Pranav Balakrishnan · · 4 min readThe long road to an Asian AI chip
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In focus
- The many hurdles Asia’s AI chip startups face to take on Nvidia
- Graas adds a fundraise and acquisition to its AI agent expansion
- From our archives: Cheap memory chips have become a memory
Hello reader,
Building an advanced AI chip is among the most complex things humans do, with these small devices powering some of the world’s most valuable products. Nvidia is the clear leader, and its closest rivals are mostly American.
So where are Asia’s AI chipmakers?
Bengaluru alone has about 150,000 chip designers, many of whom work for global semiconductor companies. Some have begun building startups of their own. But designing a chip is only part of the challenge – there’s also the manufacturing.
Many of the world’s most advanced chips are manufactured by Taiwanese firm TSMC. Securing a production slot can be extraordinarily difficult for a startup, especially since big tech companies are also waiting in line.
Still, startups such as South Korea’s FuriosaAI and Rebellions show it’s not impossible to get that slot, just rare. In today’s first featured story, I report on whether startups in India and Southeast Asia can follow South Korea’s lead, or if it’s more realistic to focus on specialized chips built for AI inference.
We also look at Singapore-based retail commerce firm Graas, which has raised US$17 million and acquired AI data platform Trustana. The company plans to build a database where its AI agents can easily get product and customer information.
Pranav Balakrishnan, AI reporter
Top Stories
1️⃣ What’s stopping Asia’s chip makers from taking on Nvidia?
Image credit: Ulla
Asian AI chip startups are finding different ways to navigate the bottleneck of taking chips from design to deployment. South Korean companies have found that the right allies could open doors to make this process easier.
But Indian and Southeast Asian companies may have to find another path by building AI chips that could potentially change the way AI runs.
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