KT aims to sell AI chip, software in global market in 2023

KT held an AI chip business cooperation committee meeting on Wednesday with Rebellions, Moreh and KT Cloud, at its office building in Jongno District, central Seoul.

Representatives of KT, KT Cloud, Rebellions and Moreh pose for a photo during a workshop meeting held at KT's office building in Jongno District, central Seoul. [KT]

KT hopes to sell its AI chip and software in the global market next year, starting with the Southeast Asian region, the company said Thursday.

KT held an AI chip business cooperation committee meeting on Wednesday with Rebellions, Moreh and KT Cloud, at its office building in Jongno District, central Seoul.

KT invested 30 billion won ($23.5 million) in Rebellions, a custom chip designer, in July this year.

The telecom company also has 3.94 percent of Moreh, a computing infrastructure company. KT and Moreh formed a strategic partnership to introduce a software-powered “hyperscale AI computing” service, which is supposed to boost the computing capabilities of a device through virtualized graphic processing units (GPUs).

KT Cloud, KT’s cloud computing subsidiary, spun off from the parent company in April.

The committee, established in October last year, held 15 meetings so far, to discuss joint business projects.

During the latest meeting, global expansion was discussed as next year’s key issue.

KT and partner companies are seeking to enter the overseas market with their AI chip and related hardware and software products.

Telecom companies running data centers in the Southeast Asian region will be the primary target for global sales, said KT.

AI chips are purpose-built to perform very specific calculations as fast as possible. They are optimized for specific, predetermined tasks that require impressive calculation capabilities and low energy consumption, such as voice recognition, autonomous driving, the metaverse and the Internet of Things.

Rebellions plans to introduce a server AI chip that supports language models in March next year, which the company says is the first of its kind in Korea. The upcoming chip product will be three times more energy efficient compared to the previous GPUs, according to KT.

The AI chips will be installed at KT’s data centers, with Moreh providing infrastructure optimization, to power the telco’s data-intensive digital services such as automated call center service.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]