Astera Labs poised to pop after above-target IPO

Astera Labs,

20/03/2024 14:21

(Updates with indicated opening levels)
    ** Chip firm Astera Labs'  ALAB.O  shares recently indicated
to open at $50 vs $36 IPO price, as it rides a wave of
enthusiasm for artificial intelligence
    ** Astera and shareholders sold 19.8 mln shares above an
already upwardly revised deal size and range of $32-$34, for
~$713 mln gross raise
    ** Astera's shares to begin trading on the Nasdaq with
symbol "ALAB"
    ** At the IPO price, Astera achieved valuation of about $5.5
bln and a fully diluted value of around $6 bln. In its last
funding round in 2022, co was valued at $3 bln
    ** Astera provides vital data center components to customers
including large cloud service providers
    ** Its Aries product, which generates the majority of co's
revenue, helps CPUs and GPUs scale their data input/output
bandwidth (Click here for SEC prospectus filing)
    ** Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan leading 12-firm underwriting
group on the IPO
    ** The offering comes as Nvidia  NVDA.O  chief Jensen Huang
kicked off his firm's annual developer conference this week

 (Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed
are his own)
 ((lance.tupper@thomsonreuters.com
lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))