Weebit Nano Ltd (ASX: WBT) shares are having a strong start to the day.
In morning trade, the ASX 300 tech stock is up 5% to $2.45.
Why is this ASX 300 tech stock surging?
Investors have been buying the semiconductor company's shares this morning following the release of a couple of announcements.
The first announcement was its fourth quarter update. During the three months, Weebit Nano recorded zero cash receipts and an operating cash outflow of $4.8 million.
This left ASX 300 tech stock with a cash balance of $62.8 million. Management believes that this means it is well-funded to execute on its commercialisation plans.
What else was announced?
In a separate announcement, the company revealed that its semiconductor foundry partner, DB HiTek, has taped-out (released to manufacturing) a demonstration chip.
This chip integrates Weebit's embedded Resistive Random-Access Memory (ReRAM) module in DB HiTek's 130nm Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) process.
Management notes that the highly integrated demo chips will be used for testing and qualification ahead of customer production, while demonstrating the performance and robustness of Weebit's technology.
The companies are working to make Weebit ReRAM available to DB HiTek customers for integration in their systems on chips (SoCs) as embedded non-volatile memory (NVM).
However, there will still be some time to wait until this is possible. Weebit Nano notes that it is aiming to have the technology qualified and ready for production in the second quarter of the 2025 calendar year. In the meantime, Weebit ReRAM is available now to select DB HiTek customers for design prototyping ahead of production.
Huge competition
Judging by the Weebit Nano share price today, it seems that some investors are willing to stick around to see if the technology will generate meaningful sales once released.
Though, you only need to look at Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN) to see that revenue is far from guaranteed. It is finding it nearly impossible to get noticed in a market dominated by global behemoths that spend tens of billions of R&D each year.
Nevertheless, the ASX 300 stock's CEO, Coby Hanoch, remains upbeat on the future. He said:
This milestone confirms we are proceeding towards qualification of our ReRAM in DB HiTek's BCD process on schedule, making the technology available to this leading foundry's extensive customer base. We're already in early adopter discussions with several DB HiTek customers who are interested in integrating ReRAM in their SoCs. One area of interest is smart power management integrated circuits (PMICs), where integrating the PMIC with the microcontroller (MCU) on one die can lead to performance, security, power and cost advantages.
