The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo, hereinafter referred to as the MSS) announced on the 10th that it held the '7th Fabless-Foundry Symbiosis Council' (hereinafter referred to as the Symbiosis Council) at the Seoul National University Semiconductor Joint Research Institute, chaired by the Director of Startup Policy, with the attendance of experts including executives and staff from the Korea Fabless Industry Association, four domestic foundry companies, and professors from the Seoul National University System Semiconductor Industry Promotion Center.
The Mutual Growth Council is a regular communication channel in which fabless and foundries participate, hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, to enhance the competitiveness of the entire fabless and system semiconductor industry ecosystem in Korea. It was launched in 2022 to resolve the difficulties of small and medium-sized fabless companies and reflect cooperation measures into policies, and this year marks its 7th year.
Through the Mutual Growth Council, we have promoted the 'Fabless Challenge' three times, in which fabless and foundries collaborated to produce prototype manufacturing processes (MPW) for promising fabless startups. The opinions from the field have been reflected in policies, such as the establishment of the 'Fabless Startup Consistent Support Project' this year, in the stage-by-stage support plan for fabless startups discussed last year.
This year's Symbiosis Council began with a presentation by Professor Ryu Su-jeong of the System Semiconductor Industry Promotion Center at Seoul National University on 'Global System Semiconductor Industry Trends and Key Issues', followed by the presentation of agenda items such as detailed implementation plans for the '2025 Fabless Challenge' by each organization, key business implementation plans for the Fabless Association and Foundry, and plans for a fabless status survey.
After the announcement, the agenda was discussed in detail, along with strategic responses and cooperation plans for the domestic system semiconductor industry ecosystem in response to changes in the global environment, such as the recent reciprocal tariff imposition announced by the United States.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups also announced the '2025 Fabless Challenge' on the same day.
The 'Fabless Challenge' is a program that selects promising fabless startups in cooperation with domestic foundries and supports them with MPW (Prototype Manufacturing Process), necessary costs, and opportunities to produce new products. It has been held regularly every year since 2022, and 15 companies have been selected and supported to date.
In particular, since last year, all domestic foundries, including Samsung Electronics Foundry, DB HiTek, and SK Key Foundry, have participated in the challenge, expanding the scale of support and enabling the provision of a variety of MPW processes.
According to the announcement, we are recruiting promising fabless startups within 10 years of establishment that wish to use the MPW process of three domestic foundries, and will select a final five startups through document and presentation evaluation.
The companies finally selected will have priority access to the foundry's MPW manufacturing process and will be able to receive support for costs ranging from 100 million won to a maximum of 200 million won per company.
Kyung-won Cho, Director General for Startup Policy, said, “As the fierce competition for leadership in semiconductors between major countries such as the U.S. and China has intensified recently, solidarity and cooperation across the entire system semiconductor ecosystem is more important than ever.” He added, “The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will make all-out efforts to strengthen the system semiconductor ecosystem and respond to the global crisis based on the win-win collaboration between fabless and foundry companies.”
Details of the '2025 Fabless Challenge' announcement can be found on the K-Startup Portal and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups website from the 10th.
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