On Wednesday, Su Zifeng, Chairman and CEO of AMD, made South Korean AI chips a core topic of the cooperation talks in Seoul, discussing how to combine South Korean AI chips with AMD processors to create systems for the global market.
Su Zifeng met for the second time with Liu Jiming from the Ministry of Science and Technology, as well as executives from 13 Korean AI companies, to discuss the combination of AMD central processing units and graphics processors with neural network processors specifically designed for AI in Korea. Both parties will carry out demonstration projects in Korea to test this system and develop a plan for its deployment overseas.
This collaboration is expected to expand AMD's AI inference products, while also helping Korean chip manufacturers connect with global customers, further challenging NVIDIA's position in the AI computing field.
Su Zifeng said, "I am very optimistic about open ecosystems." She stated that South Korea is an important partner in advancing artificial intelligence and expanding the global application of AI.
This meeting reflects that the competition among AI parties is shifting towards a complete computing system that integrates chips, software, and cloud infrastructure. The participants also discussed integrating into the AMD open-source ROCm software ecosystem, which is benchmarked against the NVIDIA CUDA platform.
Liu Jiming stated that the global channels of AMD combined with the technical strength of Korean companies can give rise to entirely new AI technologies and businesses, thereby facilitating the expansion of Korea's AI chip industry.
In July this year, during President Lee Jae-myeong's visit to San Francisco to attend the AI summit, AMD signed a cooperation agreement with South Korea's Ministry of Science and Technology. This meeting is a follow-up action to implement that agreement.
After a seven-month hiatus, Su Zifeng visited South Korea again and reiterated his plan to establish the AI Center of Excellence in South Korea by the end of the year, with the intention of recruiting hundreds of researchers. The Ministry of Science and Technology stated that AMD will provide the hardware for the center, although the location has not yet been finalized; AMD will continue to support the cultivation of AI talents at the graduate level.
Su Zifeng stated that AMD is investing in local computing power for startups and other users, and provided an example of the first cloud infrastructure project in collaboration with MangoBoost. She also mentioned the recent agreement reached with the AI Research Institute at Seoul National University and pledged to expand cooperation with Korean universities and startups.
This roundtable meeting brought together companies in the fields of AI chips, software, and cloud services: FuriosaAI, HyperAccel, DeepX, Mobilint, MangoBoost, Panmnesia, Dnotitia, Moreh, Lablup, Fadu, Elice groups, as well as Upstage.
After that, Su Zifeng and AMD attended the AMD Game Player Day event together with Jack Huynh, the Senior Vice President of the Computing and Graphics Division, to showcase gaming technology and listen to the opinions of Korean players.
She also plans to meet with Choon Yong-hyun, the vice president of Samsung Electronics and the person in charge of its semiconductor business.
During a visit to South Korea in March this year, Su Zifeng met with Samsung Electronics President Lee Jae-yong and signed a cooperation agreement with Chun Yong-hyun. AMD designated Samsung as the preferred supplier for MI455X AI chips and HBM4 memory. The two parties also discussed the possibility of Samsung manufacturing AMD future chips.
