PUTRAJAYA (May 11): GreatAsic Technology Sdn Bhd, Main Market-bound SkyeChip Bhd and Oppstar Bhd’s (KL:OPPSTAR) Oppstar Technology Sdn Bhd are the first three chip design firms to secure offers from the government on Arm Ltd’s design tokens. 

Formal offer letters were presented to the trio for access to the British firm’s Neoverse Compute Subsystems (CSS) and Arm Flexible Access (AFA) on Monday during a ceremony officiated by Economy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir.

“The burden is no longer on the government alone. The companies must deliver. To the companies receiving offer letters today — this is not merely approval, it is a call to deliver,” Akmal said.

GreatAsic was given access to both AFA and CSS from Arm Holdings. AFA gives companies early, low-cost access to its chip designs so they can experiment, develop, and test products without paying full licensing fees upfront, while CSS are ready-made chip building blocks that let companies design processors faster without starting from scratch. SkyeChip and Oppstar only received access to AFA. 

By providing access to Arm’s AFA and CSS, the government is giving the three firms a low-risk, high-speed environment to innovate using world-class chip architecture.

This allows them to bypass massive upfront licensing costs and focus on custom design, significantly accelerating their time-to-market.

Ultimately, it transitions these companies toward high-value semiconductor design, enhancing Malaysia's global competitiveness.

“Once they move into the creation stage, there will naturally be a period allocated, depending on the creation or design work undertaken. Only after that will the process of commercialisation begin,” he said.

“In terms of timeline, my own view is that we should aim to achieve this within three years — to produce chips that we can genuinely call 'Made by Malaysia',” he added.

The access tokens are part of the government’s US$250 million (RM1.1 billion) deal with Arm.

The initiative offers two access tiers: AFA, tailored for start-ups and smaller companies, and Arm CSS, intended for larger, more established enterprises. 

A total of 25 access tokens has been allocated for AFA applicants, while seven are reserved for those applying through CSS.

When asked when the remainder of the tokens will be offered out, Akmal said names have been shortlisted and will be announced in due time once they go through the proper procedure.

Its objective is to seed 10 local chip companies that are expected to collectively generate up to US$20 billion in annual revenue and to produce Malaysian-designed chips in five to seven years, in line with the country’s ambition to move from a “Made in Malaysia” to a “Made by Malaysia” model and to create global Malaysian champions.

The Malaysian government inked the decade-long deal with Arm, backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, in March 2025.

At the time of writing, shares of Oppstar were up five sen or 13.16% at 43 sen, valuing the company at RM275.79 million.