[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 10th that the Gwangju Technopark Consortium was selected for the "AI SoC Technology Development Project for Smart Home Appliances" organized by the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and that the NHN Consortium was finally selected in the "AI Semiconductor Demonstration Support Project" organized by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) under the Ministry of Science and ICT.
The "AI SoC Technology Development Project for Smart Home Appliances" is promoted to support the acceleration of technology development for smart home appliance products in the regional home appliance industry by integrating artificial intelligence technology and to strengthen industrial competitiveness.
The project will be carried out with a total budget of 7.7 billion KRW (4.5 billion KRW national funds, 1 billion KRW local funds, 2.2 billion KRW private funds) by 2024.
In particular, a demand survey conducted on local home appliance companies showed a willingness to develop various products and services based on AI solutions, but difficulties in system implementation and semiconductor development. Therefore, the project will develop AI semiconductors for smart home appliances in cooperation with fabless companies in the Seoul metropolitan area and demonstrate them to local home appliance companies.
The project involves specialized companies and institutions such as Inix Co., Ltd., a fabless semiconductor company based on image processing holding 35 domestic and international patents; Solbit System Co., Ltd., an AI platform development specialist; Winia Dimchae Co., Ltd., a comprehensive home appliance company headquartered in Gwangju; NetOn Co., Ltd., a local AI specialist company; and Gwangju Technopark Foundation.
Additionally, Gwangju City plans to actively establish a national infrastructure hub to support the commercialization of domestic AI semiconductors in new industry fields such as data center semiconductors, smart home appliances, and future vehicles, which can grow as next-generation core industries by converging with AI technology.
The "AI Semiconductor Demonstration Support Project" will receive 2.2 billion KRW in national funding over two years to foster the AI semiconductor industry, a core foundation of the AI and data ecosystem, by supporting technology demonstration for the utilization and dissemination of domestically developed AI semiconductors.
AI semiconductors are intelligent non-memory semiconductors that execute large-scale computations required for AI services at ultra-high speed and low power. Although many domestic companies and research institutes have secured the technology, there are difficulties in securing references and demonstrations necessary for various AI application services, requiring active support.
The NHN Consortium, which is promoting the project, is a public-private cooperative model led by NHN Corp., a Gwangju data center cloud infrastructure construction and operation company, with participation from specialized companies and institutions such as SK Telecom Co., Ltd., which launched the first domestically developed AI semiconductor, and the AI Industry Convergence Business Group (AICA).
Gwangju City plans to support the NHN Consortium in building AI semiconductor-based servers and demonstrating application service technologies, and to link with the national AI data center to be established in Gwangju to secure original domestic AI semiconductor technologies and promote related technology dissemination.
Through this, Gwangju is expected to emerge as a core foundation of the AI and data ecosystem and a hub for the utilization of domestic AI semiconductors.
Son Kyung-jong, Director of the AI Industry Bureau of Gwangju City, said, "We will do our best to foster and develop the AI semiconductor industry, which is a core foundation of the AI and data ecosystem, in Gwangju."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
