South Korea’s SK Telecom unveils next-gen AI chip
November 27, 2020 4:53:43 pm
SK Telecom’s chip, the size of a postage stamp, is the first Korean ASIC for data centers to be commercialized, according to the company. (Image source: Bloomberg)
South Korea is adding a new artificial intelligence chip to its arsenal of semiconductors as the nation seeks a bigger slice of the global tech market and an upgrade of its industrial capabilities.
The Sapeon X220, unveiled Wednesday by the largest local carrier SK Telecom Co, is designed to speed up servers that cater to a growing number of mobile devices — from drones to self-driving vehicles — that perform better with AI. It’s the latest product of the nation’s decade-long push to broaden its dominance beyond memory chips, where Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc control roughly two-thirds of the global market.
South Korea sees data-processing chips as a major engine for future economic growth, along with fifth-generation wireless networks. The government has provided more than 600 billion won ($542 million) in support to develop such chips and plans to invest another trillion won over the next decade, viewing them as crucial in automating factories and improving the competitiveness of the country’s exports.
“As we teamed up with the government, we said, ‘Let’s make AI available and affordable for all of our companies,’” said Lee Jong-min, an SK Telecom vice president overseeing the chip development. “South Korea has the demand, the full stack of tech needed to meet the demand, and the ability to take it to the next level.”
Semiconductors account for about one-fifth of South Korea’s exports, most of them memory chips. The country is now turning to application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, such as the X220, which is tailored for AI operations. It follows a similar $1 billion investment plan announced by the U.S. government this summer, which also emphasized AI and public-private collaboration.
