Semiconductor AI startup SemiAI announced on the 26th that it had attracted seed investment from Kakao Ventures.
SemiAI is developing SMILE (Semiconductor Manufacturing Intelligence), an AI-based software platform that supports semiconductor yield improvement. The company's core technology is the creation of Virtual Fab Data (SMILE), which enables the virtual verification of sensor, equipment, and wafer data generated throughout the entire semiconductor manufacturing process. Through this, the company focuses on fundamentally improving yield by identifying past, present, and future defects in the semiconductor process at a glance and interpreting causal relationships between semiconductors.
Furthermore, agentic AI, which learns real-time virtual fab data, classifies semiconductor defect patterns and automates yield analysis and improvement processes. By learning engineers' recipe adjustment history and improvement strategies, it suggests optimal improvement plans for each process, reducing analysis and improvement tasks that previously took over seven days to under ten minutes.
SemiAI plans to capitalize on this investment by accelerating collaborations with global semiconductor manufacturers and various fabs. Through a proof-of-concept (PoC) that verifies the similarity between actual fab data and virtual data, the company aims to secure technological reliability and validity and enhance its applicability in industrial settings. Furthermore, the company aims to grow into an AI infrastructure company that maximizes manufacturing efficiency by analyzing and optimizing the massive data generated throughout the entire semiconductor manufacturing process using AI.
The SemiAI team is led by CEO Ji Tae-kwon, who earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley and has worked as an engineer at global semiconductor companies such as Intel, Lam Research, ASML, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix. Based on their industry expertise and technological prowess, the company is considered a leading candidate to drive structural innovation in the semiconductor industry.
Kim Young-moo, a senior analyst at Kakao Ventures, said, “As AI computing power expands and the importance of memory efficiency is highlighted, SemiAI possesses strong execution capabilities in the field of yield improvement, which is the essential goal of the semiconductor manufacturing process.”
Ji Tae-kwon, CEO of SemiAI, emphasized the need for innovation in yield improvement in semiconductor manufacturing and stated, “We will pursue manufacturing innovation through data-based intelligence and automation.”
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