How to Expand Exports of Domestic NPUs Leading the AI Era: "Demonstrations and Vouchers Needed"

Policy Forum Led by Koh Dong-jin Held on the 10th
Industry Calls for Government Support to Boost NPU Exports

Amid active development of the next-generation semiconductors known as neural processing units (NPUs), which are poised to lead the artificial intelligence (AI) era, there are growing calls for government support, including demonstration assistance, to boost exports of domestic NPUs.

Godong Jin, member of the People Power Party, is speaking at the "National Assembly Policy Forum for Expanding Exports and Diversifying Sales Channels of Domestic NPUs" held at the National Assembly Members' Office Building on the 10th. At the forum, leading domestic AI semiconductor companies such as Rebellion, Furiosa AI, and DeepX gathered to discuss ways to expand domestic NPU demonstration, secure overseas references, and diversify export markets. 2026.09.10 Photo by Dongjoo Yoon

Koh Dong-jin, a member of the People Power Party, held the "National Assembly Policy Forum for Expanding Exports and Diversifying Sales Channels of Domestic NPUs" at the National Assembly Members' Office Building on the 10th. NPUs are processors specialized in efficiently handling AI computations. Compared to GPUs, which are core semiconductors for the AI era, NPUs are recognized as next-generation infrastructure in the evolving AI market due to their high efficiency and low power consumption, especially as the focus shifts from learning to inference.

This forum was hosted by the parliamentary research group "Structural Reform and Sustainable Growth Practice Forum," chaired by Koh himself. In attendance were Lee Dal-hee, the forum’s chief research council member, as well as People Power Party lawmakers Yoo Yong-won and Choi Hyung-doo, and Ahn Do-geol from the Democratic Party of Korea. Semiconductor academics and industry experts, along with representatives from leading domestic AI semiconductor companies such as Rebellion, Furiosa AI, and DeepX, were also present.

Companies delivering presentations at the forum urged the government to support domestic NPU export expansion by providing: ▲ Domestic and overseas demonstrations (Proof of Concept, PoC), ▲ Export vouchers, and ▲ Opportunities for technological exchanges with global big tech firms. Park Sung-hyun, CEO of Rebellion, stated, "Demonstration is the single most important factor," adding, "As these demonstrations proliferate, establishing global references will be the direction that both Rebellion and the broader domestic NPU ecosystem must head toward."

Baek Jun-ho, CEO of Furiosa AI, who participated via video, commented, "The AI semiconductor sector requires extensive research and development as well as economies of scale," stressing, "Now is the time to accelerate, take bold steps to deploy our AI semiconductors on a large scale, and make efforts to create new markets." He also emphasized the need to actively promote the deployment of domestic NPUs in data centers.

Koh, in his opening remarks, stated, "We have determined that export channels will clearly open only if our country adopts NPUs first." He continued, "Now, it is time for the government to take more proactive measures to promote exports by deploying NPUs in servers, initiating pilot uses at domestic public agencies and research institutes, identifying problems, and collecting feedback through this process."

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