Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) shares rallied early yesterday after the DRAM chipmaker raised NT$78.72 billion (US$2.47 billion) from four international investors, before paring gains to close down 0.44 percent at NT$225.50.
The fundraising comes as chipmakers are boosting production capacity and their customers are seeking to lock in supplies through tie-ups amid a global shortage of memory chips triggered by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
Nanya Technology secured the new capital by selling shares through a private placement to SK Hynix Inc’s subsidiary Solidigm Inc in South Korea, Kioxia Corp of Japan and two US companies — Cisco Systems Inc and SanDisk Corp’s subsidiary SanDisk Technologies Inc, it said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
The company said it sold shares to the four investors at NT$223.9 each, representing a small discount to its closing price of NT$226.5 that day.
The four investors would acquire an aggregate of 351.57 million Nanya Technology common shares through the private placement, which is scheduled to be completed on April 8, the company said.
After the investments, SK Hynix is expected to take a 2 percent stake in Nanya Technology, Kioxia 2 percent, SanDisk 4 percent and Cisco 2 percent, it said.
“The proceeds will be used to invest in Nanya Technology’s factory facilities and production equipment for advanced memory manufacturing,” the company said.
Alongside the equity investment, SanDisk said it also entered into a multi year strategic supply agreement with Nanya Technology under which the Taiwanese firm would supply it with DRAM products.
Kioxia also said it had entered a long-term DRAM supply agreement with Nanya Technology, citing strong growth in its solid-state drive business fueled by AI demand and the need to secure stable DRAM supplies.
SK Hynix, a leader in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), said earlier on Wednesday that it plans to list shares in the US later this year to raise funds.
Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said that it is not purely a financial investment by the four companies, but also a strategic move to enhance their roles in AI development.
Taiwanese memory suppliers like Nanya Technology are playing a critical role in the current AI boom, moving beyond the concept that they are just followers of their foreign counterparts, Liu said.
SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest DRAM supplier, is expected to take advantage of the Taiwanese company’s technology strength, focusing on HBM development, which is crucial to AI computing, she said.
SRAM technology is also one of the strengths of Taiwan’s memory suppliers, Liu said, adding that this technology is expected to raise the local memory industry’s profile in AI development.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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