Tech

South Korea aims to join AI race as startup Rebellions launches new chip

Published

1 year ago

February 13, 2023

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South Korean startup Rebellions Inc launches an artificial intelligence (AI) chip on Monday, racing to win government contracts as Seoul seeks a place for local companies in the exploding AI industry.

The company’s ATOM chip is the latest Korean attempt to challenge global leader Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) in the hardware that powers the potentially revolutionary AI technology.

AI is the talk of the tech world, as ChatGPT – a chatbot from Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O) OpenAI that generates articles, essays, jokes and even poetry – has become the fastest-growing consumer app in history just two months after launch, according to UBS.

Nvidia, a US chip designer, has a commanding share of high-end AI chips, making up about 86% of the computing power of the world’s six biggest cloud services as of December, according to Jefferies chip analyst Mark Lipacis.

The South Korean government wants to foster a domestic industry, investing more than $800 million over the next five years for research and development in a bid to lift the market share of Korean AI chips in domestic data centres from essentially zero to 80% by 2030.

“It’s hard to catch up to Nvidia, which is so far ahead in general-purpose AI chips,” said Kim Yang-Paeng, senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade. “But it’s not set in stone because AI chips can carry out different functions and there aren’t set boundaries or metrics.”

Rebellions’ ATOM is designed to excel at running computer vision and chatbot AI applications. Because it targets specific tasks rather than doing a wide range, the chip consumes only about 20% of the power of an Nvidia A100 chip on those tasks, said Rebellions co-founder and chief executive Park Sunghyun.

A100 is the most popular chip for AI workloads, powerful enough to create – in industry lingo, “train” – the AI models. ATOM, designed by Rebellions and manufactured by Korean giant Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS), does not do training.

While countries such as Taiwan, China, France, Germany and the United States have extensive plans to support their semiconductor companies, the South Korean government is rare in singling out AI chips for a concentrated push.

Seoul will put out a notice this month for two data centres, called neural processing unit farms, with only domestic chipmakers allowed to bid, an official at the Ministry of Science and ICT told Reuters.

‘TWISTING ARMS’

In a country whose firms supply half the world’s memory chips, the authorities want to create a market that can be a test bed for AI chipmakers, aiming to foster global competitors.

“The government is twisting the arm of the data centres and telling them, ‘Hey, use these chips’,” Rebellions’ Park, a former Morgan Stanley engineer, told Reuters.

Without such support, he said, data centres and their customers would likely stick with Nvidia chips.

Sapeon Korea Inc also plans to participate in the project, the SK Telecom Co (017670.KS) subsidiary said.

FuriosaAI, backed by South Korea’s top search engine Naver Corp (035420.KS) and state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB.UL), told Reuters it will also bid.

“There’s a lot of momentum behind Nvidia’s developments. These startups have got to build momentum, so that will take time,” said Alan Priestley, an analyst at IT research firm Gartner. “But government incentives such as what’s happening in Korea could well affect the market share within Korea.”

Rebellions will seek to participate in the government project in a consortium with KT Corp (030200.KS), a big Korean telecom, cloud and data centre operator, in the hopes of weaning Nvidia customers off the U.S. supplier.

“Amid high dependence on foreign GPUs (graphics processing units) globally, the cooperation between KT and Rebellions will allow us to have an ‘AI full stack’ that encompasses software and hardware based on domestic technology,” said KT vice president Bae Han-chul.

Rebellions declined to give a forecast for its AI chip venture. It has raised 122 billion won ($96 million), including 30 billion won from KT in a funding round joined by Singapore’s Temasek Pavilion Capital and 10 billion won grant from the South Korean government.

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Tech

Apple close to finalising deal with FIFA over TV rights

Published

2 days ago

April 23, 2024

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Apple close to finalising deal with FIFA over TV rights

Soccer’s global governing body FIFA is close to an agreement with Apple to give the tech company worldwide television rights for a new, month-long club tournament, the New York Times reported on Monday.

The deal with Apple could be announced as soon as this month and valued at around $1 billion, a quarter of the $4 billion FIFA had first estimated, the report said, citing three people familiar with the matter.

The potential agreement would give the company’s streaming business an edge amid competition among streaming services providers to lap up rights for widely watched sporting events in a bid to add subscribers.

If the deal goes through, this would mark the first time that FIFA has agreed to a single worldwide contract, the report said.

Senior executives at FIFA, however, have raised concerns over the possibility of “free-to-air rights”, which would make the event only available to subscribers of Apple TV+, according to the report. It is unclear whether the deal includes any such rights.

Sponsors have also been reluctant to commit the $150 million that FIFA is seeking for sponsorship packages, the report said.

The 32-team event will be held next year between June 15 and July 13. Usually, no major events are scheduled during this period to allow players to rest in the off-season a year before the World Cup, according to the report.

FIFA has faced criticism from players unions for not consulting them before making announcements about the event, according to the report.

For most of 2023 and early 2024, investors in the market-leading Magnificent 7 Big Tech stocks reaped major returns.

“As a general practice, FIFA does not confirm or deny commercial discussions,” a spokesperson for the governing body said in response to Reuters’ request for a comment. Apple declined to comment.

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Tech

Short sellers pocket record weekly profit from Big Tech selloff

Published

2 days ago

April 23, 2024

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Short sellers pocket record weekly profit from Big Tech selloff

Traders who bet against the “Magnificent 7” group of big U.S. tech stocks booked their biggest-ever weekly profit of more than $10 billion last week, with the biggest gains coming from their short position in shares of Nvidia and Tesla, Ortex data showed.

The chip designer shed almost 14% last week to clock its worst weekly fall in over 19 months, helping short sellers rake in more than $3 billion in profit.

Tesla whose shares have lagged peers in the coveted group this year, also tumbled by an equal margin, leading to $3 billion in profits for short sellers.

Overall, the “Magnificent 7” shed close to $1 trillion in market capitalization last week, according to LSEG data.

Tesla, Meta Platforms Alphabet and Microsoft will be in focus this week as the companies gear up to deliver their quarterly numbers.

“Weak iPhone sales data, poor delivery numbers from Tesla and regulatory pushback in the EU and the USA may all be weighing on sentiment, but the impact of the markets’ view on the direction of interest rates cannot be underestimated, either,” AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said.

“Investors will be looking to six of them for reassurance when they report quarterly numbers,” Mould added.

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Tech

AI tools to be used to transform Paris Olympics

Published

2 days ago

April 23, 2024

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AI tools to be used to transform Paris Olympics

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology for the first time in Olympic competitions.

With the commencement of the Paris Olympics drawing near, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has unveiled an agenda incorporating AI technology into various services and tools, aimed at enhancing the Paris Olympics experience.

IOC President Thomas Bach introduced several AI-based services and tools that will be utilized to enhance the Paris Olympics.

These services range from social media monitoring to athlete training and broadcasting, all set to play a crucial role in the competitions starting from July 26.

Bach emphasized the IOC’s commitment to ensuring the uniqueness of the Olympic Games. He stated, “We are taking steps to ensure the individuality of the Olympic Games, and we have always been leaders in bringing change.”

He further explained that with the rapid advancement of digital technology, particularly AI technology, they are once again at the forefront of transformation.

It is said to be the first time that a formal plan has been established for the use of AI in a significant event of the sports world.

It is being suggested that AI has the potential to replace humans in every field, but in the sports arena, athletes will always be the epitome of performance, although AI will assist them.

The IOC’s partner company Intel will provide assistance in utilizing AI technology. The company’s AI-designed apps will be used in various Paris venues, allowing spectators to witness their favorite athletes in action through immersive experiences.

Additionally, AI-designed Olympic videos will be transformed into 3D digital novelties that will be accessible at the Olympic Museum, offering visitors a unique insight into the Olympics.

Another tool will enhance the quality of live TV signals to 8K resolution/60 frames per second/HD, which will be broadcasted worldwide within seconds, thus significantly improving the live streaming experience.

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