Latest news with #SemiconKorea2025
Korea Herald
21-02-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung says 'stakes are high' in AI evolution
Kwak Noh-jung, chief executive officer of SK hynix Inc., has emphasized the critical role of South Korea's semiconductor industry, saying "stakes are high" in the face of rapidly evolving artificial intelligence. "Reflecting on my time at Semicon Korea 2025, I'm reminded of the immense responsibility we carry as an industry," Kwak wrote on his LinkedIn account Thursday. "As AI continues to evolve, it's evident that the stakes are higher than ever." The posting came after Kwak highlighted the "crucial role" of semiconductors in global economies and national security in a speech delivered Wednesday at a leadership dinner of Semicon Korea 2025, an annual trade show that kicked off earlier that day in Seoul, bringing together some 500 global chipmakers, equipment providers and material suppliers. During the event, Kwak has met with industry leaders, including Luc Van den hove, CEO of imec, a European chip research center, and Dirk Beljaarts, the Netherlands' minister of economic affairs. "South Korea experienced an unprecedented downturn and is now facing a big wave drive by the rise of AI," he told reporters after the leadership dinner. "I think South Korea will get on the wave well." Under Kwak's leadership, SK hynix has successfully capitalized on the AI boom, particularly with its high bandwidth memory, a key component for graphic processing units. The chip giant has played a pivotal role in the HBM-GPU supply chain led by Nvidia Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. (Yonhap)
Korea Herald
20-02-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
Merck showcases AI chip materials platform at Semicon Korea 2025
German technology firm Merck showcased its new artificial intelligence-driven chip materials platform, which has impressively reduced research and development time for critical materials used in advanced chips, at this year's Semicon Korea, Thursday. 'Without materials, AI wouldn't be possible. To power AI, we need powerful, compact and energy efficient chips, which increases complexity in both chip architecture and manufacturing processes," said Anand Nambiar, chief commercial officer of Merck Electronics, during a press conference held on the sidelines of Semicon Korea 2025, running from Wednesday to Friday in Seoul. "This is where materials solutions can play a critical role in addressing the physical and economic challenges faced by chipmakers." According to Nambiar, Merck's Materials Intelligence platform has enabled the company's researchers to run simulations instead of physical experiments to effectively reduce the time needed for its basic chemistry research. "We're learning how data digitalization is helping us answer some of the challenges that we've faced for decades," the CCO said. As demand is rising for advanced AI chips, Merck is working to converge material science with AI to develop new solutions for AI-enabling technologies, including Gate All-Around, high-density memory and HBM chips. This year, the company will also focus on facility investment, especially on thin-film materials and specialty gases. Regarding the impact of the second-term of the Trump administration, Nambiar acknowledged there may be "a little transition" as governments, including the US and Japan, are introducing measures to bring chip manufacturing onto their soil. "Asia still represents 80 percent of semiconductor capacity. Korea and Taiwan are leading countries where capacity is installed, and leading edge customers are present," Nambiar said. During the three-day Semicon event, Merck focused on materials for advanced logic and 3D densification in DRAM and 3D NAND memory chips. This includes enhanced features in Atomic Layer Deposition for advanced nodes, spin-on dielectrics (SOD) materials for gap fill technology and organometallics solutions for FinFet-architecture DRAM, among others. "We have been an innovation partner to our Korean customers for 36 years, and we are committed to supporting their future growth. This includes the recently inaugurated Korea SOD Application Center in Anseong, announced last year, and ongoing investments in new product lines at the Eumseong site," said Kim Woo-kyu, managing director of Merck Korea. "We will continue to fulfill our investment commitment to enhance our local capability and capacity for faster and more responsive support and services." The Germany-based chemical materials firm entered the Korean market in 1989, and now operates 13 production and R&D sites with over 1,700 employees, making Korea its second-largest business hub after the US.
Korea Herald
19-02-2025
- Automotive
- Korea Herald
Global chip market expected to surpass $1tr by 2030: Gartner
Samsung CTO says AI has 'much to learn' to match human brain The global semiconductor market is forecast to surpass an annual $1 trillion by 2030-31, backed by robust demand for advanced chips in artificial intelligence data centers and rising memory product prices, according to a market analysis on Wednesday. Delivering the market outlook at the Semicon Korea 2025 event, Gartner Vice President and senior analyst Gaurav Gupta also noted that sales of high-bandwith memory, the cutting-edge memory chip that undergirds artificial intelligence, will jump more than 60 percent this year. "Last year, the semiconductor market grew by 18.1 percent in terms of revenue, mainly backed by rising memory prices and increasing demand for AI chips," Gupta said. For this year, Gupta predicted the market will grow 12.7 percent to reach $705 billion, driven by an increase in sales of not only the graphics processing units and AI processors that led last year's growth, but also analog semiconductors. The market volume is expected to grow to $829 billion by 2028. "AI memory prices will rise due to supply shortages, while the growth of the automotive chip market, with advanced driver-assistance systems and automotive high-performance computing, will also contribute to the overall performance this year," Gupta said. HBM chips, which are dominated by Korean chipmakers SK hynix and Samsung Electronics, are expected to experience robust growth this year, making up about 30.6 percent of the total DRAM revenue, according to the analyst. On an on-year basis, HBM sales are expected to jump 67 percent this year. Last year's annual revenue growth rate was 318.5 percent. But the growth is projected to slow down from next year due to the cyclical nature of the memory chip market, Gupta said. In 2026, the HBM sales growth rate is expected to come in at 22 percent, followed by 8 percent in 2027 and 21.3 percent in 2028. Semicon Korea 2025, a three-day annual semiconductor trade show, kicked off Wednesday at Coex in Seoul. This year's event was set to welcome a record-high 70,000 attendees, with 500 companies showcasing cutting-edge chip manufacturing technologies, according to the organizer. Opening the event, Samsung Electronics Chief Technology Officer Song Jai-hyuk delivered the keynote speech highlighting the importance of semiconductors to the development of AI in order for the technology to "catch up" to the capabilities of the human brain. 'AI has made tremendous progress over the past 80 years, but it still has much to learn compared to the human brain, which has evolved for over 3.4 billion years,' Song said in his keynote speech. 'Semiconductors will be crucial for the survival of key technologies of the post-AI era, such as autonomous vehicles, high-speed computing, quantum computing, humanoid robots and biotechnology," the CTO said.
