AT&S Commits up to €2b to Expand AI Chip-Substrate Capacity at Its Kulim Plant on an AMD Supply Deal
Austrian advanced-packaging group AT&S said it has reached supply agreements with AMD and a second, unnamed leading technology company to expand production of high-end IC substrates for artificial-intelligence and high-performance-computing chips, and will invest between €1.5 billion and €2 billion across facilities in Malaysia and China. The main expansion will take place at its existing plant in Kulim, in the Malaysian state of Kedah, with additional capacity installed at the current facility and in a previously unused building at the site's second plant. IC substrates are the precision interposer layer that connects an advanced processor die to its circuit board — a bottleneck component for AI accelerators that only a handful of manufacturers can produce at leading-edge geometries.
AT&S paired the announcement with a sharply raised outlook, lifting its FY2026/27 forecast to currency-adjusted revenue growth of 45-55% (from 30-35%) and an EBITDA margin of 32-37% (from 25-29%), while guiding capital expenditure up to €1.0-1.2 billion. Investors responded forcefully: the stock rose roughly 28% to a record high of about €200. CEO Michael Mertin told Reuters the company would "fully expand" the Kulim site, and industry sources cited by reports suggest the second, undisclosed client is Intel.
Singapore's Pints AI Raises $5.6m to Deploy Auditable AI Inside Regulated Banks and Insurers
Singapore enterprise-AI startup Pints AI raised $5.6 million in a pre-Series A round led by Tin Men Capital, with SBI Ven Capital co-leading and participation from SEEDS, NTUitive, the SUTD Venture Fund and Tenity. Its platform, Autothought, connects directly to the core systems of banks and insurers and automates processes such as underwriting, claims and onboarding while producing a full audit trail for every AI-assisted decision — tracing each output back to its source data and flagging uncertain results for human review. The company says Autothought is built to meet the compliance requirements of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Reserve Bank of India, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and other regional regulators.
Pints AI says that in under two years, 12 institutions across four countries have saved a combined $10 million using the platform. Proceeds will fund engineering hires, deeper governance and audit capabilities for new regulatory regimes, and a self-service product, Autothought Studio, that lets institutions' own engineering teams build and manage AI applications.
Indonesia's Ant-Backed Akulaku Weighs a Hong Kong IPO to Raise More Than $300m
Akulaku, one of Indonesia's larger digital-finance groups, is reported to be weighing an initial public offering in Hong Kong that could raise over $300 million, having earlier explored a US listing. The company offers buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), lending and deposit services and is backed by Ant Group; its founders carry mainland Chinese backgrounds, which is cited as part of the rationale for favouring Hong Kong's deeper liquidity over a US venue. A reported July debut timeline remains unconfirmed market speculation rather than a filed prospectus.
The IPO talk follows a stronger financial year: Akulaku reported 2025 net profit after tax of 108 billion rupiah (about $6.4 million), up 66% year over year, with new loan disbursements rising 23% to 7.44 trillion rupiah and BNPL products making up roughly 89% of its financing portfolio. The group also secured a 500 billion rupiah ($27.5 million) working-capital facility from PT Bank Danamon Indonesia to expand financing capacity.
Eyes on the Day Ahead
Near-term, watch AT&S for the formal finalisation of its long-term customer commitments — the trigger that converts the €1.5-2 billion Kulim plan from intent into committed capex, and the cue for Kedah and Penang suppliers to size up. In Singapore wealth- and enterprise-tech, expect more MAS-aligned AI and licensing activity as governable-AI vendors position for regulated-finance budgets through the second half. And on the markets front, the signal to track from Akulaku is a filed Hong Kong prospectus rather than the current July speculation; a confirmed timeline would be the clearest test yet of whether the SEA fintech IPO window has genuinely reopened.
Layer 7 Ventures is a research-driven firm focused on AI and cryptocurrency in Southeast Asia. Views expressed are those of the firm and do not constitute investment advice.
