As artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure spreads and demand for application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) surges, Korea's fabless chip designers and design houses (DSPs) are throwing their hats into the global ring. With giants like Broadcom leading the world market, domestic corporations plan to compete on price-to-performance and target niche segments.
According to the industry on the 13th, design house corporations including ADTechnology, ASICLAND, and GAONCHIPS are increasing ASIC orders and collaboration cases, mainly with overseas clients. In particular, major design houses that are partners of the Samsung Electronics foundry division are seen stepping into the ASIC market as a new growth engine.
Design houses implement fabless designs for foundry mass production, serving as a bridge between design and manufacturing. However, given the nature of the business, unit prices and margins are limited, and it is difficult to expand the customer base quickly. On the other hand, as AI infrastructure expands and demand for data center–focused custom chips grows, they have the advantage of extending their design and manufacturing know-how into the ASIC business.
Semifive is leveraging its design house capabilities to expand its overseas customer base as a solutions provider in the custom semiconductor market. It is known to have secured more than 14 global clients and is negotiating with dozens of additional potential customers. Revenue has steadily grown, with order intake reaching 123.8 billion won as of the end of 2024.
A Semifive official said, "Overseas orders in the United States and Japan are increasing, and last year half of our revenue came from overseas," adding, "As the capabilities of the Samsung Electronics foundry division have improved, positive feedback on samples has grown, which in turn has increased output and gradually improved the domestic design house market."
ADTechnology, one of Samsung Electronics' largest design house partners, has also been building results in ASICs, including the recent joint development of a 4-nanometer custom chip with Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits. Through design collaboration based on a 4-nanometer advanced process, the two companies plan to develop a custom semiconductor solution that delivers both high performance and low power.
ADTechnology is known as the oldest domestic design house with 23 years of history and experience in more than 800 designs and tape-outs. It posted 164.5 billion won in revenue last year and returned to operating profit. This year, it plans to expand profitability and its business portfolio around advanced processes such as 2-nanometer and 4-nanometer.
GAONCHIPS, a Samsung foundry partner, is also strengthening its advanced process and system-on-chip (SoC) development capabilities in line with the expansion of the ASIC market. The company recently created a global strategy organization and has been actively hiring specialists in custom semiconductors, signaling its intent to expand its base of overseas orders.
An industry official said, "As the production stability and capabilities of the Samsung Electronics foundry division strengthen, a virtuous cycle has begun to take hold in which partner design houses share in the benefits," adding, "Beyond big tech, design houses are bringing numerous overseas corporations seeking custom chips to Samsung's foundry, enabling joint growth."