ASICLAND headquarters located in Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do. Photo = Provided by ASIC LAND”/>
ASICLAND headquarters located in Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do. Photo = Provided by ASICLAND As semiconductor circuit widths become smaller, the importance of design houses with technological capabilities is increasing. This is because it must be designed so that the foundry can accurately produce the high-specification semiconductors desired by fabless. KOSDAQ market listing sign ASIC LANDis seeking to expand overseas by taking advantage of the expanding role of design houses in the semiconductor ecosystem.
On the 25th, the stock price soared 20.4% from 30,850 won to 37,150 won on the news that SK Hynix was discussing supplying 1 trillion won worth of solid state drives (eSSD, data storage devices) to Tesla. This is because Fado, which signed an eSSD controller joint design and development contract with ASICLAND last July, is supplying eSSD controllers to SK Hynix.
Lee Jong-min, CEO of ASIC Land, emphasized, “Our goal is to enter the U.S. market through technological advancement,” adding, “The U.S. is a large market, accounting for 60-70% of the global fabless market.” ASICLAND is the only TSMC partner company (VCA) in Korea, so its strategy is to secure new TSMC customers in the United States as well.
○Technology advancement through establishment of Taiwan R&D Center
Lee Jong-min, CEO of ASIC Land. Photo = Reporter Lee Mi-kyung To advance technology, a research and development (R&D) center was established in Hsinchu, Taiwan last August. The official opening ceremony will be on the 5th of next month. Currently, there are only 4 local employees, but there are plans to increase this to 16 in the future. CEO Lee said, “In Korea, it is impossible to internalize the 3/5-nano front-end process and 2.5D packaging technology,” and added, “We will hire Taiwan’s high-level semiconductor manpower to acquire related technologies.”
Internalization of chiplet technology is also the main purpose of establishing the Taiwan R&D center. Chiplet is a packaging technology that connects individual semiconductors with various functions to create a high-performance semiconductor. Since the graphics processing unit (GPU), central processing unit (CPU), and memory can be combined as needed, it can be quickly customized according to the needs of artificial intelligence (AI) companies.
CEO Lee explained, “Artificial intelligence (AI) will receive attention in the next 10 years,” and “Chiplets are a core technology that is in the spotlight in the AI era.” He added, “We will introduce samples using our chiplet technology in the first half of 2026,” adding, “At this time, we will be able to prove whether we have internalized the chiplet technology.”
In addition to technology development, we plan to actively expand sales for contracts with local fabless companies in Taiwan. CEO Lee said, “Taiwan’s fabless market accounts for more than 10% of the global fabless market,” and added, “We are in contact with a number of local companies to secure turnkey orders for the process from front-end, back-end, and post-process packaging.” Sales from related orders are expected to be reflected in accounting in the first half of next year.
○Investment in system semiconductor and IP business also expanded
Considering that Korea is a strong player in the memory semiconductor market, we plan to increase investment in system semiconductors. CEO Lee emphasized, “System semiconductors play the role of reading and processing data stored in memory semiconductors,” and added, “The system semiconductor market is highly related to the memory semiconductor market.”
A representative system semiconductor investment is the joint design and development contract for enterprise solid state drive (eSSD, data storage device) controller signed with domestic fabless Fado in July. CEO Lee predicted, “Korea’s system semiconductor market share is in the single digits, which is insignificant,” and added, “There is great potential for growth in the future.”
The design asset (IP) business will also be expanded to increase turnkey orders in the global market. This is because demand for proven IP is rapidly increasing among domestic and foreign fabless companies seeking to use TSMC processes. Last year, it invested in and secured a stake in Archchips, an IP design company. CEO Lee said, “Archips is a company that designed 65 types of IP from 2020 to last year,” and added, “We will continue to design more than 60 IPs every year.”
CEO Lee expected that if the ongoing R&D and investments are successful, the company will be able to grow into a global company. He said, “TSMC’s being the only Korean VCA is a qualifier that can only be emphasized in Korea,” and said, “We will expand the market in the future and achieve annual sales of 500 billion won by 2030.”
Suwon = Reporter Lee Mi-kyung
