South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT will cooperate with AMD to expand the domestic AI semiconductor ecosystem.

The ministry said on July 27 it signed an MOU with AMD on cooperation for an AI semiconductor ecosystem at the AMD Advancing AI 2026 event held in San Francisco on July 23 local time.

Vice Prime Minister and Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyung-hoon (배경훈) and AMD Chair and Chief Executive Lisa Su (리사 수) attended the signing. The two sides will pursue the building and demonstration of heterogeneous AI computing infrastructure linking AMD central processing units and graphics processing units with Korean neural processing units.

It will implement an integrated computing environment that combines various computing resources, including CPUs, GPUs and NPUs, depending on the characteristics of AI services. The plan is to foster an open ecosystem involving memory, data processing unit, Compute Express Link, network, server and software companies.

The ministry will use the cooperation to secure demonstration cases and reference models so Korean AI semiconductors can enter the global AI computing supply chain.

The two sides will also cooperate in AI-based scientific research centred on the National AI Science Research Center (NAIS). AMD will provide high-performance computing resources such as CPUs and GPUs, AI software and specialised personnel to support advanced research and development.

AMD will also push to establish an AI Center of Excellence in South Korea. The centre will serve as a hub supporting AI semiconductor software development, validation of computing technologies and joint research for Korean companies, universities and research institutes.

AMD also plans to support education and research programmes and computing resources at Korean universities and graduate schools based on AI computing platforms, and to pursue joint research in next-generation AI fields such as physical AI.

Discussions on the cooperation began after Su visited South Korea in March. The two sides will form a joint consultative body and discuss detailed cooperation tasks and implementation plans through quarterly working-level meetings.

Bae said, "Global AI competition is shifting toward heterogeneous computing that combines various computing resources such as CPUs, GPUs and NPUs, and toward open ecosystems." He added, "We will work with AMD to strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic AI semiconductor ecosystem and create a new cooperation model."

Su said, "South Korea is a key strategic market with world-class competitiveness in semiconductors, AI, advanced research and physical AI." She added, "Based on high-performance computing technologies and open software capabilities, we will support South Korea's building of an open, heterogeneous AI infrastructure."