Introduction to US stock IPOs: The AI semiconductor unicorn “Astella Labs (ALAB)” is expected to increase demand for data centers as a tailwind for the company!

Astella Labs (ALAB), the unicorn of Intel (INTC) and Amazon (AMZN) -invested semiconductor fabless, is scheduled to be newly listed on the US NASDAQ next week. Locally in the US, it is attracting attention as a brand related to high-end chips, such as NVIDIA's H100, and the company's listing details and investment points are disclosed free of charge to those interested in semiconductor stocks.

Astella Labs (ALAB)
Expected listing date: Wednesday, March 20, '24
Listed on NASDAQ
Public price range: $27.00 to $30.00
Number of shares to be sold: 17.8 million shares (maximum 20.47 million shares when overallotment is carried out)
Estimated amount to be raised: Up to $614.1 million (estimated at the upper limit of the range)
Estimated total market value after listing: 4.59 billion dollars (estimated at the upper limit of the range)

Business Overview and Investment Points:　
・Fabless semiconductor company for data centers.We design and sell connection semiconductors to improve connection efficiency and speed between data centers and corporate systems (software and hardware). We provide solutions for high-speed data transfer and processing optimization for cloud computing, AI (artificial intelligence), machine learning, etc. The company was established in 2017 and has a short corporate history, but Intel also made an early investment during the B-round loan stage in 2020.It is attracting attention as a semiconductor unicorn with Intel backup. The company has a strong partnership with Taiwan Cicada (TSM) and outsources production to TSM. Also, in addition to Intel, in 2022, Amazon acquired warrants equivalent to 1,484,230 shares of the company at an exercise price of 20.34 dollars through an investment company under its umbrella.

・Aries Smart Retimers is the company's PCLE※It is the main product for AI and supports acceleration of data transfer when accessing AI and the cloud.Demand for this product is rapidly expanding because it is possible to resolve bottlenecks in data, memory, and networks on cloud data centers against the backdrop of huge public clouds such as Amazon's AWS, increasing data complexity, and a rapid increase in the number of AI training parametersDoing it. Above all, in order to maximize the capabilities of high-performance chips such as NVIDIA's H100 used in AI and data centers, etc., the need for the company's products has further increased, and we are optimistic about the future and outlook. Furthermore, the company emphasized “We were born in the Cloud” and “we were born from the cloud” in its prospectus, and it is likely that by focusing on cloud-based semiconductor development, its advantage will increase more and more due to specialization in the same field.

・While the company's full-year sales for 2023 were 116 million dollars, up 45.0% from the previous year, net loss decreased by 55.0% due to suppression of marketing and management costs. Although the sales scale is still small, growth potential is strong, and it is expected to be a “original” brand. Note that if you calculate it at $30, which is the upper limit of the open price range,Actual PSR (stock price-sales ratio) reached 39.7 times, exceeding 37.2 times NVIDIA. If you simply compare the numbers, it looks slightly expensive, but considering the current AI boom and IPO premiums, there is room for improvement in valuationI'm looking forward to it.