GAONCHIPS, a leading system semiconductor design solution company, today announced that it has once again secured a 2nm design project with Samsung Foundry. The new engagement will support DeepX, an on-device AI semiconductor innovator led by CEO Lokwon Kim, in the development of its next-generation generative AI chip, DX-M2. This project extends the companies’ partnership beyond their successful first-generation collaboration, strengthening their role as strategic allies in advanced AI semiconductor design.

With this 2nm contract, DeepX becomes a commercial customer of Samsung Foundry’s 2nm process and will begin full-scale semiconductor production for its upcoming DX-M2, designed to enable ultra-low-power generative AI inference on-device. Prototype manufacturing through MPW is scheduled for the first half of 2026, with mass production anticipated in 2027. This milestone is expected to play a pivotal role in accelerating the early establishment of the 2nm system semiconductor ecosystem and driving the expansion of Korea’s system semiconductor industry.

DeepX’s first-generation product, DX-M1, which entered mass production in July 2024 using Samsung Foundry’s 5nm process, has already achieved global recognition. Optimized for edge AI applications from ultra-compact IoT devices to high-performance robots, DX-M1 delivers powerful AI computation at minimal power. The chip earned worldwide acclaim with multiple accolades, including EE Times 2024 Product of the Year (January 2025) and three CES 2024 Innovation Awards.

GAONCHIPS served as the design solution partner for the successful development and mass production of DX-M1, demonstrating proven technical expertise. The DX-M2 collaboration builds upon this foundation of trust and innovation, underscoring GAONCHIPS’s leadership in advanced semiconductor design.

Lokwon Kim, CEO of DeepX, stated:

“We are finalizing the second-generation NPU architecture for generative and multimodal AI, and it is deeply meaningful to embark on the full-scale development of our DX-M2. By leveraging the potential of Samsung’s 2nm process, we aim to achieve a breakthrough: enabling 100B-scale generative AI models to run on-device with just 5 watts of power.”

Kyudong Jung, CEO of GAONCHIPS, commented:

“This new 2nm project represents a critical milestone that demands the most advanced process technologies and next-generation design expertise. We are truly grateful to DeepX for their trust in GAONCHIPS. Our team is committed to optimizing design implementation so that DeepX’s innovative AI architecture can deliver best-in-class performance and power efficiency.”

Source: https://www.thelec.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=40223