[Sang-su Hong (홍상수), senior director of Lam Capital and corporate development] The semiconductor industry continues to evolve at a rapid pace. At the same time, the way innovation is developed and implemented is also changing. As manufacturing process technology becomes more advanced, considerations and opportunities for value-creating innovation are also expanding widely, including progress in AI optimisation and automation in fabs, resolving technical challenges in advanced packaging and improving sustainability.

In this environment, collaboration among diverse stakeholders is playing an increasingly important role across the entire process of technology development and commercialisation to accelerate the pace of innovation. The way and depth of collaboration is also emerging as a factor that determines the semiconductor industry's competitiveness.

This is why Lam Research is also accelerating ecosystem building through collaboration via Lam Capital.

Lam Capital is Lam Research's corporate venture capital investment organisation and was established to support innovation across the broader semiconductor industry from a long-term perspective. Lam Capital's role does not stop at investing capital in promising technologies. It makes ongoing collaboration with innovative companies and ecosystem building a core strategy so that technology can be realised and spread as tangible value in the field.

The areas Lam Capital focuses on are also those where value is realised through long-term collaboration and the accumulation of technological capabilities over time, rather than short-term results. These include key areas that will determine the semiconductor industry's future competitiveness, such as advanced semiconductor manufacturing, AI, advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration, robotics, automation, integrated optics and photonics, and sustainable technologies.

This collaboration-centred philosophy is being made more concrete through the 2026 Lam Capital Venture Competition. The global programme, launched in 2019 and now in its fourth edition, is scheduled to be held on May 21 in Fremont, California. It is designed to allow promising startups in semiconductors and deeptech to showcase their technologies and interact directly with global companies, investors and industry experts. Through the programme, Lam Capital is providing companies with technological innovation opportunities to connect with industry practitioners and test the potential for practical collaboration.

This year's programme is structured with a broader perspective that spans the entire semiconductor value chain, rather than being limited to semiconductor applications for AI. It covers a wide range, from AI-driven innovation in new materials and manufacturing processes advanced through AI to foundational technologies that enable practical application of AI in industrial environments, such as physical AI. Through this, Lam Capital is identifying startups that can create real impact in the industrial field rather than remaining at technological potential, and is working with them to jointly validate that potential.

The Lam Capital Venture Competition is a global programme held every two years. It has functioned as a venue for collaboration that identifies technologies and companies that will lead the future of the semiconductor industry while connecting them to Lam Research's operating organisations and global network.

The competition is conducted through evaluation by a venture capital panel composed of leaders from the strategic and financial investment community. The final winning company is offered an investment offer of $250,000.

Participants are given an opportunity to build networks with Lam Research and Lam Capital, as well as institutional and corporate venture capital and industry technology leaders. Through this, startups improve the completeness of their technology and business and create a foundation to move beyond one-off collaboration to long-term partnerships.

This approach can also be seen in past competition cases. In the 2024 programme, 9 finalist companies with innovative semiconductor and manufacturing technologies were selected from among applicants worldwide. Germany's Lidrotec took second place and U.S. firm Crystal Sonic won, while South Korean company OS was also named a finalist. These companies showcased differentiated technological competitiveness across various key areas, including advanced processes, packaging, sustainable processes, automation, materials and AI.

The finals of the 2026 competition also included 2 South Korean companies among the 10 finalists. SemiAI provides virtual metrology software for semiconductor manufacturing, and TDS Innovation, Inc. is developing a lateral growth process and equipment for depositing 2D materials in semiconductor manufacturing processes. In this way, Lam Capital is identifying companies with innovative technologies from a global perspective and expanding opportunities for collaboration so they can grow across the overall semiconductor ecosystem.

Ultimately, the Lam Capital Venture Competition functions as a collaboration platform that organically links technology, capital and industry operations, beyond being a simple contest. That is because the process itself, in which different technologies and ideas are validated through collaboration and spread across the industry, is a key factor in strengthening the competitiveness of the semiconductor ecosystem.

The semiconductor industry's next growth is not completed suddenly by any one company or one technology. It becomes possible only when companies with technological innovation, partners that can validate and scale it, and collaboration that connects them from a long-term perspective work together. Lam Capital will also support the semiconductor ecosystem's next growth through open collaboration and strategic investment, and will work together so sustainable innovation can continue.