KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 28): Oppstar Bhd, a homegrown integrated circuit (IC) designing firm, emphasised that its recent joint venture (JV) with a Chinese national does not involve any party that have been sanctioned from accessing US technology.

Earlier this month, Oppstar announced a JV — Shanghai Longhuixin Integrated Circuit Group Co Ltd — with Chinese national Chen Junhua, with Chen holding a 50% stake in the entity while Oppstar holds a 45% stake. Private equity firm Shenzhen City Yixin Investment (Limited Partnership) holds a 5% stake.

Chen is the controlling shareholder of Oppstar’s major customer Xiamen KirinCore IOT Technology Ltd. Oppstar’s chief technology officer Cheah Hun Wah reiterated that the collaboration does not involve entities like Huawei, which has been sanctioned from accessing US technology.

“First and foremost, this (Xiamen KirinCore) is not Huawei. Many media have been asking me many times; they are actually a product company, and we as [an] IC design company, we formed this strategic partnership on product development,” he told The Edge.

Cheah acknowledged that Chen’s Xiamen KirinCore IOT was reminiscent of Huawei’s Kirin series chipsets, but said that Oppstar has been “very careful” in handling geopolitical and sanction matters.

“As we grow, with the sanction [and] geopolitical issues, we are very careful. This [partnership is for] a general and multi-purpose chip [development],” he said.

Chief executive officer Ng Meng Thai said the JV was established because Chen intends to maintain a long-term business relationship with Oppstar, instead of collaborating on a project basis.

“This is an outcome from previous business engagement, because if we support them on contract basis, after the project is done, we do not have any obligation to support them in the future.

“This is not [involving] those very high-end products; this is a general product targeting the consumer market. They are not talking about using five nanometre or seven nanometres, they are talking about maybe 16nm, matured processes,” he added.

Oppstar's share price has more than doubled to RM1.65 from its IPO offer price of 63 sen. It hit a high of RM2.43 on its maiden trading day. The company is valued at RM1.05 billion after its share price closed at RM1.65 on Monday (Aug 28).

Read also:
Oppstar remains shielded from chips industry slowdown amid resilient demand for IC design, says CEO
Huawei is building a secret network for chips, trade group
Oppstar gains 286% on ACE Market debut, making it the best performing IPO so far in 2023
A look into Oppstar’s stellar debut
After fulfilling IPO dream, Oppstar takes bigger strides
Oppstar signs MOU to look into developing integrated circuit products in China