South Korea targets eight on-device AI chips, moves up one appliance chip

South Korea’s industry ministry set out a roadmap on November 12 to develop and test eight on-device AI chips and two semiconductor design assets by 2030 at an industry meeting in Seoul. It plans to bring forward manufacturing of one of the three smart-appliance chips by at least a year. The ministry gave no new manufacturing date or appliance model for that chip.

The announcement sets out the schedule and companies’ roles for a program worth about 800.2 billion won that began in June. According to the ministry, Samsung Foundry has identified demand for 21 test-chip fabrication runs in 2027, including three at the 2-nanometer node. It plans to prioritize those requests when allocating capacity and coordinate them with its existing production schedule. Companies that make the finished products will help set design requirements and test the chips.

Testing chips in the products they will power

Besides the three appliance chips, the roadmap calls for one for autonomous vehicles and one each for collaborative robots, humanoid robots, farm robots and uncrewed aircraft. The two design assets are for advanced manufacturing processes and extreme operating environments, respectively. Those assets are parts of chip designs. The chips themselves are intended to run AI computations inside a device.

Companies that make the end products will lead individual projects and tell designers what specifications their products need. The program also covers the module that connects the chip to the product and the software that runs on it. Product makers are expected to provide real-world test environments so teams can evaluate the combination in the equipment it is intended to power.

NC AI said on September 3 that a consortium it formed with LG Electronics had been selected for the humanoid project. NC AI is responsible for initial training data and software to adapt human movements to a robot. That work has to account for differences in joint movement and body proportions. The program’s humanoid chip is intended to handle motion control on the robot itself.

Samsung identifies 21 prototype runs for 2027

The ministry lists three runs at 2 nanometers, four at 4, three at 5, three at 8, three at 14 and five at 28. The total includes both multi-project wafer runs and dedicated runs. The priority applies when Samsung allocates capacity for prototypes. The announcement gave no dates for individual companies or volumes for mass production.

In Samsung’s existing multi-project wafer service, several designs share a wafer and the masks used to pattern it. That lets design companies split manufacturing costs and test chips before ordering larger quantities. Samsung’s service guide lists chip dimensions and the number of sample wafers among the details applicants supply. A manufacturing support task force formed in June had been asked to work on assigning production lines and supporting test-chip fabrication. The November roadmap gives a breakdown of demand by process node.

The ministry also outlined support for semiconductor intellectual property, the circuit designs and other technology that chip designers license. Suppliers are to offer more flexible payment terms and common design packages. Separately, Samsung’s existing foundry partner program offers design kits for its processes and sample silicon for testing.

The call for proposals was issued on June 11, and applications were accepted from June 18 through July 10. At the June launch, the ministry put the full project cost at 800.23 billion won, including 511.11 billion won in public funding. The ministry said in October it had transferred 130.5 billion won in funding for 2026 to the Korea Planning and Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology on September 23. The institute had paid 70.6 billion won to research organizations with signed agreements by September 30. The roadmap’s 800.2 billion won figure covers the full program.

The ministry’s vice minister and Kyung Hee University president Kim Jin-sang will co-chair a public-private committee. Its remit includes resolving technical and coordination problems that arise between companies. The committee will review and approve each year’s development plan at the start of the year.