Science ministry convenes AI chip sector on open infrastructure

The science ministry said Thursday it convened AI semiconductor companies to discuss public-private cooperation on open AI computing infrastructure as the global market shifts from training toward inference.

AI services place varying demands on computing, intensifying competition to combine CPUs, GPUs and NPUs with memory, networks and software rather than relying on one type of semiconductor, the ministry said.

Bae Kyung-hoon, deputy prime minister and science minister, chaired the session. FuriosaAI presented global industry trends, while AMD Korea outlined plans for its agreement with the ministry.

MangoBoost and Moreh detailed work with AMD on computing optimization and software. Participants said competition was shifting from individual chip performance toward systems that combine hardware and software.

The plan calls for full-stack demonstrations and ecosystem support to help domestically developed neural processing units, or NPUs, gain practical use in data centers and AI services. Participants called for a national testing environment to validate and broaden such systems.

The ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with AMD during the president's trip last month. "The memorandum of understanding signed with AMD during the president's trip last month created an important opportunity for domestic AI semiconductor companies to participate in the global AI ecosystem," Bae said. Participants said concrete cooperation projects and government follow-through were needed for the agreement to produce results.

AMD Korea handed an AI computer, donated by AMD to mark the memorandum, to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology during the meeting. Lisa Su expressed the plan at the U.S. memorandum-signing ceremony, and AMD accepted Bae's proposal that talented people should be able to use the computer at KAIST.