Korea Aerospace Industries (047810), or KAI, said on the 31st that it has been selected as the preferred bidder in the defense sector of the "K On-Device AI Semiconductor Technology Development Project" promoted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
The project aims to develop on-device AI semiconductors and to integrate and verify unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform systems. A total of 95.3 billion won will be invested, with a development period of five years.
Together with its AI chip partners, KAI will develop an AI semiconductor (SoC) for defense applications and an autonomous control system (ACS), an on-device computer equipped with the chip. The company also plans to mount the system on a UAV platform it is developing in-house and carry out verification.
The project consists of three detailed subtasks. KAI will oversee the overall project as well as the first and third subtasks, taking responsibility for the development, integration, and verification of high-speed expendable aerial UAVs and the ACS. The second subtask, AI semiconductor development, will be led by a domestic fabless (semiconductor design) company.
Chip production will be handled by Samsung Electronics' (005930) foundry division, ensuring the highest level of reliability. In addition, leading domestic small and medium-sized companies and institutions developing AI semiconductors and AI models will join the project in the form of a consortium.
The project is expected to become a representative win-win model that realizes the localization and self-reliance of defense semiconductors, which have been heavily dependent on foreign sources, while opening up a high-value-added new market for domestic small and medium-sized fabless and AI companies with excellent technological capabilities.
"The entire world is accelerating the autonomy of weapons systems, so securing independent defense AI technology is an essential task for national survival," a KAI official said. "As this is the first case of applying domestically developed AI semiconductors to an actual defense platform, it will become a decisive momentum toward securing AI sovereignty and defense sovereignty."
KAI plans to apply homegrown AI chips to power the AI Pilot (KAIlot) it is developing in-house, launching aerospace defense physical AI in earnest, and to expand the sovereign AI domain with AI semiconductors for space satellites.
In particular, KAI plans to extend its scope to AI semiconductors for satellites, aiming to preempt next-generation space intelligence technology that instantly processes and analyzes vast battlefield data acquired by reconnaissance satellites through on-device AI inside the satellite, without ground control. Through this, the company envisions gradually completing a fully hyper-connected battlefield architecture that links "air (manned and unmanned aircraft)-space (satellites)-ground" with proprietary AI semiconductors and communication networks.
Meanwhile, KAI is building the foundation for developing a "sovereign AI" framework, having signed business agreements with Samsung Electronics last November and with Team Naver (Naver and Naver Cloud) earlier this month.
