en.Wedoany.com Reported - SemiFive CEO Cho Myung-hyun has positioned the company as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design firm, aiming to emulate the business models of Broadcom and Marvell by mass-producing customized artificial intelligence (AI) chips for hyperscalers.
Speaking at the "SNU SIPC-Silicon Catalyst Group Global Strategic Partner Day" event at Seoul National University on June 10, Cho stated that SemiFive is an ASIC company whose clients are not semiconductor experts, but AI experts, device manufacturers, and cloud service providers. Industry observers noted that Cho's remarks were intended to differentiate SemiFive from traditional semiconductor design companies that rely on engineering service revenue.
Cho explained that over 80% of SemiFive's total sales come from turnkey projects covering the entire process from chip design and software to packaging, and about 90% of revenue is derived from advanced process nodes, with AI inference chips for data centers accounting for 82% of total sales. The company currently collaborates with more than 80 clients, handles over 70 projects, and has completed more than 250 tape-outs.
Cho also highlighted SemiFive's capabilities in designing large-area semiconductors and three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs). The company has completed the design of a 500-square-millimeter chip and received samples, while an 800-square-millimeter chip is under development. In 3D IC technology, SemiFive applied it to an AI inference accelerator developed for a Japanese client, achieving 600,000 channels connecting logic and memory and reducing power consumption to one-fifth of that of traditional chips.
Financial data shows that SemiFive turned profitable in the first quarter after going public late last year. According to its consolidated financial report released on May 18, first-quarter revenue increased 137% year-on-year to 47.9 billion won, with operating profit reaching approximately 100 million won, marking a return to profitability. About 60% of sales in the quarter came from overseas markets, primarily North America and Japan. Cho stated that the company's annual sales surpassed 100 billion won two years ago and are expected to double this year, reaffirming the sales target of 200 billion won.
Discussing Korea-U.S.-Japan semiconductor supply chain cooperation, Cho noted that North America is a market where hyperscalers drive the AI industry through massive capital investments, Japan is an innovation hub for personal devices, automobiles, and image sensor applications, and Korea has the capability to produce chips through large-scale foundry and memory operations. He emphasized that trilateral cooperation is indispensable.
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