[HK Economy] GAONCHIPS, a Samsung foundry partner, said, 'We're pushing for an IPO next year...Target 100 Billion Revenue' (Sep 29, 2021)
GAONCHIPS, a Samsung foundry partner, said, "We're pushing for an IPO next year...Target 100 Billion Revenue"
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GAONCHIPS, a system semiconductor design house (a company specializing in semiconductor design), is pushing for IPO. Its goal is to enter the stock market in the first half of next year.
"We are planning to request preliminary screening of listing to the Korea Exchange by the end of this year," said CEO of GAONCHIPS Jung Kyu-dong on the 29th. "We selected Daeshin Securities as the organizer of the listing."
GAONCHIPS is a design house established in 2012. Design house acts as a bridge between foundry businesses and fabless businesses in the process of producing system semiconductors. When fabless companies design circuits, design houses upgrade them to design products, and foundry companies manufacture system semiconductors. Because of this, the design house is equivalent to the waist of the system semiconductor ecosystem.
"We are planning to request preliminary screening of listing to the Korea Exchange by the end of this year," said CEO of GAONCHIPS Jung Kyu-dong on the 29th. "We selected Daeshin Securities as the organizer of the listing."
GAONCHIPS is a design house established in 2012. Design house acts as a bridge between foundry businesses and fabless businesses in the process of producing system semiconductors. When fabless companies design circuits, design houses upgrade them to design products, and foundry companies manufacture system semiconductors. Because of this, the design house is equivalent to the waist of the system semiconductor ecosystem.
GAONCHIPS is an official design solution partner (DSP) of Samsung Electronics' Foundry (System Semiconductor Consignment Production) Business Department and an authorized design partner of ARM in the U.K. It was selected as the best design partner in 2019 Samsung Foundry Partners Day and as the Best Design Partner 2020 by ARM in June. Samsung Electronics' foundry 5nm (1nm = 1 billionth of a meter)~It provides design solutions optimized for 28nm process. It is currently working with major South Korean semiconductor fabless companies such as Telechips, Nextchip, Anapass, and Eyenix. Last year, it also attracted investments worth 5 billion won from We Ventures, Stone Bridge Ventures, DA Value Investment, and GU Investment.
Most of the products that the company is currently designing and developing are semiconductors for autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors. "As more than 70% of the developed products are semiconductors that are considered a key growth engine for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, they are recognized for their technical skills by fabless customers," said CEO Jung.
CEO Jung cited skilled engineers as the competitiveness of GAONCHIPS. More than one-third of the 120 development workers are composed of high-end engineers with more than eight years of research experience in research. The plan is to increase the number of employees to 540 by 2026. "In the semiconductor system industry with high technical difficulty, it is most important to secure an experienced talent pool," he said. "We are making efforts to grow with our members by paying ordinary shares, not stock options, to all employees."
It is also planning to advance overseas. They are paying attention to the Japanese market. In the Japanese semiconductor market, there is no foundry that can use ultra-fine processes. Japanese fabless companies need to use one of Samsung Electronics Foundry, Taiwan's TSMC, and the U.S. Intel Foundry, and the plan is to actively utilize the fact that GAONCHIPS is Samsung Electronics Foundry DSP. Although the Japanese semiconductor industry has declined a lot, automotive semiconductor companies such as Alpine and Kyocera, and consumer semiconductor companies such as Sony, Kenon, and Fujitsu are still in good shape, CEO Jung said.
Most of the products that the company is currently designing and developing are semiconductors for autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors. "As more than 70% of the developed products are semiconductors that are considered a key growth engine for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, they are recognized for their technical skills by fabless customers," said CEO Jung.
CEO Jung cited skilled engineers as the competitiveness of GAONCHIPS. More than one-third of the 120 development workers are composed of high-end engineers with more than eight years of research experience in research. The plan is to increase the number of employees to 540 by 2026. "In the semiconductor system industry with high technical difficulty, it is most important to secure an experienced talent pool," he said. "We are making efforts to grow with our members by paying ordinary shares, not stock options, to all employees."
It is also planning to advance overseas. They are paying attention to the Japanese market. In the Japanese semiconductor market, there is no foundry that can use ultra-fine processes. Japanese fabless companies need to use one of Samsung Electronics Foundry, Taiwan's TSMC, and the U.S. Intel Foundry, and the plan is to actively utilize the fact that GAONCHIPS is Samsung Electronics Foundry DSP. Although the Japanese semiconductor industry has declined a lot, automotive semiconductor companies such as Alpine and Kyocera, and consumer semiconductor companies such as Sony, Kenon, and Fujitsu are still in good shape, CEO Jung said.
GAONCHIPS made $23.5 billion (2 billion KRW) in sales and $2 billion (2 billion KRW) in operating profit last year. It is expected that this year's sales will be around 40 billion won. It has set a goal of achieving 100 billion won in sales by 2025. "As the system semiconductor market is rapidly growing, the company also expects to achieve annual sales growth of more than 40 percent," said CEO Jung.
By Reporter Kim Jong-woo jongwoo@hankyung.com