SKT Establishes AI Semiconductor Specialist 'Sapeon Korea'... Files US Patent

Korea-US 'Sapeon' Brand Trademark Application

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] SK Telecom is tightening its grip on the AI leadership race by spinning off its self-developed artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor business into an affiliate named 'Sapeon Korea (tentative).'

According to the telecommunications industry on the 23rd, SK Telecom held a board meeting on the 21st and resolved to transfer the operations of its AI semiconductor business 'Sapeon.'

The transferee is Sapeon Korea (tentative), with the scheduled transfer date set for January 4 next year. After its establishment, Sapeon Korea is expected to be incorporated as an SKT affiliate. Earlier this month, on the 10th, SK Telecom also filed a domestic trademark application related to the Sapeon brand.

SK Telecom explained, "This decision was made from the perspective of commercializing AI semiconductor technology and improving management efficiency," adding, "Specific plans will be announced later." The company is expected to unveil its fabless business blueprint at 'CES 2022,' the world's largest electronics exhibition held in Las Vegas, USA, early next year.

The company name Sapeon is derived from the AI semiconductor brand 'Sapeon' that SK Telecom unveiled in November last year. SK Telecom began developing its own AI semiconductors in 2017 and, with government support and other efforts, succeeded in mass-producing the 'Sapeon X220,' the first domestic AI semiconductor for data centers, within about three years.

AI semiconductors are specialized products designed to perform large-scale computations at ultra-high speed and low power consumption to implement AI services. They are expected to replace the expensive graphics processing units (GPUs) in data centers, which consume a lot of power. This is why big tech companies like Google and Amazon produce and use AI semiconductors specialized for big data processing in-house. In fact, Sapeon products are expected to be utilized across SK Group services, including SK Telecom's AI assistant 'Nugu' and ADT video surveillance.

SK Telecom will also promote the Sapeon brand on the global stage, including in the United States. On the 16th (local time), the company filed related patents with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). According to documents submitted to the USPTO, Sapeon covers areas such as cloud computing services, cloud computing consulting, PaaS (Platform as a Service), SaaS (Software as a Service), AI clouding services, cloud computing services for AI media analysis, and AI-based software.