2025-01-16 07:28:34 :
(Bloomberg) — Semiconductor equipment maker Grand Venture Technology Ltd. is trying to turn the world on advanced memory as giants including Micron Technology Inc. and Infineon Technologies AG build new factories in Asia The desire for chips translates into opportunities to become a major supplier.
Julian Ng, chief executive of Singapore-based GVT, said demand for AI chips will grow in the coming years as the healthcare, education and financial industries adopt more services from AI agents such as Microsoft Corp’s Copilot. This is a boon for up-and-coming equipment suppliers such as GVT, as chipmakers need to invest in their production systems.
“We are riding the artificial intelligence wave,” Ng said in an interview. He said those who say artificial intelligence is a bubble are wrong because many industries have yet to adopt the technology.
Although GVT remains a niche player in the chip ecosystem, its annual revenue and share price have tripled since listing in Singapore in 2019. The company has benefited from the industry’s growth in Asia, selling chipmaking tools for factories from Malaysia to China.
Ng said that despite efforts by the United States and Europe to build chip factories on their own turf, Asia will remain the main location for the global chip supply chain.
“Backward migration is not going to be that simple because you need years of qualifications and understanding where your ecosystem is,” he said.
GVT has developed technologies such as hybrid bonding so more layers of chips can be stacked in a single package, making the product more efficient. The technology is key to producing complex semiconductors, including high-bandwidth memory chips. HBM chips are widely used in artificial intelligence computing to provide faster data access speeds with lower energy consumption.
A series of chipmakers are ramping up chip production in Southeast Asia. Last week, Micron announced that it would spend US$7 billion to produce HBM chips in Singapore. Germany’s Infineon started producing data center chips at a $7.2 billion Malaysian factory last year and later built a new factory in Thailand to produce power modules.
However, President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff policies have created uncertainty for the industry. Citigroup analysts Atif Malik and Elizabeth Sun warned last week that weak consumer demand and China’s economic slowdown could also affect capital spending by the largest chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics and Intel.
GVT is seeking a second stock listing in Kuala Lumpur to diversify its investor base. Wu gave no details about the planned listing but said any money raised would help the company grow its business and fund potential acquisitions of advanced materials companies.
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