South Korea is deepening its push to become a top-tier force in artificial intelligence and advanced semiconductors, with SoftBank-owned Arm Holdings now set to play a central role. A new memorandum of understanding between Arm and South Korea’s industry ministry outlines plans for a national chip design training center—an initiative that officials say will address critical talent shortages and strengthen the country’s position in the global semiconductor race. For a nation already home to leaders like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the move signals a shift toward strengthening the more fragile foundations of its system-semiconductor and fabless industries.

Arm’s Chip Training School Targets High-Level Talent Shortage
The proposed Arm chip design school aims to train roughly 1,400 specialists, focusing on advanced semiconductor architecture and next-generation system-on-chip development. South Korea has long dominated memory chips, but its fabless and design capabilities lag global competitors such as the U.S. and Taiwan. By tapping Arm’s licensing expertise and global ecosystem, Seoul hopes to narrow that gap and build a pipeline of world-class engineers equipped for the era of AI-driven computing.

The move comes as SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son met with President Lee Jae Myung, emphasizing that AI’s progress will sharply accelerate chip demand. Son reiterated his long-held—and controversial—view that artificial superintelligence will surpass human intelligence by a factor of 10,000, making advanced chip development not simply a matter of economic competitiveness but one of global technological preparedness.

AI Boom Exposes South Korea’s Energy Constraints
While Son endorsed South Korea’s AI ambitions, he warned that the nation faces a structural disadvantage: insufficient energy resources to support large-scale AI infrastructure. Power supply limitations have emerged as a bottleneck worldwide as companies deploy increasingly energy-intensive AI training clusters. For South Korea, which imports the majority of its energy, addressing this constraint will be essential to support both domestic AI growth and foreign partnerships.

President Lee has been aggressively courting the global AI ecosystem, meeting with OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in recent months. These engagements underline the administration’s view that AI leadership is tied directly to national security, economic resilience, and long-term technological autonomy.

Deepening Semiconductor Alliances Across Asia and Silicon Valley
The partnership with Arm adds momentum to a series of recent semiconductor and AI alliances. In October, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix signed letters of intent to supply memory chips for OpenAI’s Stargate data-center initiative—a project supported by SoftBank and Oracle and aimed at building one of the world’s largest AI infrastructures.

Meanwhile, Nvidia has committed to supplying over 260,000 of its most advanced AI chips to the South Korean government and leading conglomerates, accelerating the nation’s rollout of high-performance computing capabilities. These developments reflect increasing geopolitical competition over semiconductor capacity, where supply-chain reliability, domestic capability, and international partnerships are all becoming strategic priorities.

Son is expected to meet SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to discuss further cooperation in AI and chip technologies. Industry observers view these talks as part of a broader attempt by South Korea to secure a diversified network of technology alliances, reducing dependence on any single supplier or market.

Looking Ahead: Can Talent, Energy and Innovation Align?
South Korea’s path to becoming a top-three AI power will depend not only on technological investments but on its ability to produce and retain highly skilled engineers while solving energy constraints that could otherwise limit scaling. The Arm training center represents a foundational step—one that may determine whether the country can transition from a memory-chip powerhouse to a full-stack AI semiconductor leader.