Fabless-Foundry Collaboration... Strengthening Global System Semiconductor Competitiveness

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups Holds the 7th "Fabless-Foundry Win-Win Council"
Industry Experts Gather to Discuss Global Trends and Strategies for the System Semiconductor Ecosystem
"Fabless Challenge" Program to Support Promising Startups Announced for 2025

On the 10th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that it held the "7th Fabless-Foundry Win-Win Council" at the Semiconductor Joint Research Center of Seoul National University, chaired by the Director of Startup Policy. The meeting was attended by executives and employees from the Korea Fabless Industry Association, four domestic foundry companies, and professors from the System Semiconductor Industry Promotion Center at Seoul National University, among other experts.

The Win-Win Council is a regular communication channel led by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to strengthen the overall competitiveness of Korea's fabless and system semiconductor industry ecosystem. It involves the fabless (semiconductor design) industry and foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) sector. Established in 2022 to address the difficulties faced by small and medium fabless companies and to reflect cooperation measures in policies, this year marks its 7th session. Through the council, fabless and foundry companies have collaborated to support promising fabless startups by providing prototype manufacturing processes (MPW) through the 'Fabless Challenge' program, which has been conducted three times so far.

At this Win-Win Council, Professor Ryu Su-jeong from the System Semiconductor Industry Promotion Center at Seoul National University began with a presentation on "Global System Semiconductor Industry Trends and Key Issues." Following this, each organization presented agendas including the detailed implementation plan for the "2025 Fabless Challenge," major work plans of the Fabless Association and foundries, and plans for the fabless status survey service. After the presentations, detailed discussions on the agendas took place, focusing mainly on strategic responses and cooperation measures for the domestic system semiconductor industry ecosystem in light of recent global environmental changes such as the mutual tariff impositions announced by the United States.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups also announced the "2025 Fabless Challenge" on the same day. The 'Fabless Challenge' is a program jointly conducted with domestic foundries to select promising fabless startups and support them with MPW, required costs, and opportunities for new product manufacturing. So far, 15 companies have been selected and supported. According to this announcement, promising fabless startups within 10 years of establishment that wish to use the MPW process of three domestic foundries will be recruited. Five startups will be finally selected through document and presentation evaluations. The selected companies will have priority access to the foundries' MPW manufacturing processes and can receive support for required costs ranging from 100 million to a maximum of 200 million KRW per company.

Jo Kyung-won, Director of Startup Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, "As the fierce competition for semiconductor leadership intensifies among major countries such as the United States and China, the solidarity and cooperation of the entire system semiconductor ecosystem are more important than ever." He added, "The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will devote all efforts to strengthening the system semiconductor ecosystem and responding to global crises based on win-win collaboration between fabless and foundry companies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.