AI Semiconductor fabless corporations DEEPX held a press briefing at its headquarters in Pangyo, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on the 14th and announced mass-production results for its first-generation product, "DX-M1," and its next-generation roadmap.
DEEPX said it plans to leap forward as an infrastructure corporations in the "physical AI" field, where AI runs in physical environments such as robots and Autonomous Driving.
Physical AI is an area where AI computation is performed in real time inside devices such as robots, self-driving cars, and smart factories, and according to market research firms Omdia and Gartner, the global physical AI chip market is projected to grow to about 183 trillion won by 2030.
In this market, ultra-low power and real-time responsiveness are essential due to the limitations of battery operation and cooling systems, and DEEPX's DX-M1 runs on an average of 2–3W of power, securing energy efficiency and price competitiveness compared with rivals. It also improved production efficiency by designing the die size to about one 4.3rd that of competitors and achieved a 91% Production yield on Samsung's 5-nanometer process.
In terms of technical defensibility, as of March 2024 based on Forbes' tally, it ranked No. 1 in the United States for registered NPU patents and is building a fundamental patent network with 500 patent applications worldwide and more than 10,000 claims.
Just seven months after starting product mass production, DEEPX is posting visible order wins, and mass-production purchase orders (PO) expanded from two in Dec. last year to more than 30 as of Mar. this year. A solution developed with Hyundai Motor Group Robotics Lab has completed mass-production verification and is set to be installed in the delivery robot "DAL-e" and the mobility platform "MobED," with mass production slated to begin by the end of the year.
China's Baidu has selected DEEPX as a key partner and is sourcing chips for a range of product lines including OCR cameras and data parser systems, while expanding cooperation into applied algorithms. In addition, key industry orders are continuing in seven countries, including Europe, the United States, and Taiwan, alongside POSCO DX and Lotte Innovate.
To expand commercial results, DEEPX rolled out an all-out sales strategy called "Stormwave" and identified more than 3,000 customer companies across six global regions even before mass production. To that end, it recruited leaders from global semiconductor corporations such as TI, NXP, and STMicro, deploying them to key hubs, and established a supply system by signing contracts with major global distributors including Avnet, WPG, and Digi-Key.
For next-generation products, it is developing the Generative AI chip "DX-M2," which applies Samsung Electronics Foundry's 2-nanometer process, and "DX-M3," which has high-performance computing power. To fund this development, it is attracting new investment from private investors and funds, and its current cumulative order backlog is about $6.6 million. DEEPX has set this year's product sales target at $25 million and plans to secure leadership in the physical AI market through actual mass production and sales, beyond technical competition.