Piecemakers bets edge AI devices will diverge from reliance on HBM — custom-designed memory fuses DRAM stack directly to the processor using hybrid bonding
Nanya-backed DRAM designer PieceMakers began trading in Taipei on Sept. 16 on a bet that AI inference memory won’t be HBM.
PieceMakers, a Taiwanese DRAM designer backed by Nanya Technology, recently debuted on the Taiwan Emerging Stock Board, trading at a NT$740 reference price. The company is not an HBM specialist, but rather bets on a future where inference memory diverges from training memory, with DRAM stacked directly on the processor using hybrid bonding technology.
President Lee Hsiao-wen told Cnyes, explaining that this new approach can sit between Nvidia’s SRAM-only Groq LPU and HBM memory solutions. Currently, the company's profit comes from design fees, with AI custom-design work accounting for about 40% of its revenue in the first half of 2026. PieceMakers' first volume customer program is expected to contribute to its financials no earlier than 2027.
The company's chairman, Joseph Ting, noted that share price will not be affected until then. With approximately 60.4 million shares outstanding, the stock valuation stands at around NT$44.7 billion ($1.4 billion). Taiwan's Emerging Board serves as a pre-listing market for Piecemakers, as the company will not go public on the main board yet.
The stock rose 23.6% from its NT$740 reference price on its first day of trading, reaching a high of NT$1,205. Nanya Technology is Piecemakers' largest shareholder, holding 33.96% of the company after selling 715,000 shares at NT$740 to help float the share price. Founded in 2006, PieceMakers initially focused on designing standard SDR/DDR DRAM parts through representatives in various countries.
However, the company is shifting its focus towards custom design services, non-recurring engineering fees, IP licensing, royalties, and turnkey production from 2027 onwards. In the past year, the AI custom design unit's revenue grew from around 4% to almost 40%. PieceMakers' products include HBLL (High Bandwidth, Low Latency RAM) and HiBaLL, both promising high performance in AI inference applications.
The company's customers include developers of cloud AI inference accelerators, international semiconductor players, and North American customers. Although some programs remain undisclosed, Piecemakers' strategy has been aligned with Taiwan's ecosystem partners, including Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. Nanya Technology's involvement in this venture highlights the potential of custom, edge AI-memory solutions as an alternative to HBM technology.
Written by urgent.news from Tom's Hardware's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
