AMD wins blockbuster orders in Asia-Pacific: Korean AI start-up plans to purchase 10,000 of the latest chips

By Dong Jing

Source: Wall Street CN

South Korean AI startup Upstage is reportedly planning to purchase 10,000 of AMD’s latest MI355 chips in a bid to break its sole reliance on NVIDIA and diversify its computing power supply. The move is aimed at coping with pressure from South Korea’s national-level AI competition and preparing for the development of large models with hundreds of billions of parameters. Analysts note that this high-profile order also opens a new breakthrough for AMD to expand in the Asia-Pacific AI computing market.

South Korean AI firm Upstage is in talks with AMD to acquire 10,000 cutting-edge AI accelerator chips. This not only marks an important step for AMD in expanding its computing footprint in the Asia-Pacific market but also reflects a strategic shift among South Korean tech companies seeking to move away from over-reliance on NVIDIA.

On March 23, Bloomberg reported that Upstage CEO Sung Kim met with AMD CEO Lisa Su in Seoul last week to discuss the purchase of AMD MI355 accelerator chips, with a target volume of 10,000 units.

“South Korea has a lot of NVIDIA chips, but we want to diversify and include other chips such as AMD,” Sung Kim said on Monday.

Analysts point out that the potential order is highly significant for AMD. If finalized, it will open a new breakthrough for AMD in the Asia-Pacific AI computing market, while also introducing competitive dynamics to South Korea’s AI infrastructure landscape, which has been dominated by NVIDIA.

### Computing Demand Driven by National AI Competition

Upstage’s large-scale procurement plan is closely tied to South Korea’s government-led national AI strategy, according to reports.

The company is one of four teams participating in a government-backed contest to develop a national AI foundation model, dubbed the “AI Squid Game” by outsiders — a reference to the hit Netflix survival drama — reflecting South Korea’s ambition to become a global top-tier AI power.

Under the competition rules, participants’ foundation models are evaluated and eliminated every six months by a committee overseen by the Ministry of Science and ICT. South Korea plans to select two finalist teams early next year, with winners to be awarded additional NVIDIA GPU resources.

It is amid this competitive pressure that Upstage is accelerating its computing power buildup. Sung Kim said the company is preparing for a new round of evaluations this summer and plans to launch a large language model with around 200 billion parameters.

Alongside expanding computing capacity, Upstage is building its own technological differentiation. Sung Kim stated that the company’s core competitiveness lies in building high-performance models at relatively low costs by combining scale and efficiency, a strategy designed to compete with low-cost rivals from China.

This approach aligns with intense cost pressure across the global AI industry. As Chinese AI firms offer competitive models at lower prices, AI developers in South Korea and other markets face pressure to balance performance and cost.

Beyond domestic competition, Upstage is targeting overseas sovereign AI markets. Sung Kim said the company is eyeing countries including Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates, planning to export sovereign AI systems that can be deployed onshore.

This layout shows that while participating in the domestic computing arms race, Upstage is also actively seeking to commercialize and export its technological capabilities to expand internationally.

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