Ambiq, Supported by Kleiner Perkins, Makes a Strong Entrance on IPO Day

Ambiq Micro, a 15-year-old manufacturer of energy-efficient chips for wearables and medical devices, wrapped up its inaugural trading day on Wednesday at $38.53 per share, reflecting a 61% increase from the $24 IPO price established the day prior.

The IPO’s success signals strong investor appetite in the public markets for emerging small-cap firms leveraging AI advancements.

Ambiq concluded its first day as a publicly listed company with a valuation of $656 million (excluding employee options), up from its last private funding valuation of $450 million in 2023, according to PitchBook.

Ambiq is poised to capitalize on the growth driven by AI. “With our low energy consumption, we can embed more intelligence and AI capabilities on edge processors,” remarked the company’s CTO Scott Hanson in a TechCrunch interview.

For the three months ending March 31, Ambiq reported a net loss of $8.3 million on revenues of $15.7 million, as detailed in its S1 filing. The Q1 results show a slight improvement from the first quarter of 2024, during which the company experienced a $9.8 million loss on $15.2 million in revenue.

Kleiner Perkins and EDB Investments, a state-supported entity from Singapore, are noted as the firm’s largest external investors in the filing.

Wen Hsieh, who was a general partner at Kleiner Perkins until 2023, was among the initial backers of Ambiq during its Series C funding in 2014. Hsieh also invested in Ambiq after launching his own venture firm, Matter Venture Partners, two years back.