Driving semiconductor innovation in Asia, Arm plans a new chip design facility in South Korea to expand its footprint.
Arm Holdings and South Korea have signed an agreement to strengthen the nation’s semiconductor and artificial intelligence capabilities, including the establishment of a chip design school to train approximately 1,400 specialists. The move aims to bolster South Korea’s relatively underdeveloped system-semiconductor and fabless segments, enhancing the country’s position in the global chip and AI ecosystem.
The memorandum of understanding, announced by a presidential policy adviser, comes as part of South Korea’s broader strategy to become one of the world’s top three AI powers. Arm, a British chip and software company owned by SoftBank, licenses its chip designs and generates revenue through royalties. Under the deal, Arm will leverage its expertise to educate a new generation of high-level chip designers, strengthening local capabilities in chip innovation and design.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who met with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, emphasized the growing demand for chips driven by advances in AI. He reiterated his belief that AI is poised to surpass human intelligence, describing future artificial superintelligence as potentially “10,000 times smarter than people” and stressing the need for humans to learn to coexist harmoniously with AI.
The agreement aligns with other recent developments in South Korea’s technology sector. In October, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix signed letters of intent to supply memory chips for OpenAI’s data centers, while Nvidia announced plans to provide over 260,000 of its advanced AI chips to South Korea’s government and major corporations. These efforts collectively aim to position South Korea at the forefront of AI and semiconductor innovation in Asia and globally.
