"The cumulative order value through the third quarter this year is 125.7 billion won, surpassing last year's 123.9 billion won. Many customers will begin mass production next year, and as our business is entering a full-fledged expansion into global markets, we expect to turn profitable."
Cho Myeong-hyeon, CEO of Semifive, said this at an initial public offering (IPO) briefing held on the 17th at the 63 Building in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. On this day, Semifive, with Cho and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Kim Jong-gi in attendance, presented its listing plan and business strategy. Semifive is scheduled to list on the KOSDAQ market on the 29th.
Cho founded "Semifive," a design platform company, in 2019. When a fabless (semiconductor design corporations) designs the computing architecture of the semiconductor it wants to manufacture, a design house draws the physical design layout so that a foundry (contract semiconductor manufacturing) can produce it. Semifive goes further by providing in-house intellectual property (IP) optimized for the relevant fields and design automation solutions to help fabless companies develop semiconductors faster. Semifive counts as clients domestic artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor startups Furiosa, Rebellions, and Mobilint, as well as Hanwha Vision and SanDisk.
Cho said Semifive's "design platform" service is a differentiating competitive edge as a design house. With the AI industry growing rapidly, demand for manufacturing high-performance semiconductors is not only surging but also diversifying, and Semifive has the platform competitiveness to reduce fabless customers' expense burden and development time when they want to manufacture new semiconductors.
In practice, the industry must design more semiconductors in step with the AI growth trend, but as the expense of advanced manufacturing processes and development time increase, the burden on fabless companies is also rising sharply. According to market research firm Infinity Research, the expense投入 for the 5-nanometer (nm; 1 nm = one-billionth of a meter) process is $540 million (about 800 billion won), a steep rise compared with the 7 nm process ($297 million). The semiconductor development period is also changing into a structure where rapid launches are difficult, taking an average of 3.4 years from design to release.
Cho said, "In the AI market, maximizing development efficiency is directly tied to the competitiveness of semiconductor corporations," adding, "Semifive rapidly increased order value with design services that can minimize increasingly complex designs and soaring expense burdens."
Semifive said it will expand its business into global markets after listing to sustain its growth trajectory. Cho said, "We are establishing entities in the United States, China, and Japan to pioneer overseas markets. We are also accelerating hiring to meet demand," adding, "We have secured 14 overseas clients, and the share of revenue generated overseas has risen to around 60%, a sharp increase from 5% last year."
Semifive said it aims to post up to 1 trillion won in revenue in 2029. Cho said, "Growth in the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) market is steeper than in the past, and demand continues to rise. We have recorded an annual growth rate of around 60% so far," adding, "If we respond appropriately to expanding demand, we believe we can achieve a similar growth trajectory going forward. Our goal is to surpass up to 1 trillion won in revenue in 2029."