SK Telecom to Spin off AI Semiconductor Unit
SK Telecom entered the AI semiconductor market by unveiling its own AI semiconductor, Sapeon X220, in November 2020. The company is now seeking to expand its AI semiconductor business. It will spin off its semiconductor business unit into Sapeon Korea in January 2022.
SK Telecom said Sapeon X220 is 1.5 times faster than other GPUs in deep learning computation speed. It applied the chip to NHN AI on a trial basis in June. Sapeon Korea will cooperate with SK Hynix in memory-related technologies and outsource semiconductor production to TSMC in Taiwan.
SK Telecom has decided to establish Sapeon Korea as the AI semiconductor market is on a steep growth curve. It has joined the race for AI semiconductors with global fabless giants such as Nvidia and AMD.
The global AI semiconductor market is expected to grow 3.6 times in five years from about 14 trillion won in 2020 to about 50 trillion won in 2024, according to market research firm Gartner.
Although SK Hynix has grown into a world-class memory semiconductor company, SK Group is trying to expand its business areas to system semiconductors to diversify sales.