Jefferies said one global stock stands out as a “unique player” among Nvidia and the artificial intelligence supply chain. Jefferies said in a report on September 17 that it is German semiconductor company SUSS MicroTec, calling it a “hidden gem” among European semiconductor companies. The stock also trades over-the-counter in the United States. This represents a potential upside of approximately 28%. Jefferies said the company has “multiple levels of exposure” to an advanced packaging technology called “wafer-on-substrate” and explained that the technology is used to make artificial intelligence chips. Jefferies noted that SMHN-FF 1Y mountain SUSS MicroTec Nvidia uses this technology to package its AI graphics processing unit. “As a result, demand for CoWoS has risen significantly over the past 24 months as AI adoption accelerates.” SUSS sells its products to the two major high-bandwidth memory suppliers and TSMC for the production of this advanced packaging. Jefferies said that TSMC’s largest CoWoS customer is Nvidia. As artificial intelligence develops, memory chips have been in the spotlight because of their use in graphics processing units, which are the basis for most generative artificial intelligence tools. “SUSS has multiple CoWoS/NVIDIA exposures,” the investment bank said. Jefferies said the packaging technology required for high-bandwidth memory, known as “temporary bonding,” offers the “biggest opportunity” and that such orders for SUSS will surge in the third quarter of 2023. “The segment saw its strongest order growth since Q3’23, a change that is closely tied to recent growth in the NVIDIA/AI supply chain,” the bank wrote. The bank explained that given the high bandwidth memory The demand for SUSS tools is “very high” because they make all layers suitable for encapsulation. Jefferies said SUSS has 55% market share in the field and is “well positioned” to benefit from two growth drivers over the next one to two years: increased TSMC CoWoS shipments and an increase in the number of high-bandwidth memory tiers. Jeffries said that because the company’s access to the packaging technology required for high-bandwidth memory is “new,” the upside potential for orders and revenue is “much greater” than for other equipment suppliers. “Additionally, we believe SUSS is one of the most attractive CoWoS players globally as it faces significantly lower competition than its advanced packaging peers,” the bank wrote. Jefferies expects fiscal 2025 sales of €471 million, increased by 16%. —CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
