SEMIFIVE Strengthens AI ASIC Market Position Through IPO “Targeting Global Markets with Advanced-nodes, Large-Die Designs, and 3D-IC Technologies”

• As demand shifts from general-purpose semiconductors toward AI ASICs, SEMIFIVE provides customized chip development solutions to fabless companies and device manufacturers.
• New orders have increased from KRW 57.2 billion in 2022 to KRW 123.9 billion in 2024, driven by Big-Tech-Ready high-performance AI ASIC technologies, a highly efficient and scalable design platform, and turnkey services.
• Profitability is expected to improve as more projects transition from development to mass production in the second half of this year.
• The subscription period is scheduled for December 18–19, with listing expected within this year.

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — SEMIFIVE, a leading provider of custom AI semiconductor (ASIC) design, held an IPO press conference on December 17 at 63 Square in Seoul, outlining its post-listing growth strategy and long-term vision.

At the press conference, Brandon Cho, CEO and co-founder of SEMIFIVE, said, “Just as TSMC has platformized semiconductor manufacturing, SEMIFIVE is lowering barriers to entry by platformizing semiconductor design, enabling anyone to develop AI semiconductors quickly and easily. Through this IPO, we aim to secure leadership in next-generation technologies such as 3D-IC and further expand our engineering infrastructure, positioning SEMIFIVE at the forefront of the paradigm shift in the global AI ASIC industry.”

SEMIFIVE was established in 2019 with the motto, “A company that enables cheaper, faster, and easier development of system semiconductors,” specializing in the development of AI ASICs. The company provides comprehensive engineering services covering the entire process from design to mass production for a broad customer base that includes fabless companies, device manufacturers, and service providers. Its business model generates recurring revenue through a combination of development services, mass production, and IP-related revenues.

SEMIFIVE collaborates with major device manufacturers such as Hanwha Vision and a global NAND memory company (S company), as well as AI fabless firms including Furiosa AI, Rebellions, and HyperAccel. Its AI solutions are used across a wide range of applications, including data centers, edge computing, storage, cameras, smart glasses, and mobile devices. By expanding its customer portfolio across the United States, China, Japan, Europe, and India, SEMIFIVE has secured stable turnkey supply capabilities and long-term growth drivers in the global market.

SEMIFIVE’s business is broadly divided into three segments: Development Services, Mass Production Supply, and IP Business. Development Services encompass the entire ASIC process, offering an End-to-End solution from chip specification definition and IP selection to logic and physical design, sample production, packaging, testing, and software development. Mass Production Supply refers to the direct mass production and supply of developed ASICs through a foundry. This structure reinforces long-term customer relationships based on exclusive production rights and generates stable revenue. The demand for mass production continues throughout the product lifecycle following the development completion, resulting in long-term product sales.

Through its subsidiary Analog Bits, SEMIFIVE also operates an IP licensing business, generating annual licensing revenue of several tens of billions of KRW. Analog Bits is a global leader in low-power mixed-signal IP, supplying critical IP to leading foundries such as TSMC, Samsung Foundry, Intel, and Rapidus. By embedding proprietary IP into its design platform, SEMIFIVE has established a structural competitive advantage over general DSP providers with limited proprietary IP.

One of SEMIFIVE’s core strengths is its “Big-Tech-Ready” capability for developing highly complex AI ASICs. The company possesses comprehensive expertise across the entire value chain, spanning advanced process nodes (2nm–4nm), large-die chip design, and critical IP development required for high-performance AI semiconductor development and mass production.

At Samsung Foundry’s second-generation 2nm GAA process, SEMIFIVE is executing the first turnkey DSP project in the industry. Revenue contribution from leading-edge processes (2nm–4nm) increased sharply from 5% in 2022 to 41.4% as of cumulative Q3 2025. With the growing importance of large-die design in high-performance AI semiconductor development, SEMIFIVE has secured unique capabilities in this area. The company recently completed the design of a 500mm² chip for a domestic LLM-based AI semiconductor company and is currently developing an ultra-large 800mm² big-die HPC chip for an Asian AI semiconductor company.

In particular, SEMIFIVE is undertaking a globally advanced project applying 3D-IC technology to vertically stack four DRAM memory chips on an 800mm² accelerator chip. 3D-IC technology is regarded as a core enabler for next-generation AI chips, as it reduces chip area and minimizes the distance between compute logic and memory, thereby improving both performance and power efficiency.

Driven by growing demand in the AI ASIC market, SEMIFIVE’s order intake has increased rapidly year over year. New orders rose from KRW 5.7 billion in 2020 to KRW 57.2 billion in 2022 and surged to KRW 123.9 billion in 2024. As of cumulative Q3 2025, new orders reached KRW 125.7 billion, exceeding the full-year total for 2024.

This surge in new orders is attributed to SEMIFIVE’s platform-based design strategy and turnkey execution capabilities. The company enables AI fabless companies and device manufacturers with limited development resources to swiftly develop and mass-produce custom AI chips through a semiconductor design platform that maximize development efficiency and scalability and End-to-End (E2E) solutions covering the entire process from design to production.

Overseas revenue increased significantly from KRW 4.5 billion (4.4% of total revenue) in 2024 to KRW 55.0 billion (59.8%) on a cumulative basis as of the third quarter of 2025. The company is expanding its global sales network, primarily through its existing subsidiaries in the United States and China. To strengthen its ability to support global customers, the company also established its subsidiary in Japan in November 2025. As a result of this strategy, the company has successfully secured 14 global customers to date and is currently in discussions with 59 prospective customers regarding additional orders.

SEMIFIVE’s design platform applies software development methodologies to semiconductor design. Semiconductors are composed of multiple subsystems, including CPUs, high-speed interfaces, and memory. Rather than designing these elements for a single fixed product, the company develops them as modular building blocks that can be automatically reconfigured to meet diverse requirements, forming a design component library. Its proprietary “Design Automation Engine” retrieves, redesigns, integrates, and verifies modules according to chip specifications, significantly reducing development time, cost, and risk while accelerating time-to-market.

A SEMIFIVE representative commented, “Given the current AI ASIC market characteristics that demand a time-to-market strategy, it is fair to say that SEMIFIVE is one of very few companies, besides Broadcom which primarily serves Big Tech, capable of assisting across the entire spectrum of rapid ASIC product development.”

On its growth trajectory, SEMIFIVE plans to use the proceeds obtained from the IPO for expanding engineering resources, strengthening technology leadership through the acquisition of advanced global technologies and IP, and supporting business expansion and working capital needs as the share of mass production projects increases.

Key projects transitioning into full-scale mass production include AI security camera chips supported by a stable captive market from a major domestic conglomerate, data center AI chips such as AI accelerators, and core display driver chips for smart glasses, where demand from big tech companies is increasing. As these projects enter mass production sequentially, the company expects growth momentum to accelerate from 2026 onward.

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SEMIFIVE IPO Schedule (Tentative)

Media Contact
Robin Kim, Senior Director, [email protected]

About SEMIFIVE
SEMIFIVE is the pioneer of platform based SoC design, working with customers to implement innovative ideas into custom silicon in the most efficient way. Our SoC platforms offer a powerful springboard for new chip designs and leverage configurable domain-specific architectures and pre-validated key IP pools. We offer comprehensive spec-to-system capabilities with end-to-end solutions so that custom SoCs can be realized faster, with reduced cost and risks for key applications such as data center or AI-enabled IoT. With a strong partnership with Samsung Foundry as a leading SAFE DSP partner, as well as the larger ecosystem, SEMIFIVE provides a one-stop shop solution for any SoC design needs. For more information, please visit www.semifive.com.

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