ADTechnology said on Thursday it selected 50 design engineers through its 2026 open recruitment. That is about 67 percent more than 30 a year earlier and the largest intake on record. The hiring aims to respond to rising demand for custom AI ASICs, a type of tailor-made AI chip.

Custom AI ASICs are dedicated semiconductors designed to meet specific customer requirements, ADTechnology said. Demand is surging as big tech companies increasingly seek to secure their own chips instead of using general-purpose chips. The company plans to strengthen its capabilities in 2-nanometre and 4-nanometre advanced processes and chiplet architecture design, which bundles multiple chips into one, to improve stability in winning large projects.

About 1,000 people applied for the recruitment, for a competition ratio of about 20 to 1. The company said design references it has built in the two ecosystems of TSMC and Samsung Foundry influenced applicants' preferences. Attendance rates were 92 percent for first-round working-level interviews and 98 percent for second-round executive interviews, and most successful candidates confirmed they would join. The successful candidates will work in semiconductor design and firmware design, and will be assigned to jobs after introductory training and an OJT programme offering advanced training by role.

Chairman Jun-seok Kim (김준석) said strong design talent is ADTechnology's most powerful asset and a core driver for the future, as global market trends shift toward ultra-fine and ultra-high integration and design difficulty is maximised in the era of advanced AI semiconductors. He said the company would spare no effort in providing the best working environment and investment so newly joined key engineers can fully demonstrate their capabilities in advanced process design and grow into global talent. Kim added the company would use their advanced technical capabilities as a stepping stone to firmly realise its vision of becoming a "global AI infrastructure architecture company" as a global power design house.