KUALA LUMPUR (May 21): SkyeChip Bhd’s (KL:SKYECHIP) strong debut momentum continued into its second day of trading. The stock ended Thursday with a 12 sen or 5.43% gain at RM2.33, with 79.3 million shares changing hands. 

At the latest close, the company is valued at RM4.18 billion.

Against its IPO price of 88 sen, the counter is up 164.8%. The gain it accrued in two days already places it as the second-best performing counter among the 21 Main and ACE Market listees that debuted thus far in 2026.

It is only bested by ACE Market-listed precision machining firm Ambest Group Bhd (KL:AMBEST), which was listed in February and is up 176%. Behind Ambest and SkyeChip are Kee Ming Group Bhd (KL:KEEMING) with 144.7% and Semico Capital Bhd (KL:SEMICO) with 118%. In terms of value  Skyechip is up RM1.45, followed by Kee Ming by 55 sen, Ambest 44 sen and Sunway Healthcare Holdings Bhd (KL:SUNMED).

SkyeChip’s strong debut comes as Malaysia eyes moving up the semiconductor value chain towards lucrative front-end integrated circuit (IC) design from its current major role as an assembly, testing, and packaging hub.

SkyeChip, whose IPO was oversubscribed more than 95 times, is mainly involved in integrated circuit design, specialising in silicon intellectual property, which could be licensed to its customers to be integrated into their chips. The company also designs and develops custom semiconductor chips.

The IPO featured no offer for sale, meaning its shareholders did not cash out.

Major shareholders, CEO Datuk Fong Swee Kiang and chief technology officer Teh Chee Hak, have seen their paper wealth surge in line with SkyeChip shares’ rally.

Fong and Teh’s 24% direct stake is now valued at RM1 billion. The duo also hold a 3.9% indirect stake via investment vehicles shared with employees.

A week before its listing, SkyeChip received a formal offer letter granting it access to Arm Holdings plc’s Arm Flexible Access library of intellectual properties, tools, and training used in chip design.

Access to the British firm’s Neoverse Compute Subsystems (CSS) was granted conditional approval but is pending further ironing out.

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 have been allocated for AFA applicants, while seven are reserved for those applying through CSS.