First Public Release of Domestic NPU Performance Indicator... Measured Across Diverse Service Environments

Easier Access to Concrete Performance Data
Council Formed with FuriosaAI, Rebellions, and Others
Accelerating Early Commercialization of NPUs

The domestic artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor industry is embarking on the early commercialization of homegrown neural processing units (NPUs) and the pursuit of global competitiveness, driven by large-scale government support and collaboration between demand and supply companies. In particular, the industry has announced the launch of the "K-Perf" joint performance indicator, optimized for the domestic environment, and the establishment of a related council. The focus will be on securing objective performance data, which has long been an obstacle to the adoption of domestic NPUs.

On December 10, the Ministry of Science and ICT held the "2025 AI Semiconductor Future Technology Conference" at Lotte Hotel Seoul, attended by more than 150 key figures from industry, academia, and research. At the event, the ministry shared the roadmap and achievements for domestic AI semiconductors.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, Haeun Bae, is delivering a congratulatory speech at the 2025 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hacking Defense Competition held on the 1st at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

One of the key outcomes of the conference was the launch of the "K-Perf Council," led by the industry, and the announcement of the joint performance indicator "K-Perf." This council, which includes fabless companies such as FuriosaAI, Rebellions, and HyperAccel, major cloud service providers such as Naver Cloud, KT Cloud, and Kakao Enterprise, as well as LG AI Research Institute and a total of 15 demand and supply organizations and related institutions, will play a role in ensuring the objectivity of domestic NPU performance and supporting its adoption in the field.

"K-Perf" distinguishes itself from existing theoretical performance indicators by segmenting measurement models, conditions, and metrics based on the diverse service environments proposed by demand companies. This enables demand companies to more easily obtain the specific performance data required for the adoption of domestic NPUs, which is expected to significantly expand collaboration between demand and supply companies. Through a joint declaration, the council agreed to actively utilize the K-Perf indicator to enhance the performance of domestic NPUs and secure field-oriented references.

250 Billion Won Invested, 26 Products Developed and Upgraded

This year, the Ministry of Science and ICT invested more than 250 billion won in research and development (R&D) as well as demonstration and commercialization support, focusing on the early commercialization of domestic AI semiconductors. In particular, through the first and second supplementary budgets, the ministry significantly increased the budget for demonstration and commercialization by 79.4 billion won, successfully supporting the development and advancement of 26 products related to domestic NPUs from 16 companies.

Company representatives attending the meeting emphasized that the government's supplementary budget projects provided substantial support for the commercialization of domestic NPUs and greatly contributed to shortening the time to market and enabling global expansion. The achievement exhibition booths showcased the development of next-generation domestic NPUs with 2PF-class performance, as well as cases of commercial-level optimization between proprietary AI foundation models and domestic NPUs, demonstrating the excellence of Korean technology.

In addition, an award ceremony was held to present the Deputy Prime Minister's Commendation to six individuals who contributed to the development of the AI semiconductor industry. Among the recipients were Jinwook Oh, CTO of Rebellions; Hanjun Kim, CTO of FuriosaAI; and Woong Seo, Director of DeepX. The grand prize in the AI Semiconductor Competition was awarded to the Jachungsoo team from SeoulTech.

During the presentation sessions following the opening ceremony, leading domestic and international experts gathered to share trends and developments in AI semiconductor technology and the industry. In particular, keynote speeches by NVIDIA and SK hynix drew attention as they presented their outlook on the future of the semiconductor market in the AI era from the perspectives of AI semiconductors and memory.

This conference and the announcement of K-Perf are expected to serve as a critical turning point in achieving the national agenda of "securing leading AI technologies and talent." Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Haeun Bae stated, "AI semiconductors are the core infrastructure supporting the national AI transformation," adding, "We will focus on advancing low-power domestic AI semiconductors and actively support fabless companies so that all citizens can utilize AI services without cost burdens."

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