Nurturing System Semiconductor Startups Through "Challenge for All Fabless"

Announcement of "Challenge for All Fabless" in Collaboration with Three Major Domestic Foundries

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on April 14 that it has launched the "Challenge for All Fabless" program, in collaboration with three domestic foundries—Samsung Electronics, SK Key Foundry, and DB HiTek—to support prototype processing for promising fabless startups.

The "Challenge for All" program was established to foster the era of national entrepreneurship by encouraging open innovation between innovative startups in key strategic sectors and leading companies in each field, thereby driving collective growth. The "Challenge for All Fabless" is the third installment in the series, following the AI Transformation (AX) and defense sectors. It was designed to support the commercialization of fabless startups, which play a key role as the system semiconductor industry continues to grow amid the acceleration of AI technology.

The "Challenge for All Fabless" program selects promising fabless startups in partnership with domestic foundries, giving them priority access to the foundries' prototype processing and providing financial support for related costs up to 200 million won. The program has been held regularly since 2022, with 20 companies selected and supported to date.

According to the announcement, the program is recruiting promising fabless startups established within the last 10 years that wish to use the MPW processes of the three domestic foundries. Through a document review and presentation evaluation, five startups will be selected in the final round. Notably, this year, the scope of support for the highly demanded 12-inch process has been expanded to include three companies using the 12-inch process (Samsung Electronics) and two companies using the 8-inch process (SK Key Foundry, DB HiTek). MPW (Multi-Project Wafer) is a product development method in which multiple project chip designs are placed on a single wafer for the purpose of prototyping or research.

Han Sung-sook, Minister of SMEs and Startups, stated, "Although the domestic memory semiconductor industry has seen significant growth recently, support for the system semiconductor ecosystem—which forms the foundation of national high-tech industries—is more essential than ever." She added, "We will actively support domestic fabless startups so they can grow and compete on the global stage."

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