Ambiq overcomes small stature with upsized IPO
Ambiq Micro secured an upsized US$96m late on Tuesday from its NYSE IPO, which provided a rare opportunity for investors to back a small, early-stage company.
Bank of America and UBS priced an upsized 4m shares at US$24, the upper half of the US$22–$25 marketing range and an increase from 3.4m shares. Needham and Stifel were additional bookrunners on the deal.
The fabless designer of ultra-low power chips soared 60.5% on debut to close Wednesday at US$38.53, hitting a high of US$48.12 earlier in the session.
Having raised VC funding at higher valuations, Ambiq was arguably compelled to go public.
Ambiq raised US$90m on a Series G round last year at a US$450m valuation.
The IPO valued Ambiq at roughly US$460m market capitalisation, avoiding the stigma of a downround. Even so, allocations IPO were skewed towards existing shareholders and small-cap growth funds, with 70% of the IPO placed with just 10 institutions.
"At the end of the day, Ambiq built a book that understands the ups and downs of investing in smaller growth names," said one banker involved in the offering.
Ambiq was founded in 2010 with seed funding from Arm and Cisco Systems.
There have been missteps along the way. The Series G funding round triggered anti-dilution provisions on the earlier Series E and F rounds.
And after gaining early traction in China, Ambiq is now pivoting towards the US. Ambiq generated just 8%–9.5% of sales from China in the first six months of 2025, down from 45.5% in 2024 and 66% in 2023.
Money from the IPO will accelerate that transition through hiring salespeople and developing new products. In addition to a core focus on consumer wearables, ultra-low-power chips targeting data centres are in the works.