This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 17, 2026 - August 23, 2026

OPPSTAR Bhd (KL:OPPSTAR) could gain access as early as Monday (Aug 17) to Arm Holdings plc’s more production-ready Neoverse Compute Subsystems (CSS) technology as the Malaysian government expands access to Arm’s chip designs, sources say.

The Penang-based integrated circuit design company is expected to receive CSS access intended for communication chip development, although details of the specific project were not immediately available.

Oppstar, founded in 2014, is one of the country’s few front-end integrated circuit design companies, with expertise across advanced process nodes ranging from 28nm to 3nm. It provides turnkey application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and system-on-chip (SoC) design services, covering chip architecture and register-transfer level (RTL) design through to tape-out and post-silicon validation.

If confirmed, Oppstar’s CSS access would follow the Arm Flexible Access (AFA) that the company secured in May.

Oppstar had said earlier that it plans to use the AFA access for the research and development of an artificial intelligence (AI) SoC for low-power edge AI devices using 12nm technology.

Unlike AFA, which provides companies with access to Arm’s intellectual property and chip designs for experimentation and development, CSS provides ready-made processor subsystems that can be integrated into a chip design, potentially shortening development time and reducing the engineering work required.

The sources also said drone solutions company Alphaswift Industries Sdn Bhd could be among those receiving AFA access in the latest allocation.

Founded in 2020, Alphaswift started out developing agricultural spraying drones and has since expanded into cargo delivery. It became the first Malaysian start-up to build a certified drone for cargo delivery operations at offshore oil rigs.

The company is now developing AI-powered autonomous advanced air mobility vehicles designed to carry passengers.

Alphaswift also gained recognition as the first Southeast Asian start-up to develop a certified unmanned aircraft capable of carrying biohazardous medical cargo.

Another potential recipient is Penang-based integrated circuit (IC) design start-up Silicon X Sdn Bhd, which was founded in 2024 and recently achieved a milestone by developing and powering on Malaysia’s and Southeast Asia’s first proprietary field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chip.

It is not known whether Silicon X will receive CSS or AFA access.

Silicon X specialises in technologies for intelligent systems, AI and machine learning, real-time data processing and automation.

Sources also said ACE-market listed 3REN Bhd (KL:3REN), a semiconductor engineering and automation solutions provider incorporated in 2021 with roots dating back to 2007, has applied for access under the programme, although it is unclear whether the company will be among this week’s recipients.

The group provides product engineering services, including post-silicon validation and new product introduction, as well as engineering support for IC assembly and testing.

In addition, two other companies are expected to receive Arm access this week, although their identities were not disclosed.

AFA gives companies early and lower-cost access to Arm’s intellectual property and chip designs, allowing them to experiment, develop and test products without paying full licensing fees upfront.

CSS, meanwhile, provides more production-ready chip building blocks, allowing companies to develop processors without having to build the underlying architecture entirely from scratch.

The distinction is that AFA is intended to facilitate exploration and development, whereas CSS provides a more direct route towards commercial chip development.

Through access to AFA and CSS, the Malaysian government aims to provide local chip design companies with lower-cost access to Arm’s technology and help accelerate the development of higher-value semiconductor products.

The initiative is part of the government’s US$250 million (RM1.1 billion), 10-year partnership with Arm, which is majority-owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp.

Signed in March 2025, the agreement includes 25 AFA tokens for start-ups and smaller chip-design firms, and seven CSS tokens for larger, more established companies.

In the first batch of recipients announced in May, GreatAsic Technology Sdn Bhd, SkyeChip Bhd (KL:SKYECHIP) and Oppstar were among those granted access. GreatAsic received both AFA and CSS access; SkyeChip and Oppstar were awarded AFA access.

SkyeChip, alongside Xenith Technology (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, received an offer letter in December 2025 to join Arm’s CSS platform, giving the company access to both of Arm’s key semiconductor development ecosystems.

A total of 22 AFA tokens and four CSS tokens remain available for allocation to Malaysian entities.

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