Qualcomm joins Korea’s AI push, targets startups

Qualcomm Technologies officials, including Qualcomm Korea President Kim Sang-pyo, far left, pose at a kickoff event for the "Challenge AX for All" program at the Conrad Seoul hotel in Yeouido, Wednesday. Courtesy of Qualcomm Technologies

Qualcomm Technologies Inc. has joined a government-led artificial intelligence (AI) initiative in Korea, outlining plans to work directly with startups to speed up the commercialization of emerging technologies.

The company said Thursday it is participating in the “Challenge AX for All” program organized by Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups, marking the start of expanded collaboration with domestic AI startups.

At a kickoff event held Wednesday at the Conrad Seoul hotel in Yeouido, Qualcomm outlined areas of cooperation including augmented reality glasses, robotics and locally deployed AI infrastructure. The event was attended by Han Seong-sook, minister of SMEs and startups, and Kim Sang-pyo, president of Qualcomm Korea, along with industry and startup officials.

The program is designed to pair global companies with startups to combine products and technologies, support pilot projects and advance commercialization. Qualcomm and LG Electronics are participating as corporate partners in the vertical track.

Qualcomm said it will pair startups directly with local partners to develop projects including robot control systems and autonomous mobile robot solutions using its Dragonwing processors, as well as on-device voice and object recognition for wearable devices and locally deployed AI infrastructure powered by network processing unit accelerator cards.

Selected startups will receive support for pilot planning and commercialization funding, along with technical collaboration and assistance with global expansion.

“Qualcomm is presenting a comprehensive new approach to AI, edge computing and robotics by combining its expanded industrial and embedded IoT portfolio with a strong developer ecosystem,” the company said. “We expect this year’s vertical challenge to lead to the discovery of new products and services.”

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.