President Lee Jae Myung (center) on Dec. 5 takes a group photo at his office in Seoul with Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyunghoon, SoftBank Group Chairman Son Jeong-ui (Masayoshi Son) , Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas, Minister of Trade, Industry and Resources Kim Jung-Kwan and Presidential Chief of Staff for Policy Kim Yong-beom. (Office of the President)

By Charles Audouin

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources and the British semiconductor design giant Arm Holdings will jointly develop 1,400 experts in Korea in chips and artificial intelligence (AI) over the next five years.

The ministry on Dec. 5 announced its conclusion of a memorandum of understanding with Arm to reinforce the domestic semiconductor and AI industries.

The agreement seeks to strengthen cooperation among Seoul, SoftBank Group and Arm on the occasion of President Lee Jae Myung's meeting that day with SoftBank Chairman Son Jeong-ui (Masayoshi Son) and Arm CEO Rene Haas. Arm is the world leader in semiconductor design and SoftBank is its majority shareholder with a stake of about 90%.

The ministry and Arm will set up a training institute to develop semiconductor and AI experts, boost technical exchanges and ecosystems, and raise inter-university collaboration through the formation of a working group.

As the world's top computer design platform, Arm counts among its clients tech titans like Apple, Google and Microsoft as well as major chipmakers Samsung Electronics, Nvidia and Qualcomm.

The ministry said it expects that this collaboration with Arm will boost national competitiveness in system semiconductors like fabless and foundry, two sectors that the country is considered relatively weak in.

"We emphasized the need for international cooperation to resolve the problem of AI polarization and create a basic AI society in which everyone can utilize the technology," President Lee said. "We will seek to ensure that everyone in the Republic of Korea obtains AI capabilities, and will do even more by guaranteeing AI access in poorer and developing countries."

caudouin@korea.kr