Sapeon, backed by South Korea's SK Group, launches new AI chip

SK Telecom

16/11/2023 09:35

SEOUL, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Sapeon, an artificial
intelligence (AI) chip startup backed by South Korea's
telecom-to-chip conglomerate SK Group, has launched its latest
chip for data centres, the company said on Thursday, joining the
global race to develop AI chips with bigger rivals like Nvidia
 NVDA.O . 
    The new Sapeon X330 chip "represents roughly twice the
computational performance and 1.3 times better power efficiency"
than competitors' products launched this year, the company said
in a statement, without elaborating further on the competitors.
    The product, which supports large language models (LLMs), a
type of AI software used to create services like ChatGPT, is set
for mass production in the first half of next year, according to
Sapeon.
    Sapeon designs AI semiconductors for data centres, which
require huge amounts of data processing. The X330 chip is
manufactured by TSMC  2330.TW , the world's largest contract
chipmaker, Sapeon said.   
    SK Telecom  017670.KS , South Korea's top telco company, is
Sapeon's parent. Its affiliate SK Hynix  000660.KS , the world's
No.2 memory chipmaker, is one of Sapeon's major shareholders. 

 (Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
 ((ju-min.park@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
ju-min.park.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))