The Future of K-Semiconductors

In the race to win the artificial intelligence (AI) war, governments and companies are pouring astronomical budgets into securing Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) or, as an alternative, developing neural processing units (NPUs). However, there is one person who asserts that such strategies alone are not enough to secure victory in the AI war. That person is Kim Jangwoo, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University and CEO of the data processing unit (DPU) development startup MangoBoost. Throughout his interview with The Asia Business Daily, Kim emphasized that "Nvidia's real weapon is not a single chip, but the system that connects those chips," and highlighted the need for Korea to pursue a new path toward 'AI infrastructure independence.' After meeting Kim at the 'Supercomputing 2025 (SC25)' event in St. Louis, USA, in November of last year, we met again in early December at the MangoBoost office in Sadang-dong, Seoul. Hi

DeepX, an on-device artificial intelligence (AI) fabless (semiconductor design specialist) company, has joined forces with Hyundai Motor Group to signal the commercialization of AI semiconductors for robots. The two companies recently unveiled an "on-device AI chip" at CES 2026, the world's largest electronics and IT exhibition held in Las Vegas, USA, after three years of close collaboration. They announced that starting this year, these chips will be actively installed in robots used in real-life applications. The chip developed by the two companies operates on ultra-low power of less than 5W, yet enables robots to perceive and make decisions independently without the need for cloud connectivity. The Asia Business Daily recently interviewed Kim Nokwon, CEO of DeepX, to discuss collaborations with major domestic and global companies such as Hyundai Motor Company and Samsung Electronics, as well as the future direction of Korea's system semiconductor industry. "Semiconductors Are a Comp

The headquarters of HyperAccel is located in Seocho-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Upon entering the office of CEO Kim Jooyoung, a massive whiteboard occupying the entire right wall immediately catches the eye. The whiteboard is filled with all kinds of formulas, shapes, and arithmetic symbols arranged in irregular patterns. HyperAccel employees unleash their imagination on whiteboards placed throughout the company. CEO Kim explained, "I set them up everywhere, inspired by my time at Microsoft from 2010 to 2019," adding, "It's an environment where team members can jot down ideas as soon as they come to mind and organize them later." HyperAccel and CEO Kim are preparing to bring the blueprints written on those whiteboards to life in earnest this year. In March, the company will launch the world's first Language Processing Unit (LPU), which it developed independently. This LPU is expected to be used primarily by Naver Cloud. Later in the year, HyperAccel will release an on-device chip co-devel