SEMIFIVE Lands $52M Deal to Build US AI Inference Chip
An American AI chip company that has never built a chip of its own just handed a Korean design house a $52 million blank check — or close to one. On September 29, SEMIFIVE, the Seoul-based custom semiconductor design firm, announced it had signed a 70.3 billion won turnkey contract with an unnamed U.S. AI fabless company to develop an AI inference accelerator, the largest single development contract in the company's history. The customer will supply little more than performance targets and a specification sheet. SEMIFIVE will handle everything else: design, software, packaging, testing, and mass production through Samsung's foundry. In an industry racing to build custom AI silicon outside Nvidia's orbit, the deal is a telling data point — American demand, Korean engineering, and a 2028 production date. A processed 300mm (12-inch) silicon wafer with patterned dies visible. SEMIFIVE's new AI inference accelerator for its unnamed U.S. customer will be fabricated throug...