South Korea to Develop 10 Domestic AI Chips; Samsung Foundry to Prioritize Prototype Production

South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will invest 800.2 billion won ($578 million) to develop 10 domestically produced artificial intelligence chips for autonomous vehicles, smart home appliances and robots. Samsung Electronics’ foundry business will give priority to prototype production for the chips, including on an ultrafine 2-nanometer process. Large corporate customers will join from the development stage to support commercial deployment in finished products.

The ministry unveiled the plan on Nov. 12 at the 2026 AI Semiconductor MAX Alliance second-half general meeting in Seoul, attended by about 150 people from industry, academia and research institutes. The 800.2 billion won project, launched in June, aims to have domestic fabless companies and software firms work with customer companies to jointly develop and validate AI chips, modules and operating software for use in commercial products.

Under the finalized roadmap, the government plans to develop and verify a total of 10 semiconductors and design assets by 2030. That includes one AI chip for autonomous vehicles and three for smart home appliances. It also includes one chip each for collaborative robots, humanoids, agricultural robots and unmanned drones. The government also plans to secure one semiconductor design asset for advanced processes and another for extreme environments. Production of one smart-appliance AI chip will be brought forward by more than a year from the original plan.

A public-private strategic committee will also be launched to support prototype production and cooperation among companies in line with the development schedule. The committee will be co-chaired by the industry vice minister and Kim Jin-sang, president of Kyung Hee University. It will review and finalize annual development plans at the start of each year and monitor implementation. The committee will also coordinate technical hurdles and competing corporate interests that emerge during development.

The project is centered on raising the commercial prospects of domestic AI chips by clarifying the roles of customer companies, manufacturers and IP providers. Large corporate customers will act as “innovative purchasers,” taking part from the early stages of development rather than simply buying finished chips. They will present the performance targets and specifications needed for development and mass production. They will also provide real-world test beds to help secure records of deployment in commercial products.

Samsung Electronics’ foundry division will give priority to prototype production. The company plans to identify demand in advance for a total of 18 prototype runs by 2027, including multi-project wafers, or MPWs, and single runs, then reflect that demand in process allocation after coordinating with existing production schedules. The breakdown is three runs on 2-nanometer, four on 4-nanometer, three on 5-nanometer, three on 8-nanometer, three on 14-nanometer and two on 28-nanometer processes. The goal is to prevent production scheduling from becoming a bottleneck when fabless companies move to manufacture chips based on their own designs.

Support for securing semiconductor intellectual property, a major burden for fabless companies, will also be expanded. Domestic and overseas IP companies agreed to make the timing of royalty payments more flexible and provide common IP packages that can be used by multiple companies. The plan is intended to lower upfront development costs and support product development by Korean fabless firms.

Lee Min-woo, director general for industrial growth at the ministry, said the partnership must prove shared growth by turning jointly developed technology into adoption in actual products. The government will open a growth path in which the manufacturing strength of domestic customer companies leads to stronger technology capabilities and commercialization results for fabless firms, he added.

Kim Ri-an, Hankyung.com reporter knra@hankyung.com