SEMIFIVE Lands $52 Million AI Chip Deal to Drive North American Expansion

The contract, valued at approximately KRW 70.3 billion, accounts for a significant portion of the company's recent growth, representing over 40% of its total 2025 order volume. Under the Spec Hand-off model, SEMIFIVE assumes end-to-end responsibility for the chip's lifecycle, from initial architectural specifications to design, software integration, packaging, and final mass production. This approach contrasts with traditional turnkey services where clients provide completed designs for manufacturing.

To meet the high-performance demands of large-scale AI inference, the accelerator will utilize LPDDR6 memory and PCIe Gen5 interfaces to optimize power efficiency and data transfer speeds. The project leverages SEMIFIVE’s experience with large-format "Big Die" architectures, aiming to balance compute throughput with long-term stability. The partners have scheduled the design tape-out for the first half of 2027, with global mass production slated to begin in 2028. According to CEO Brandon Cho, this partnership is a critical step in establishing the firm as an essential infrastructure provider for global hyperscalers and cloud service providers.