In Cooperation with Qraft Technologies and Rebellions
Samsung Electronics is expected to produce a neural network processing unit (NPU) called an “artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor” as early as next year in cooperation with two domestic startups.
One of the two startups is Qraft Technologies, which is operating four exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) through AI 100 percent. This fintech company has recently outsourced the design of an AI semiconductor to fabless startup Rebellions, which specializes in AI semiconductor design.
Qraft Technologies has earned its fame not only in Korea but in the United States by excellently predicting the ups and downs of Tesla’s stock price through AI. It is a fintech startup but not an asset management company. Accordingly, it listed ETFs in the name of Exchange Traded Concepts (ETC), a local U.S. operator. ETC provides comprehensive services for small and medium-sized U.S. operators or foreign companies to help them list ETFs on U.S. exchanges.
The four AI ETFs operated by Qraft Technologies have posted high returns of 16.21 percent to 19.85 percent since the beginning of this year. In the U.S., analysts say that Qraft is proving the possibilities of ETFs operated by AI by yielding substantial results. Qraft plans to list another NASDAQ index-tracking AI ETF in the U.S. soon.
Qraft Technologies has automated all ETF operations such as data processing, strategy searches, and order execution with AI technology. At the moment, it uses general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs) rather than customized chips.
“We are developing AI services that explore excess profit strategies and automate trading according to the individual needs of customers,” said Kim Hyung-sik, CEO of Qraft Technologies. “It was difficult to expand the scope of our services due to problems that require too high computing cost and long computational time. We expect to solve this problem by manufacturing dedicated AI chips through Rebellions’ AI hardware technology.”
Rebellions is a startup founded in 2020 by engineers and from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. It has recently attracted much attention from investors thanks to its expertise in designing NPUs, which go beyond CPUs and GPUs.
The fruits of cooperation between the two companies are expected to come from Samsung Electronics’ 5-nm process. Samsung reportedly accepted the two startups’ proposal that it manufacture the AI chip through its 5-nano process. It took into consideration the cooperation of the two domestic startups and their huge growth potential. The 5-nano process is currently the most advanced foundry process that only Samsung and Taiwan’s TSMC can execute among foundry companies around the world.
The NPU designed by Rebellions and produced by Samsung will reduce power consumption required for AI computation to one-tenth and quadruple the speed of AI computation. Reducing AI computation time has the effect of expanding the scopes and targets of AI services beyond improvements to performance.