KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 24): After a blistering rally, investors of SkyeChip Bhd (KL:SKYECHIP) will have to wait and see if the chip design firm’s growth plan pans out in the longer term, an analyst said.

Recent initiatives and opportunities strengthen SkyeChip’s longer-term proposition, but most remain early-stage with long development cycles, Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) said. Any results are only likely to materialise over the next one to two years, the research house noted.

“We believe 2026 is more of a capability expansion year,” HLIB said and kept the stock on a ‘hold’ call and target price of RM2.85.

SkyeChip was trading at RM3.06 at 11.30am on Thursday. Shares of SkyeChip have gained some 250% since its marquee listing in May as investors bet on a boom in semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

Integrated circuit design work, however, carries notoriously long development cycles. Each design requires expensive engineering and testing involving scores of technical staff before tape-out — the final point of no return where a chip’s blueprints are sent to a foundry for manufacturing.

SkyeChip has hired 51 staff between April and June this year compared to the addition of 62 people over the entire financial year ended March 30, 2026. The company’s headcount now stands at 416, ahead of HLIB’s projection of 445 technical staff for the 12 months ending March 2027.

“We would not be surprised if management front-loads more of its planned hiring,” the house said, noting that more tangible progress towards SkyeChip’s targets of average annual revenue growth of 30% over three years and 30% net margin is more likely to emerge in 2027-2028.

“With newer opportunities still at an early stage and subject to long development cycles, we see limited room for further re-rating until these initiatives translate into tangible progress and drive upside to long-term earnings growth,” HLIB added.