ADTechnology to form US subsidiary at San Hose

Semiconductor design solution firm ADTechnology is planning to form a subsidiary at San Hose, California by July, TheElec has learned.

The US arm will be led by Lee Young-bae, who was previously an executive at Samsung Foundry.

ADTechnology is also planning to form a regional office at Shanghai, China, within the year. It is currently looking for someone to become the country manager of China.

Late last year, the company also formed a regional office for Europe in Germany.

Its offices in Germany, the US and China will focus on global sales. Its headquarter in South Korea and its office in Vietnam will act as design centers. Its Vietnam office in run by subsidiary S&ST.

Design houses such as ADTechnology act as middlemen between fabless and foundry companies. They design system chips and IP. They sometimes manufacture them as well.

Design solution partners manufacture chips from only one foundry at a time.

ADTechnology was a partner (value chain aggregator) of TSMC. But it switched its foundry partner to Samsung Foundry in October, and is now a Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem partner.

It is seeking new orders from system chip companies. It is looking to win turn-key orders via its regional offices for profitability.

People familiar with the matter said orders for 7-nanometer chip development can be worth at least 70 billion won.

Cape Investment & Securities analyst Kim In-pil said ADTechnology can expect sales growth from its new customer Samsung for the next two to three years. This year, sales from Samsung is expected to be around 50 billion won, Kim said in a note to clients.