- Secures 18 billion won project for next-generation AI NPU, strengthens leadership in high-performance field ASIC market
- Consecutive 4nm AI chip contracts strengthen competitiveness of AI semiconductor design
Seoul, South Korea, March 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — SEMIFIVE, the world’s leading provider of custom AI semiconductors (ASIC) Solutions today announced that it has signed a turnkey design contract worth KRW 18 billion (approx. USD 12.5 million) with an AI semiconductor fabless company. The agreement marks a follow-on project with the customer and covers the development of high-performance AI NPUs based on Samsung Foundry’s advanced 4nm (SF4X) process technology. This project further strengthens SEMIFIVE’s leadership in the rapidly growing AI semiconductor market and expands the company’s portfolio of high-performance AI chip design projects.
SEMIFIVE continues to strengthen its position in the AI semiconductor market with extensive experience in NPU design and mass production. This achievement follows a series of major projects including ▲XCENA, a CXL-based 4nm (SF4X) project, and ▲HyperAccel, an LPU-based 4nm (SF4X) project optimized for large-scale language model (LLM) inference. These consecutive wins further demonstrate SEMIFIVE’s technological maturity and execution capabilities in the high-performance AI semiconductor space.
The newly secured project aims to commercialize next-generation AI NPUs optimized for on-premises environments where AI computations are performed locally without relying on external networks. The chip is designed for real-time processing of large amounts of data, such as high-resolution Vision AI and LLM inference, and features an advanced memory interface that architecturally eliminates data bottlenecks. By maximizing power, performance, and area (PPA) efficiency, SEMIFIVE expects to deliver unparalleled AI accelerators that combine high performance with low power consumption.
SEMIFIVE’s competitive advantage lies in its unique SoC design automation system and end-to-end engineering solutions that deliver significant improvements. ASIC Development efficiency.
The company takes full responsibility for the entire development lifecycle, from chip specifications, logical and physical design to packaging, software development, prototyping and mass production. This allows customers to fully focus on their core AI architecture and service competitiveness.
In particular, SEMIFIVE is currently managing large die turnkey projects over 800 mm², ensuring high-speed interface design capabilities essential for high-performance AI silicon. Combined with our global semiconductor supply chain management experience, SEMIFIVE provides high confidence in the commercialization of complex AI ASICs.
“This agreement once again proves that SEMIFIVE’s accumulated technology references and custom design capabilities represent the strongest competitive advantage in the market,” said Brandon Cho, CEO and co-founder of SEMIFIVE. “By collaborating with customers who have innovative AI architectures, we will maximize synergies in high-performance AI chip development and secure leadership in the custom semiconductor market for AI.” ASIC Specialist. “
Meanwhile, SEMIFIVE is accelerating its global expansion by building on its domestic AI semiconductor design projects and expanding its customer base to the United States, China, Japan, India, and Europe. As the demand for high-performance AI ASICs continues to grow rapidly, the company aims to position itself as a strategic partner in the global AI ecosystem and a leading custom semiconductor design specialist.
source semi-five
