96 million in an upsized initial public offering, pricing its shares near the top of a marketed range, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Austin-based company, which counts Arm Holdings Plc among its investors, sold 4 million shares Tuesday for $24 each after marketing 3.4 million for $22 to $25, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information wasn't public yet.

Ambiq Micro shares close up 60% after IPO as chip designer targets smart glasses

SAN FRANCISCO, July 30 (Reuters) - Shares of chip designer Ambiq Micro (AMBQ.N), opens new tab ended their first trading day on the New York Stock Exchange up more than 60% on Wednesday after the firm raised $96 million in an initial public offering. The Austin, Texas-based company, which specializes in small computing chips that consume very little energy, began trading at $24 per share and rose as much as 101.8% before ending the day at $38.53, valuing it at $656.5 million. Ambiq filed for its initial public offering earlier in July, with BofA Securities and UBS acting as the lead underwriters for the offering. The company has focused on wearable devices such as smart watches. Sales to Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, Garmin (GRMN.BN), opens new tab and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd made up more than 85% of its revenue in its most recent year. Ambiq founder and Chief Technology Officer Scott Hanson told Reuters the company's newest family of chips aims to target devices such as smart glasses, which run speech and image recognition algorithms on devices with very small batteries. "We spent the last 10-plus years figuring out how to build the lowest power chips, and so we're in a great position to attack the same problem (on glasses)," Hanson said. "The transistor doesn't care what problem it's solving, whether it was some security function we did a couple of years ago or, today, some AI model." Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Chipmaker Ambiq Micro shares soar 60%+ after $96M IPO - SiliconANGLE

Shares of chipmaker 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 Apollo510 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 decreases 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 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.

Ambiq Micro shares soar 60%+ after $96M IPO - SiliconANGLE

Shares of chipmaker 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 Apollo510 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 decreases 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 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.

Arm-Backed Chipmaker Ambiq Micro Nearly Doubles in First Day of Trading

Ambiq is a chipmaker backed by companies like Arm Holdings that generated about $76 million in revenue last year with an adjusted net loss around $28.6 million. Shares of Ambiq Micro (AMBQ), a chipmaker backed by companies including Arm Holdings (ARM), nearly doubled in value during the stock's first day of trading on Wednesday. Following an initial public offering priced at $24, Ambiq shares were trading at approximately $40 on Wednesday afternoon, peaking at $47 earlier in the session. Ambiq offered nearly 4 million shares in the offering, raising $96 million in its IPO. Trading of the stock was halted on Wednesday for two five-minute periods due to volatility, the New York Stock Exchange's tracking system showed. In its prospectus filed earlier this month, Ambiq said it would have about 17.04 million shares outstanding after the offering, or up to 17.55 million shares if all options to buy more shares were exercised, putting the company's debut market capitalization around $700 million to $720 million. The company said in the filing that it manufactures "ultra-low power semiconductor solutions designed to address the significant power consumption challenges of general purpose and AI compute," and said it shipped over 42 million units last year. Last year, Ambiq generated about $76.1 million in revenue, with an adjusted net loss of about $28.6 million, compared with $65.5 million in revenue and a wider adjusted net loss of $39.2 million in 2023, the filing showed.

This Arm-Backed Chipmaker Just Soared 98% on Day One -- Should You Buy the Hype? | The Motley Fool

This small company hopes to capitalize on the edge AI opportunities that could be worth billions of dollars over the next several years. The booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) has opened the door for up-and-coming companies to enter the public markets. Ambiq Micro (AMBQ -7.04%) is the latest initial public offering (IPO) stock success story. It recently began trading and jumped a whopping 98% on day one. The company's low-powered semiconductor technology has garnered interest, including from Arm Holdings, the renowned chip design company, which has already invested in Ambiq Micro. AI chips have become a booming industry, and Ambiq is still a tiny company, worth less than $1 billion. Here is what you need to know about this relatively unknown AI chip stock, and whether investors should consider buying into the hype today. At the moment, artificial intelligence revolves around data centers, massive clusters of chips and computing resources that pool together to train and operate AI models at scale, where millions of people can simultaneously prompt and utilize the technology. But over time, AI must move further into the real world to realize its potential. The smart watch you wear, the machines in factories, and the smart collar around an animal's neck are localized uses, also referred to as the edge, where AI must shrink down to a bite-sized version. Ambiq Micro specializes in low-power semiconductors for such applications, where devices must balance performance with low power consumption to be practical. Ambiq Micro's core end markets are currently in personal devices, healthcare, industrials, and smart buildings and homes. To date, the company has shipped chips powering over 265 million devices. Management estimates that its core end markets will create a $22.5 billion addressable market by 2028. Ambiq Micro generated just $76 million in total revenue last year, so this is a wide-open growth opportunity. The company claims that its proprietary platform, sub-threshold power optimized technology (SPOT), is its secret sauce that will enable it to continue to build and capture this addressable market. Arm Holdings is a world leader in chip designs and other intellectual property, so its backing speaks positively to Ambiq Micro's technology. At the same time, Ambiq Micro is still a small company compared to the leading chip stocks, so it's fair to wonder why a company hasn't simply acquired Ambiq Micro if its SPOT platform is such a game changer for the broader AI landscape. It could be due to the competition in the low-powered semiconductor space from numerous companies, including some deep-pocketed incumbents, like Texas Instruments, who may feel they can beat it with their offerings. The company's primary end markets totaled $12.8 billion as of 2023, so Ambiq Micro's $76 million in total sales last year signals that it's currently a minor player in the broader market and must make that ground up over time. Ambiq Micro's top 10 customers also contributed nearly all of its sales last year, despite having over 200 total customers. Losing any of those key relationships would likely devastate growth, and Ambiq Micro's sales grew by just 16.1% from 2023 to 2024. That's not bad, but it's also not remarkable when talking about base numbers under $100 million. Ambiq Micro will need to prove, through many quarters of strong business results, that it genuinely has special technology. There are enough red flags that investors must be careful not to let the hype get out of hand. Fortunately, it doesn't appear to have reached that point yet. The stock's valuation is fairly reasonable despite its impressive gains on its first trading day. Ambiq Micro has a $673 million market cap, at the time of this writing, valuing the stock at under 10 times last year's revenue. That's reasonable for a growing semiconductor company with AI opportunities. For comparison, Nvidia trades at a price-to-sales ratio of 29. One could expect Ambiq Micro to trade at a significant discount to that, given Nvidia's industry leadership and growth. Investors shouldn't feel compelled to chase the stock if it continues to soar higher, but it may be worth nibbling here if you believe in the technology. The big-picture opportunities favor Ambiq Micro -- it simply must prove whether it will be among the companies leading the way as edge AI materializes over the coming years.

Ambiq Micro's IPO Could Signal the Next Wave of AI-Driven Chip Stocks | The Motley Fool

AI has been growing by leaps and bounds, but some believe it has a power problem. Ambiq might have the solution. Since generative artificial intelligence (AI) burst on the scene more than two years ago, some of the biggest beneficiaries have been chipmakers. More specifically, advanced semiconductors provide the computational horsepower necessary to breathe life into these AI algorithms. Nvidia, Broadcom, and Arm Holdings have all been at the forefront of AI chip design and reaped the rewards. Nvidia and Broadcom stocks have soared 961% and 439%, respectively, since late 2022, while Arm has gained 173% since its September 2023 initial public offering (IPO). Ambiq Micro (AMBQ -3.42%) made a big splash during its public debut, as the low-power chip designer's stock surged 61% on its first day of trading last Wednesday, though it has since leveled off. Investors have been keen to profit from the ongoing adoption of AI, and the robust demand for Ambiq Micro stock suggests that power-miserly AI chip stocks could mark the next frontier. One of the biggest challenges associated with the increasing adoption of AI is the issue of power consumption. Most chipmakers have taken a brute-force approach, increasing the sheer magnitude of computational horsepower to decrease the time necessary to train and run these next-generation algorithms. The complex calculations required are computationally intensive, resulting in an increasing amount of energy consumption. Ambiq is taking a different approach. In the S-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prior to its IPO, the company described itself as a "pioneer and leading provider of ultra-low-power semiconductor solutions designed to address the significant power consumption challenges of general-purpose and AI compute -- especially at the edge." Ambiq suggests its hardware and software innovations "deliver two to five times lower power consumption than traditional semiconductor design." The company is currently focused on the edge, including personal devices, as well as the medical and healthcare industries. Many of these applications are currently handled by small devices with limited battery life, where reduced power consumption is critical. In the future, Ambiq is working to expand its ultra-low-power technology to other areas of AI, including high-performance computing (HPC), data centers, and automotive, which could mark the next wave of AI chip solutions. The need for power-miserly solutions could usher in the next wave of AI chips, and Ambiq's results are intriguing. For the year ended Dec. 31, the company generated revenue of $76 million, up 16% year over year, while its loss per share of $113.81 improved 24%. The trend continued in the quarter ended March 31, as revenue of $15.7 million climbed 3%, while its loss per share of $18.96 improved 30%. There is a significant concentration risk. Ambiq divulged that its top five customers accounted for 92% of revenue in the most recent quarter. Furthermore, wireless device specialist Garmin, Alphabet's Google, and "another confidential customer" represented 38%, 25%, and 23% of net sales, respectively, according to its regulatory filing. Ambiq's flagship system-on-a-chip (SoC) is designed for smaller form-factor devices, such as smartwatches, fitness trackers, hearing aids, virtual and augmented reality glasses, and livestock tracking devices. Chief technology officer (CTO) Scott Hanson noted the company's next frontier is smart glasses. "We spent the last 10-plus years figuring out how to build the lowest power chips, and so we're in a great position to attack the same problem (on glasses)," he said. The low-power wearable chips market is expected to grow by 15% annually between 2024 and 2030 to nearly $28 billion. When viewed in the context of Ambiq's 2024 sales of $76 million, the opportunity is apparent. It's important to remember that while Ambiq's potential is clear, risks abound. It has only just entered the glare of the public spotlight, and investors should keep in mind the aforementioned concentration risk and mounting losses, though its results are moving in the right direction. There's also the matter of Ambiq's valuation. As of market close on Monday, the stock had a market cap of roughly $673 million and trailing-12-month sales of $76.6 million. That works out to about 9 times sales, and while that's certainly not outrageous, it is a high price to pay for an unprofitable company with little public track record. As such, investors interested in taking a stake in this ultra-low-power pioneer should make Ambiq a small part of a well-balanced portfolio.

Ambiq Micro Stock Pops on IPO Debut: What's Fueling the Surge? | The Motley Fool

Ambiq is focusing on chips with the lowest power consumption and also the highest computing performance. Software company Figma may have garnered the most attention from investors monitoring initial public offerings (IPOs) last week, but another tech name also nearly doubled in its market debut. Ambiq Micro (AMBQ -3.42%) priced its IPO at $24 per share on Wednesday, July 30, and shares were trading at over $50 on Thursday before closing at about $40 one day later. The semiconductor chip company could be tapping into what might be the next frontier for the expanding artificial intelligence (AI) market. Much of the hype in the AI sector is coming from spending to build out data centers and compute power. Hyperscalers provide large-scale cloud infrastructure, platforms, and software services to businesses. Hyperscalers need massive processing power for that cloud-based AI infrastructure. Ambiq plans to integrate its ultra-low power technology into those high-performance compute applications, as well as automotive chip products. For now, though, Ambiq is addressing another need at the edge of AI applications with end users. Power efficiency is more critical in end markets such as personal devices, medical and health monitoring, and smart-home products due to small device size and limited battery life. Ambiq does this with its Sub-threshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT) platform. The company says incorporating SPOT results in a 2x to 5x reduction in power consumption compared to conventional integrated circuit designs, depending on the application. The platform gives customers more flexibility to run AI models faster with faster inference rates. Having significantly reduced power needs also allows the platform to add more sensors, shrink battery size, or extend battery life. AI usage on SPOT is expanding quickly, according to Ambiq. Its customer base includes China-based technology giant Huawei, leading GPS-device maker Garmin, Alphabet's wearable technology subsidiary Fitbit, and Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi. Amid an uncertain geopolitical environment and tariff risks, the company is working to reduce its reliance on Chinese customers. While sales in the first quarter only grew by 3.4% year over year, net sales from end customers in the United States, Europe, and Asia (outside of mainland China) soared 94%. Ambiq is also achieving higher gross margins outside of mainland China and says it will continue to focus on growing its business outside of China. With the shift out of mainland China, gross profit margin soared from 41% to 53.3% year over year in the first quarter. The company also generated positive cash flow from operations of $1.4 million in Q1. So it is on a path to profitability. Valuation doesn't look to be one of the main risks associated with Ambiq after its IPO. Its market cap is just about $670 million after its third day of trading. Compare that to Figma with a market cap already at $60 billion. Figma's current revenue run rate is much higher at about $1.5 billion, but its valuation at 40 times sales still makes Figma a very expensive stock to buy. Ambiq's price-to-sales ratio is comparably low at just over 10. Yet there are risks to be aware of. Ambiq currently depends on a limited number of customers for most of its revenue. Huawei accounted for about 41% of net sales last year. Garmin and Alphabet comprised approximately 24% and 21% of net sales, respectively, in 2024. The move away from China will certainly change that dynamic, though. In the first quarter of 2025, only 6% of net sales were to end customers in mainland China, down from 50% during the first quarter of 2024. Ambiq also doesn't have long-term commitments from its end customers, so business results could change abruptly. Yet if Edge AI is the next frontier beyond the buildout of data center compute power, Ambiq is nicely positioned. That helps explain its successful debut in the markets last week, and should warrant more research from investors interested in an early investment in Edge AI.

Ambiq Announces Closing of its Upsized Initial Public Offering and Full Exercise of Underwriters' Option to Purchase Additional Shares

AUSTIN, Texas, July 31, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ambiq Micro, Inc. ("Ambiq"), a technology leader in ultra-low-power semiconductor solutions for edge AI, today announced the closing of its upsized initial public offering of 4,600,000 shares of its common stock, including the full exercise of the underwriters' option to purchase 600,000 additional shares, at a public offering price of $24.00 per share. The gross proceeds to Ambiq from the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses payable by Ambiq, were $110.4 million. The shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "AMBQ" on July 30, 2025. BofA Securities and UBS Investment Bank acted as joint lead book-running managers for the offering. Needham & Company and Stifel acted as joint book-running managers for the offering. A registration statement relating to the offering of securities was declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on July 29, 2025. The offering was made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the final prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained by contacting: BofA Securities, NC1-022-02-25, 201 North Tryon Street, Charlotte, North Carolina 28255-0001, Attention: Prospectus Department, or by email at [email protected] or UBS Securities LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 1285 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10019, by telephone at (888) 827-7275 or by emailing [email protected]. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction. About Ambiq Ambiq's mission is to enable intelligence (artificial intelligence (AI) and beyond) everywhere by delivering the lowest power semiconductor solutions. Ambiq enables its customers to deliver AI compute at the edge where power consumption challenges are the most severe. Ambiq's technology innovations, built on the patented and proprietary subthreshold power optimized technology (SPOT®), fundamentally deliver a multi-fold improvement in power consumption over traditional semiconductor designs. Ambiq has powered over 270 million devices to date. Contact IR Shelton Group [email protected] +1 972-239-5119 PR Charlene Wan VP of Corporate Marketing [email protected] A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/16427c9e-307a-4d98-a6be-02324412ac0d

Ambiq Micro Surges in Debut After Upsized IPO

Shares of Ambiq Micro, which focuses on ultra-low-power semiconductor technology, surged in their New York Stock Exchange debut Wednesday after an upsized initial public offering. The stock was recently up 65% to $39.60. The IPO of 4 million shares priced at $24 each. Ambiq had expected to offer 3.4 million shares for $22 to $25 each. Ambiq's investors include Arm Holdings. As of last week, the company's largest stockholder was Kleiner Perkins, with 14.8%. Ambiq's products are intended to address the power consumption challenges of AI. Its system-on-chips are used for markets such as smartwatches and fitness trackers, augmented and virtual reality glasses, hearing aids and livestock tracking. In January, Ambiq and ThinkAR said the 37-gram AiLens "redefines lightweight smart glasses with an extraordinary 10+ hours of battery life." Write to Josh Beckerman at [email protected]