[Market Focus] ICTK Surges on 21.5 Billion KRW Strategic Partnership with Global Quantum Firm BTQ Technologies

ICTK is showing strong performance. This appears to be influenced by the news that the company has signed a strategic partnership agreement worth 21.5 billion KRW with global quantum technology company BTQ Technologies.

As of 2:38 p.m. on October 28, ICTK was trading at 17,440 KRW, up 9.34% from the previous day.

On this day, ICTK announced that it had signed a Strategic Investment and Development Agreement with global quantum technology company BTQ Technologies, involving a joint development and strategic partnership worth 15 million USD (approximately 21.5 billion KRW).

This collaboration is a proactive measure to address the rapidly increasing security threats posed by the commercialization of quantum computers. ICTK will combine BTQ's post-quantum cryptography (PQC) technology with its own proven security chip design and manufacturing capabilities to jointly develop a next-generation quantum security SE chip called "Quantum Compute in Memory (QCIM)."

The project aims to apply quantum security technology early across key foundational industries such as defense, finance, and telecommunications, with the goal of enhancing domestic technological self-reliance and leading the global quantum security semiconductor market.

Through this agreement, ICTK and BTQ have signed a development contract for the design, verification, tape-out, certification, and commercialization of the QCIM chip, as well as an investment agreement for BTQ's direct equity investment in ICTK and joint business initiatives by ICTK. This will allow BTQ's PQC technology to be expanded into a hardware platform implemented directly at the silicon level, while ICTK plans to diversify its quantum security chip product lineup.

The QCIM chip is centered around BTQ's hardware security module (CASH), directly integrating post-quantum cryptography (PQC) into the silicon layer. This enables a crypto-agile upgrade to a quantum-secure environment without changing existing customer workflows. The chip is expected to be used in application environments requiring high-trust security, such as digital asset wallets, mobile authentication, payments, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), defense, and critical infrastructure sectors.

The initial performance targets for QCIM are: ▲ a fivefold increase in AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) processing speed compared to existing security hardware ▲ real-time authentication with approximately 1 million digital signatures processed per second ▲ ultra-low power consumption of less than 1 microjoule per operation. Its compact design also allows for application in small devices and embedded systems.