Specialized microchip manufacturer Silex Microsystems saw its share price surge on its first day of trading on the Nasdaq Stockholm main market Thursday, following an initial public offering that was multiple times oversubscribed.

The stock was priced at 81 Swedish krona per share and climbed to 210 krona after opening, a jump of nearly 160%, before a brief trading halt was triggered due to the extreme price movement. By midday, the shares had moderated to around 154.50 krona, still representing a gain of approximately 91% over the IPO price, valuing the company at about 16.5 billion krona.

Silex is the world's largest pure-play MEMS foundry and has been ranked number one in the field for five consecutive years. MEMS, or micro-electromechanical systems, are extremely small components that integrate miniature mechanical structures with electronic elements on a silicon chip. They are widely used in applications such as accelerometers in mobile phones, lidar systems for autonomous vehicles, and medical devices.

Cornerstone investors, including the Swedish National Pension Fund, Fidelity Investments, and Svenska Handelsbanken, subscribed to approximately three-quarters of the offered shares. The company and its shareholders raised about 2 billion krona through the IPO, with proceeds intended for the acquisition of manufacturing equipment in the United States to expand production capacity.

Silex was founded in 2000 by four doctoral graduates from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, with its initial incubation workshop located in the school's Electrum laboratory. Chinese firm Sai Microelectronics retains a stake of just under 10% following the share offering.