[Into the Stock] OpenEdgeTech Holds Semiconductor Technology to Accelerate the AI Era

Securing Intellectual Property Rights Needed for AI Semiconductor Design
Stock Price Soars This Year... Break-Even Point Expected

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] With the attention drawn by the language generation artificial intelligence (AI) 'ChatGPT' that emerged at the end of last year, expectations for growth in the AI semiconductor market have also increased. Open Edge Technology was listed on the KOSDAQ market last year, but its stock price fell below the public offering price due to sluggish semiconductor industry conditions. However, the stock price has rapidly rebounded this year, recovering the public offering price.

According to the financial investment industry on the 20th, Open Edge Technology's stock price has risen 68.7% since the beginning of this year. The foreign ownership ratio increased by 1.94 percentage points from 4.73% at the end of last year to 6.67%.

Open Edge Technology is a company that provides intellectual property (IP) and solutions necessary for AI semiconductor design. It mainly developed IP related to technology that increases the speed at which system semiconductors receive and process data from external sources. It is a Samsung Foundry IP partner. The company holds an integrated IP solution combining neural processing units (NPU) and high-performance memory systems. It has developed numerous PHY IPs for high-speed communication between NPUs and memory, which are core components of AI semiconductors.

Lee Seong-hyun, CEO of Open Edge Technology, completed his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University. After gaining experience at Samsung Electronics' System LSI division, he founded Open Edge Technology. CEO Lee worked as a senior researcher responsible for designing the Galaxy application processor (AP) 'Exynos' at Samsung Electronics. He is an expert with over 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. He has authored four international papers and one domestic paper related to memory controller design and low-power system cache design.

Among all employees at Open Edge Technology, design personnel in the research and development (R&D) division account for 80%. Semiconductor experts with over 20 years of experience from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are gathered to lead technology development.

One reason Open Edge Technology is gaining attention alongside the expected growth of the AI semiconductor market is its AI semiconductor design IP technology, which is essential for implementing AI technology in edge environments. Researcher Choi Seong-hwan from Research Alume introduced, "The edge environment means processing data immediately at individual terminals such as smartphones, vehicles, and robots, rather than processing data centrally on servers." He added, "Current search and payment services output information obtained from data centers to terminals, but in the future, equipping individual terminals with AI semiconductors will allow faster and safer service usage."

Open Edge Technology pre-develops AI modules (IP) to assist client companies in chip development. Researcher Choi predicted high demand because this reduces the time and risk of failure in chip development.

Open Edge Technology recorded operating revenue of 8.6 billion KRW and an operating loss of 12.3 billion KRW up to the third quarter of last year. The loss increased compared to the previous year due to a slowdown in semiconductor industry demand and delays in expected license contracts. However, with delayed contracts being signed and new sales increasing, there are forecasts that the company will surpass the break-even point this year.

Samsung Securities researcher Lee Jong-wook analyzed Open Edge Technology, saying, "This year could be a new milestone in both sales and profitability." He added, "Open Edge Technology's IP is used in the client's high-bandwidth memory (HBM) technology." He further stated, "If annual sales exceed 30 billion KRW, the possibility of turning a profit increases," and "We expect a transition to profitability."