Trek 2000's 11x Earnings Jump Shows AI Demand Is Reaching Singapore's Own Hardware Names

Singapore's AI story is usually told through data centres, semiconductor plants and government frameworks — but the earnings season is now putting hard numbers on it. Trek 2000, the homegrown company credited with inventing the USB thumb drive two decades ago, just delivered the kind of result that shows how deeply the AI demand wave has reached into Singapore's listed hardware names.

The company reported net earnings of US$2.45 million for the first half of its financial year ended June 30, up close to 11 times year on year. Revenue jumped 247.6% to US$33.4 million, driven by stronger demand for its solutions amid the artificial intelligence trend, which lifted orders for memory modules across the global market. Its Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) business unit now accounts for 98.3% of revenue — a reminder of how completely the company has pivoted from consumer data storage. Gross profit climbed 776% to US$3.5 million, with margins expanding 6.4 percentage points to 10.6%, and the board rewarded shareholders with an interim dividend of 0.5 cents per share. Liquid assets of about US$32 million, or 90% of net assets, leave room for further investment.

The results are the memory-module side of the same AI capex boom that has lifted Singapore's electronics exports and growth outlook this year — the government recently raised its 2026 export forecast to 14-16% growth and its GDP forecast to 4.5-5.5% on AI-driven demand. Trek 2000 is a smaller, scrappier player than the contract manufacturers and packaging giants capturing headlines, but it sits on the same supply chain: AI servers and edge devices need the NAND and DRAM modules the company has spent years building around, and its push into AI avionics and renewable-energy solutions suggests management intends to stay on the AI side of the ledger.

For investors and observers of Singapore's tech ecosystem, the share price tells the story — up close to 220% over the past six months, even after a modest 1.75% dip on results day. That repricing reflects a market that increasingly treats local hardware names as AI plays. The caveat worth keeping in view: memory demand is cyclical, gross margins at 10.6% remain thin by industry standards, and the surge is as much about a global supply squeeze as any company-specific breakthrough. "We will continue to invest in AI-enabled technologies, innovative memory solutions and next generation AI applications," said CEO Wayne Tan.

Why it matters for Singapore: Trek 2000's surge is a concrete example of AI's economic dividend reaching beyond multinationals and hyperscalers into Singapore's own listed companies. When a company best known for inventing the thumb drive derives 98% of its revenue from AI-related solutions, it says something about how quickly the local hardware ecosystem is being reoriented around AI demand — and why the government's export and GDP upgrades are more than headline numbers.