KUALA LUMPUR (March 7): Shares of fabless semiconductor firms Oppstar Bhd (KL:OPPSTAR) and Key Asic Bhd (KL:KEYASIC) soared in early trade on Friday, following Malaysia’s partnership with Arm Holdings plc in a US$250 million (RM1.11 billion) deal over 10 years for a slew of semiconductor-related licences and knowhows. 

Oppstar shares gained 18.5 sen or 40% to settle at  66.5 sen within the first 15 minutes of trading, with more than 14 million shares exchanging hands.

Key Asic jumped half a sen or 12.5% to settle at 4.5 sen, with more than 15 million shares exchanging hands.

Analysts said Oppstar and Key Asic, along with another non-listed local company SkyeChip Sdn Bhd, are expected to be the first phase beneficiaries of the partnership. 

Kenanga Research said these companies will gain privileged access to Arm’s intellectual property (IP) and compute subsystems (CSS), enabling them to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chips.

Oppstar, with a team of 300 engineers, specialises in integrated circuit (IC) design services, offering both front-end and back-end design solutions. 

Meanwhile, SkyeChip focuses on advanced silicon IP and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), with a strong emphasis on memory interface technologies, supported by 330 engineers. 

Key ASIC specialises in ASIC design services and is backed by 43 employees. 

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