Phison’s newly launched MaiStorage Technology eyes IPO in 2028

PUTRAJAYA: Phison Electronics Corporation’s newly launched subsidiary MaiStorage Technology Sdn Bhd is eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) in 2028 to support expansion and to retain talent.

Founder and group CEO Datuk Pua Khein Seng said the capital it raises from the IPO will be used to build the company’s own research and development (R&D) centre.

“We are currently renting an office from the Selangor state government, which can accommodate about 200 to 250 people. As we continue to grow, we’ll need to secure land and construct a custom-built R&D facility. That’s what the IPO capital will mainly fund,” he said at a press conference after the official launch of MaiStorage Technology by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today.

MaiStorage plans to build and expand its integrated circuit (IC) design team focused on NAND flash controller chip design – a critical component of modern storage and computing systems.

Pua said since starting operations in August 2024, the Phison-backed company has trained 60 local IC design engineers and is on track to train 175 by 2026. “We are working very closely with TalentCorp to train another 150 engineers over the next three years,” he added.

He stressed that these are real, capable IC design engineers, not factory operators.

“So how do we retain engineers? The only way is through an IPO. That’s what I’ve learned from Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park, as well as from Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing,” Pua said.

“That’s why we’ve launched a three-year programme to take MaiStorage public on the Malaysian stock exchange by 2028.”

However, Pua said the business operates with internal capital from “cash rich” Phison and is not dependent on external fundraising for growth.

“By the end of CQ1, overall the company, our investment was RM100 million. Now the net value is over RM100 million. So we earn like around RM4 million already.”

Furthermore, the company aims to position Malaysia as a technology hub in Asia.

“We have a partner from Thailand coming in to work with us on licensing and transferring our AI technology to Thailand. Every government wants on-premises AI. Cloud is good, but it’s expensive and compromises data privacy,” Pua said.

He added that there is also a knowledge gap.

“We brought in the technology, trained the trainers here, and now they are building their own ecosystem to train students and IT managers.”

Pua sees this training-and-ecosystem model as a replicable export. “This model will first be exported to Thailand, and hopefully, we can expand it to the Middle East as well.”

MaiStorage is an IC design and storage technology provider that caters to the data centre, AI applications and the automotive industries in Malaysia. It offers SSD solutions and aiDAPTIV+ AI LLM training and fine-tuning platform on-premises to enhance performance, security, and AI-driven innovations for customers.