Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are expanding industry-academia cooperation with universities from a hiring-linked focus to education and research and development (R&D). If securing talent through contracted departments was once the representative model of industry-academia cooperation, recently the scope has widened to collaboration that jointly develops future technologies, such as corporations participating in university curricula and building joint research centers. As competition in artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors intensifies, analysis suggests there is a growing move to use universities not merely as talent pipelines but as research cooperation hubs to secure advanced technologies.
According to the semiconductor industry on the 14th, Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and others are strengthening joint research and educational cooperation with universities to train master's and doctoral-level researchers and secure advanced technologies. As competition in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), AI system semiconductors, and advanced packaging deepens, corporations are also expanding industry-academia cooperation models to secure next-generation technologies together with universities.
A representative case is Yonsei University. Yonsei University was recently selected for the Ministry of Science and ICT's AI Innovation Graduate School (AX Graduate School) program and will operate the AX Department of Semiconductor Engineering and the AX Research Cooperation Center with a total of 16.2 billion won in government support over five years and five months. Samsung Electronics will participate as a joint research and development institution, and semiconductor equipment company Wonik IPS will also join the industry-academia cooperation. Observers say this is a case in which corporations directly participate in university education and research processes beyond simple hiring links.
Curricula are also shifting to an industry-site focus. Yonsei University's Department of System Semiconductor Engineering established a new "AI-oriented memory semiconductor special topics" course in the second semester this year. Experts who previously served as executives in Samsung Electronics' DS Division will lecture on HBM design, logic processes, NAND solutions for AI storage, next-generation DRAM technologies, and more. As corporate experts participate in university education, education models that reflect the needs of the industrial field are also spreading.
SK hynix is also continuing industry-academia cooperation centered on joint research with universities. With UNIST, it has built a "new-materials-based semiconductor research center cluster" to jointly research next-generation semiconductor materials and process technologies. The research center is promoting the development of core future semiconductor materials and process technologies, industry-academia technology exchanges, and the training of professionals.
The government is also lending momentum to this trend. The AI Innovation Graduate School program is operated on the premise that corporations participate as joint research and development institutions to carry out education and research together. Starting this year, the government plans to gradually expand AX Graduate Schools to a total of 22 by 2030. The industry-academia cooperation model in which universities and corporations jointly build research cooperation centers and operate field-centered curricula is also expected to spread.
Industry observers say that as AI Semiconductor competition expands from securing talent to securing advanced technologies, the nature of industry-academia cooperation is also changing. In addition to hiring links centered on contracted departments, the expansion of corporation-participation curricula, the establishment of joint research centers, and joint research and development with university labs are turning universities into key research cooperation hubs that jointly develop future semiconductor technologies.