AMD Secures Major Order in Asia-Pacific: South Korean AI Startup Plans to Purchase 10,000 Latest Chips

South Korean AI startup Upstage is in talks with AMD to purchase 10,000 units of the latest AI acceleration chips. This move not only marks a significant step for AMD in expanding its computing power footprint in the Asia-Pacific market but also reflects South Korean tech companies’ strategic shift to reduce reliance on NVIDIA.

On March 23, Bloomberg reported that Sung Kim, CEO of Upstage, met with AMD CEO Lisa Su last week in Seoul. The two discussed a potential purchase of AMD’s MI355 acceleration chips, with a target volume of 10,000 units.

Sung Kim stated on Monday, “South Korea has a large number of NVIDIA chips, but we want to diversify and include other chips, including AMD.”

Analysts note that this potential order is highly significant for AMD. If finalized, it could open a new breakthrough in the Asia-Pacific AI computing market for AMD and introduce competitive variables into the NVIDIA-dominated AI infrastructure landscape in South Korea.

National AI Competition Drives Computing Demand

According to reports, Upstage’s large-scale procurement plan is closely related to South Korea’s national AI strategy led by the government.

The company is one of four teams participating in South Korea’s government-supported national AI foundational model competition. The event is colloquially called the “AI Squid Game,” borrowing imagery from the popular Netflix survival drama of the same name, reflecting South Korea’s ambition to become a top-tier global AI powerhouse.

Under the competition rules, each team’s AI foundational model is evaluated and淘汰ed every six months by a review committee overseen by the Ministry of Science and ICT. South Korea plans to select two finalist teams early next year. The winners will receive additional NVIDIA GPU resources as rewards.

The report indicates that under this competitive pressure, Upstage is accelerating its computing power reserves. Sung Kim said the company is currently preparing for a new round of evaluations this summer, with plans to launch a large language model with approximately 200 billion parameters.

As computing power expands, Upstage is also building its technological differentiation. Sung Kim explained that the company’s core competitive advantage lies in combining scale and efficiency to develop high-performance models at relatively low costs. This strategy aims to counter low-cost competitors from China.

This approach aligns closely with the current global AI industry’s cost pressures. As Chinese AI companies offer competitive models at lower prices, Korean and other market developers face increasing pressure to balance performance and cost.

In addition to domestic competition, Upstage is also targeting overseas sovereign AI markets. Sung Kim said the company is focusing on countries like Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates, planning to export sovereign AI systems deployable within their borders.

This strategic layout indicates that Upstage is not only participating in the domestic computing power arms race but also actively seeking to commercialize its technological capabilities and expand internationally.

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