Korean AI Companies Meet Lisa Su... "Hundreds to Be Hired at AMD AI Research Center" (Comprehensive)

Lisa Su, AMD Chair, Meets with Ministry of Science and ICT and Korean AI Companies

"Hundreds of Korean Researchers to Be Hired at Leading AI Research Center"

Integrating AMD CPUs/GPUs with Domestic AI Semiconductors to Build Infrastructure

"It is encouraging to witness the progress in AI between Korea and AMD."

Lisa Su, Chair and CEO of AMD—often referred to as a "Nvidia challenger"—visited Korea for the first time in about seven months to meet with high-ranking South Korean government officials and to hold a series of meetings with AI semiconductor companies and AI model developers. The government has announced its plan to support Korean companies in joining AMD's open AI ecosystem, as well as facilitating the global expansion of Korean semiconductor firms.

Lisa Su, Chair and CEO of AMD, is meeting with Jemyung Ryu, the 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, ahead of the "AI Semiconductor Company Roundtable" held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Jongno-gu, Seoul on October 7, 2026. Photo by Jinhyung Kang

On the morning of October 7, CEO Su convened with top government officials, including Ha Jungwoo, Vice Chair of the National AI Strategy Committee, and Ryoo Jemyung, 2nd Vice Minister of Science and ICT, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul. During the meeting, CEO Su explored ways to strengthen cooperation with Korean AI semiconductor companies. She told Vice Minister Ryoo, "We are committed to investing so that not only AI startups but also a broader range of users can easily access AI technologies. As a first step in this investment, we have partnered with MangoBoost to establish a cloud platform and have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Seoul National University's AI Research Institute."

When Vice Minister Ryoo thanked Su for AMD's donation of its AI PC "Halo" to KAIST, she responded, "Great." She further added that "significant progress has been made not only in research but also in commercialization between Korea and AMD." Additionally, Su emphasized, "We have decided to establish an AMD AI Research Center in Korea, which will bring together hundreds of leading AI researchers. This will contribute to supporting the Korean AI ecosystem." Vice Minister Ryoo stated, "We hope AMD will play a role in expanding the global AI ecosystem by collaborating with Korea's neural processing unit (NPU) startups."

In a closed-door meeting that followed, both sides agreed to develop a heterogeneous computing infrastructure that combines AMD's central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) with domestic AI semiconductors, and to further develop this as a reference model for use in the global market. The parties also discussed key current issues in the global AI industry and areas of future cooperation for the AI computing market.

Connecting Domestic AI NPUs to AMD CPUs and GPUs... Joining the Open AI Software Ecosystem

CEO Su also took part in a roundtable discussion with Korean AI company leaders. Attendees included CEOs from AI semiconductor companies developing domestic NPUs such as FuriosaAI, HyperAccel, DeepX, and Mobilint. Participants also included AI infrastructure, network, and model companies such as MangoBoost, Panesia, Dinotisia, Moreh, Nota AI, Rablup, Fadu, Ellis Group, and Upstage.

The companies discussed ways to link AMD CPUs and GPUs with domestic AI semiconductors, as well as strategies to participate in open software ecosystems such as ROCm. ROCm is AMD's AI computing software platform and serves as an open-source alternative to Nvidia's CUDA.

The Korean government's collaboration with AMD is interpreted as a move both to diversify the AI infrastructure supply chain—which is currently concentrated on specific companies like Nvidia—and to expand the foundation for the use of domestic AI semiconductors. For AMD, it is not only important to increase GPU sales but also to secure an ecosystem in which developers and businesses actively participate. In this regard, Korea is a strategic partner, possessing large-scale AI demand companies, a world-class memory supply chain, domestic AI semiconductor firms, and leading manufacturing and robotics industries.

From the government's perspective, this reduces dependency on specific companies, while for AMD, it secures new, large-scale adoption of the ROCm platform—demonstrating a clear alignment of interests. The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to review the cooperation proposals and requests made by domestic companies at the roundtable and to develop them into concrete collaborative projects with AMD.

Meanwhile, CEO Su is also scheduled to attend "AMD Gamer Day" hosted by AMD at Dragon City in Yongsan-gu, Seoul later in the day, where she will meet with Korean gamers.

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