LIG Nex1 (079550.KS), a Korean defense contractor, is partnering with a domestic fabless semiconductor company to develop physical AI chips.
The company announced Monday that it signed a strategic memorandum of understanding on December 28 with BOS Semiconductor, a Korean fabless firm, to develop and commercialize physical artificial intelligence solutions for drones and robots.
BOS Semiconductor specializes in designing semiconductors for vehicles, robots, and physical AI applications. Under the agreement, the two companies will pursue full-scale cooperation to secure physical AI and on-device AI technologies that will drive next-generation intelligent drone and robot innovation.
Through the partnership, the companies plan to expand joint cooperation in developing physical AI semiconductors and their application to drones and robots, as well as high-performance system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for next-generation drones and robots.
Physical AI refers to technology that embeds AI models directly into devices, enabling them to autonomously perceive, make decisions, and move in physical environments. By reducing dependence on cloud computing and performing real-time recognition, inference, and control on the device itself, the technology minimizes latency while significantly improving security and power efficiency.
These characteristics have positioned physical AI as a foundational technology that meets the core performance requirements of robots and drones operating autonomously in unmanned environments, earning recognition as a next-generation technology paradigm.
Through this collaboration, LIG Nex1 and BOS Semiconductor aim to secure competitive AI semiconductor and high-performance SoC technologies optimized for drone and robot platforms. The companies plan to lead development of advanced intelligent unmanned systems across defense, industrial, and logistics sectors.
LIG Nex1 will pursue development of next-generation robot and drone systems equipped with on-device AI semiconductors—core components for unmanned mobile devices including drones, robots, and humanoids that will incorporate physical AI. Beyond AI chips, the company will jointly explore with BOS Semiconductor the potential application of high-performance SoC-based new platforms to accelerate technological innovation in unmanned systems.
"Through this partnership, we can localize on-device AI semiconductors and high-performance SoCs, which are core components of unmanned mobile devices, significantly reducing dependence on foreign AI chips," said Kim Jin-hoon, head of LIG Nex1's D2C Research Center. "We expect this to be an important opportunity to strengthen the competitiveness of domestic AI semiconductor companies and revitalize the AI semiconductor industry across both defense and civilian sectors."
