Science Ministry Moves to Build an Open AI Computing Infrastructure Ecosystem

The Ministry of Science and ICT held a roundtable with domestic artificial intelligence (AI) chip companies in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, on August 20, discussing public-private cooperation measures to build an open AI computing infrastructure ecosystem in response to a global AI market that is shifting from training toward inference. The aim is for the government to support the market expansion of domestic neural processing units (NPUs) and their participation in the international ecosystem.

[코리안투데이] Industry roundtable on building an open AI computing infrastructure ecosystem © 장형임 기자

The Ministry of Science and ICT (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Bae Kyung-hoon) announced that it held a roundtable on building an open AI computing infrastructure ecosystem on August 20 at the HJ Business Center in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, together with officials from the domestic artificial intelligence (AI) chip industry. Chaired directly by Deputy Prime Minister Bae, the roundtable was attended by the head of the Office of ICT Policy and the director-general for ICT Industry Policy, along with AI chip (NPU) companies, ecosystem firms, AMD Korea, the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation, the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, and other related organizations.

The meeting was arranged as a follow-up to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the ministry and AMD last July. It was intended to respond to the shift in the global AI computing paradigm and to explore ways to accelerate the market expansion of domestic neural processing units (NPUs) and broaden their participation in the international ecosystem.

The global AI market has recently been shifting rapidly from a training-centered structure to an inference-centered one as generative AI services spread. As a result, securing computing infrastructure that offers not only high performance but also power efficiency and cost competitiveness has emerged as a key challenge. In particular, as the requirements for individual services grow more diverse, competition is intensifying over open computing infrastructure that moves away from dependence on a single type of chip and flexibly combines various computing resources such as central processing units, graphics processing units, and neural processing units (CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs) with memory, networks, and software.

At the roundtable, FuriosaAI presented international trends in open AI computing infrastructure and the response strategy of the domestic chip industry, while AMD Korea shared the main contents and implementation plans of the ministry-AMD MOU. MangoBoost and Moreh then introduced the current status of AI computing optimization and software collaboration they are pursuing together with AMD.

In the open discussion that followed, the participating companies agreed on the importance of moving away from a GPU-centered single structure toward an open ecosystem in which AI chips, memory, networks, and software are organically connected. They also suggested securing an open computing architecture that leverages next-generation infrastructure technologies such as compute express link (CXL) and data processing units (DPUs), while strengthening investment in the development of core future AI chip technologies such as processing-in-memory (PIM) and neuromorphic (brain-mimicking) computing. They shared the view that a full-stack development strategy spanning not only hardware and software but the entire platform requires the spread of technologies based on open interfaces, international standards, and open-source software, and that a national-level testbed environment is needed to validate these efforts.

While noting that the ministry-AMD MOU has opened opportunities for cooperation between domestic firms and a world-class AI company, the participating companies also called on the government to press ahead without disruption in identifying concrete cooperative tasks and carrying out follow-up implementation, so that the agreement translates into tangible results.

Meanwhile, the roundtable also featured a ceremony in which AMD Korea handed over to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) an AI computer (AMD Ryzen™ AI Halo) that AMD had donated to commemorate the signing of the MOU last July. The donation came after AMD CEO Lisa Su expressed her intention to make the gift at the signing ceremony held in the United States, and AMD accepted Deputy Prime Minister Bae’s proposal to make it available for talented students to use.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon said, ‘As the global AI market shifts from training to inference, the arena of AI competition is expanding beyond the performance of individual chips to competition among open AI computing ecosystems equipped with power and cost efficiency,’ adding, ‘This will be a new opportunity for domestic AI chip (neural processing unit ) companies that have strengths in inference efficiency.’ He continued, ‘Signing the MOU with AMD on the occasion of the President’s overseas trip last month created an important opportunity for domestic AI chip companies to participate in the international AI ecosystem,’ and said, ‘Going forward, we will strengthen full-stack demonstration support and work to build the related ecosystem so that domestic neural processing units (NPUs) can quickly secure success stories in which they are actually used in data centers and AI service settings.’

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