UTC Investment announced on the 10th that it invested 2 billion won in Pebble Square, an AI semiconductor fabless startup based on neuromorphic technology.
Pebble Square is currently in the process of raising a total of KRW 10 billion in investment through this pre-Series A round, and is currently in the final stages of raising investment.
The neuromorphic semiconductor being developed by Pebble Square is a next-generation AI chip that mimics the working principles of the human brain. This semiconductor can perform calculations and storage simultaneously, similar to the way neurons and synapses transmit and process signals. As AI technology spreads, the amount of data for calculations in various fields such as the Internet of Things (IoT), generative AI, large language models (LLMs), and autonomous driving is rapidly increasing, and the problem of massive power consumption is emerging. Pebble Square's neuromorphic semiconductor has a structure that integrates data calculation, communication, and storage, so there is no need for data movement, and AI calculations can be processed with ultra-low power. It is also specialized in parallel calculations and matrix calculations required for implementing artificial neural networks, so it is also capable of rapid processing of large amounts of data.
Existing neuromorphic semiconductors are based on emerging memory whose stability has not yet been verified, and are mainly at the level of preliminary research by universities and global semiconductor companies. However, Pebble Square is evaluated as a highly reliable technology by implementing analog computing based on NOR flash memory with a high technology maturity level (TRL).
Lee Chung-hyun, CEO of Pebble Square, studied advanced semiconductor technology after completing his master’s and doctoral studies in materials engineering at the University of Tokyo, and led the development and design of semiconductor process technology at IBM Research in the United States. In addition, based on his major in materials engineering, he personally developed the memristor element that acts as a synapse in neuromorphic semiconductors.
UTC Investment’s Gilhoon Lee, who was in charge of the investment, explained the background of the investment, saying, “Pebble Square’s high-performance, ultra-low-power neuromorphic semiconductor is expected to lead the advancement of AI technology and contribute to solving energy and carbon emissions problems, and will be a game changer.”
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