The Ministry of Science and ICT will begin announcing major new projects in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors, financed by a supplementary budget, starting on the 29th. This announcement, which will run until June 30, aims to support the commercialization of neural processing units (NPU) by domestic fabless corporations.
To provide substantial support to promising AI semiconductor corporations, the Ministry of Science and ICT allocated a total of 49.4 billion won in this year's supplementary budget. The funding is composed of ▲ 12 billion won for upgrading AI computing verification infrastructure ▲ 6 billion won for developing and verifying domestic AI semiconductor-based devices (AX) ▲ 4 billion won for supporting verification of artificial intelligence conversions (AX) ▲ 5.4 billion won for overseas verification support for AI semiconductors ▲ 22 billion won for timely support for commercialization of AI semiconductors. Accordingly, the Ministry of Science and ICT will invest a total of 243.4 billion won this year to support research and development (R&D), verification, and talent cultivation to revitalize the AI semiconductor industry.
Through this announcement, major new project-performing corporations and institutions will be recruited for ▲ the AI computing verification infrastructure upgrade project ▲ AX verification support project ▲ timely support for commercialization of AI semiconductors, including 'product manufacturing and upgrading support.' Priority will be given to recruiting corporations eligible for support in producing prototypes and mass-produced items, and a selection process for corporations needing design software via vouchers will be conducted in June.
The AI computing verification infrastructure upgrade project, to be pursued over the next three years, will promote large-scale domestic NPU verification to support early commercialization, moving away from the previous focus on small-scale and technology validation. A large-scale clustering environment of 120 petaflops (PF) is planned to be implemented. This year, an infrastructure capable of validating a 50 PF scale commercial large language model (LLM) will be established.
The AX verification support project, which will operate for two years, has been established to transition and promote the commercialization of various AI services that have already been commercialized, based on domestic AI semiconductors. The Ministry of Science and ICT noted, 'We will support the transition of a total of four commercial AI services linked to local industries,' adding, 'We plan to facilitate AX in the industrial sector and expand it nationwide to revitalize the NPU-based AI inference market.'
The timely support project for the commercialization of AI semiconductors is being implemented to establish a support system throughout the entire cycle of commercialization for promising AI semiconductor startups, including design software (SW), product manufacturing, and card and server unit verification. The Ministry of Science and ICT stated, 'We maximized practical support effects by using vouchers so that corporations could receive support tailored to their actual situations,' and added, 'We will also provide step-by-step customized consulting and technical support to promote the rapid market entry of capable fabless AI semiconductors.'
Park Tae-wan, the director general of the Ministry of Science and ICT's Information and Communication Industry Policy Bureau, stated, 'We have continued to support the advancement of the domestic AI semiconductor industry by recognizing the importance of AI semiconductors and discovering and commercializing policy demands based on close communication with corporations.' He added, 'We will work as a team with the industry to ensure that domestic AI semiconductors are commercialized within the golden time and that substantial support is provided to corporations.'