SK Telecom to pilot Rebellions NPU for AI services

A photo of Rebellions' artificial intelligence semiconductor chip ATOM-Max / Courtesy of SK Telecom

SK Telecom is joining hands with local artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor startup Rebellions to integrate its neural processing unit (NPU) into core AI services, making a major step toward building a self-reliant AI ecosystem in Korea.

The company announced Wednesday that they are currently testing servers equipped with Rebellions’ data center AI chip, ATOM, across several of SK Telecom’s services, including AI-powered call summarization with SK's agent A., spam filtering and financial assistant on PASS and the veterinary X-ray image diagnosis service X Caliber.

Using the results from the testing, they aim to introduce ATOM-Max, an enhanced version of the chip designed for large-scale AI inference, into these services for commercial use within this year.

SK Telecom also plans to gradually expand its adoption of Rebellions’ NPU servers based on the test’s outcomes.

Both companies emphasized that this collaboration to test Rebellions’ AI chip for SK Telecom’s services and assess its potential for commercialization marks a significant step toward building an independent AI ecosystem in Korea.

“As competition in AI intensifies globally, strengthening the self-reliance of the local AI ecosystem is not just a matter for individual organizations but a crucial factor in a country’s overall competitiveness,” Lee Sang-min, head of SK Telecom’s access network development team, said in a statement.

“SK Telecom will continue our efforts to bolster the country’s AI capabilities, such as with AI data centers, large language models (LLM) and AI semiconductors.”

A.’s call summarization feature is based on SK Telecom’s LLM, A.X. If commercialized using Rebellions’ domestically produced ATOM chip, this would mean an LLM running on a NPU that is both fully developed and operated locally, realizing sovereign AI, which refers to a country’s capability to autonomously develop and produce AI technologies.

As A.X 4.0 is recognized as one of the most advanced LLMs for understanding the Korean language, it is considered highly optimized for the local business environment.

Starting with this testing, the two companies plan to further expand their partnership to strengthen the Korean AI ecosystem’s self-reliance.

“The fact that a domestic AI chip is being applied to SK Telecom’s services operating on a domestic LLM is a milestone beyond technological maturity to signal real progress toward a self-sufficient AI ecosystem,” Rebellions CEO Park Sung-hyun said.

“Rebellions will continue to contribute to Korea’s leap toward becoming one of the world’s top three AI powerhouses by providing stable and energy-efficient AI infrastructure.”