Investors in Pathkey.AI (ASX:PKY, PathKey) couldn’t have asked for a better fortnight. In the 2 weeks following our initiation report (4 August 2026), the company signed its first commercial contract for its Chipforge platform and welcomed former Altium Chairman Sam Weiss as a strategic advisor and as an investor, corner stoning a $2.8m capital raising. We believe both pieces of news provide strong validation of Chipforge’s potential.

Former Altium Chair appointed strategic advisor and corner stoning the raise

Sam Weiss joining the company as a strategic advisor and corner stoning a A$2.8m capital raise is very significant news. Weiss chaired Altium for 17 years and has previously walked the path that PathKey has just embarked on. Altium (PCB design software) ultimately got acquired by Japanese chip manufacturer Renesas Electronics (TYO:6723) for A$9.1bn. Weiss understands the start-up to being acquired playbook and we believe Chipforge has the potential to do for FPGA/ASIC design what Altium did for PCB design.

Chipforge’s first commercial deal before the actual platform is even officially launched

Chipforge’s first commercial contract is with an Australian industrial automation company, active across AsiaPac, that requires custom hardware design capabilities without having an in-house chip design team – exactly the kind of customer Chipforge can support. It is a ten-week proof of value program with a US$50,000 fixed fee. PathKey has been able to close this deal before the Chipforge platform has even officially been released, which suggests to us that there is a lot of latent demand for a product like Chipforge.

Valuation of $0.15-0.20 per share

We reiterate our valuation PathKey as outlined in our initiation note at A$0.15/share base case and A$0.20/share bull case initially, based on a SOTP valuation of Chipforge and TrialKey. PathKey shares have risen nearly 20% since our initiation note off the back of the recent news and we expect the momentum to continue.