South Korea spends 800.2 billion won on 10 home-grown AI chips, including one for drones

South Korea's Ministry of Trade and Industry presented on 12 November the roadmap of an 800.2 billion won project to develop Korean on-device AI chips. By 2030, the project is to develop and test 10 chips, among them one each for collaborative robots, humanoids, agricultural robots and drones, alongside chips for self-driving cars and smart home appliances.

On-device AI runs on the machine itself rather than in a data centre, so it keeps working when connections are poor. The drone chip is meant to analyse sensor data on board and make flight and mission decisions quickly.

Companies that will use the chips help design and test them. Samsung Electronics' foundry business will give priority to 21 prototype runs for the project in 2027, and a public-private strategy committee will review progress every year.