"Strengthening AI Semiconductor Collaboration" Ministry of Science and ICT Signs Business Agreement with Demand and Supply Companies

Minister Lim Hye-sook of the Ministry of Science and ICT Visits AI Semiconductor Site
Signs Business Agreement Between AI Semiconductor Demand (Data Centers) and Supply Companies (Fabless)
Minister Lim: "Comprehensive Support for AI Semiconductors, the Core Infrastructure of the Digital New Deal"

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] Amid intensifying competition among countries over artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors, a new growth engine for the future semiconductor industry, domestic AI semiconductor demand and supply companies have agreed to strengthen cooperation by actively considering the demonstration and application of domestically produced semiconductors in cloud data centers and developing demand-tailored semiconductors.

On the 1st, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that Minister Hyesook Lim visited the NHN headquarters in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, to engage in on-site communication related to AI semiconductors, a core infrastructure of the Digital New Deal. AI semiconductors are system semiconductors that execute large-scale computations necessary for implementing AI services such as learning and inference with high performance and high power efficiency.

The on-site visit was arranged to listen to voices from the field related to AI semiconductors, a new growth engine for the future semiconductor industry, and to seek ways to strengthen industrial competitiveness. NHN, the visit destination, is a cloud data center company representing the demand market for AI semiconductors and plans to conduct technical demonstrations of the AI semiconductor (Sapeon) developed by SK Telecom starting this year.

On this day, the Ministry of Science and ICT signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for mutual cooperation with cloud data center companies, which are demand companies for server AI semiconductors, and fabless companies, which are supply companies. The server AI semiconductor market was valued at $3.52 billion (approximately 3.9 trillion KRW) globally last year and is expected to grow tenfold to $34.67 billion (approximately 38.8 trillion KRW) by 2030. In Korea, fabless startups have been developing world-class AI semiconductors since last year, and cloud data center companies requiring large-scale data processing are increasingly demanding AI semiconductors with high performance and power efficiency.

However, until now, there has been no platform for cooperation between demand and supply companies. Fabless companies have faced difficulties in accurately identifying technical demands for server semiconductors and securing demonstration cases essential for creating initial markets, while cloud data center companies have relied on expensive foreign semiconductors due to a lack of information on the performance of domestically produced semiconductors.

Through this agreement, the parties will closely cooperate on actively considering the demonstration and application of domestically produced semiconductors within cloud data centers, collaborating on the development of demand-tailored semiconductors, and establishing a semiconductor testbed within the Gwangju AI cluster. The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to strengthen the cooperative ecosystem between demand and supply companies through demand-linked AI semiconductor demonstration support projects.

Following this, an awards ceremony was held for the ‘2020 AI Semiconductor Design Competition,’ organized to discover next-generation design talents who will lead the development of the AI semiconductor industry. The competition, themed ‘AI semiconductor design for detecting individuals not wearing masks in closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage to prevent the spread of COVID-19,’ involved 42 teams and was conducted over five months from November last year to April this year.

In the preliminary round, 20 teams were selected by evaluating design plans. In the finals, the top 10 teams were chosen based on a comprehensive evaluation of quantitative performance verification of the results and presentation contests. The grand prize was awarded to the ‘AI Social Distancing’ team (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University), which developed an AI semiconductor with a processing speed approximately 26,671 times faster (67.3 ms per frame) than the provided design environment’s processing speed (about 30 minutes per frame).

Finally, an on-site roundtable was held with AI semiconductor industry-academia-research experts, cloud data center companies, and competition winners. Presentations included the current status and future plans of AI semiconductor technology development by the supplier Puriosa AI and the demonstration and application plans of AI semiconductors (SKT’s ‘Sapeon’) by the demand company NHN. Discussions focused on three main topics: AI semiconductor technology development, cooperation between demand and supply companies, and human resource development, addressing field difficulties and ways to advance the domestic AI semiconductor industry.

Minister Hyesook Lim stated, “In this critical period of worsening semiconductor supply shortages and expanding technological hegemony competition among countries over semiconductors, close cooperation between the public and private sectors is essential to strengthen the competitiveness of our semiconductor industry. The government will comprehensively support companies and students so that Korea can leap forward as a leading country not only in memory semiconductors but also in AI semiconductors, a core infrastructure of the Digital New Deal such as data dams.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.