Baek Joon-ho, CEO of the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor fabless corporation FuriosaAI, argued that the control tower for government projects related to AI infrastructure should be composed of an organization equipped with technical understanding and experience in the innovation ecosystem.
On the 9th, Baek Joon-ho noted this during a presentation on the theme of "Path to Global Domination of the AI Semiconductor Industry" at the 'Strategic Breakfast Forum for the Three Major AI Powers,' hosted by lawmakers Jeong Dong-young and Choi Hyung-do.
He said, "We need to set a bold goal and strategy for global market domination in AI semiconductor policy," considering startups as a new core entity for large-scale innovation and proposing substantial enhancements to investment and the establishment of integrated strategies encompassing the construction of AI infrastructure technology capabilities in collaboration with the government and corporations, GPU-based training, and NPU-based inference.
Baek noted, "There is a lack of design competitiveness among domestic AI semiconductor personnel and experience in the infrastructure computing area, but we have human resources capable of designs at a different level than in the past, especially among the younger generation." He further explained the perspective that the semiconductor industry is a capital-intensive field requiring large organizations, stating, "In AMD and Intel, chip development often starts with 2 to 3 individuals, and they expand the organization upon success. The AI ecosystem is a field where startups and large corporations share roles and collaborate."
Following the presentation, Shin Dong-joo, CEO of the on-device AI semiconductor corporation Mobius, and Kim Jeong-wook, Vice President of DeepX, emphasized the need for the government to relax regulations to expand the overseas business of domestic AI semiconductor corporations. Shin noted, "However, the problem is the speed and scale of the capital invested to mass-produce semiconductors in a timely manner," and emphasized the importance of introducing domestic AI semiconductors into the public sector by the government and local governments to create an initial market and long-term investments in AI infrastructure in energy, semiconductors, construction, and manufacturing.
Kim Jeong-wook, Vice President of DeepX, stated, "It takes about two weeks for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to review AI semiconductor exports, and there is a need for regulatory improvements considering the position of startups, along with the serious necessity for low-interest policy loans due to the market conditions where it is challenging for startups to receive additional investments after raising over 100 billion won."