Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Global adoption of Physical AI chips accelerates as industry demand expands across robotics, smart factories, and edge AI — backed by a growing partner ecosystem and an early global supply chain spanning Asia, North America, and Europe.

SEOUL, South Korea, March 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- DEEPX, a Seoul-based fabless semiconductor company developing ultra-low-power AI inference chips for physical AI applications, has secured 27 commercial purchase orders across eight countries within seven months of starting mass production of its first-generation AI chip — a pace that industry observers describe as highly unusual for an emerging fabless company at such an early stage of commercialization.

The orders span seven major Physical AI application domains, including robotics, smart factories, edge AI servers, industrial AI, surveillance, AI IT services, and smart cities, with deployments now active across Asia, North America, and Europe.

Global Expansion at Unusual Speed

The ramp-up was slow at first: only two orders came in during the first five months after production began. But the company added 25 additional orders in less than three months in 2026, indicating rapidly accelerating commercial adoption.

While some semiconductor startups have achieved limited international shipments, DEEPX's simultaneous expansion across multiple countries and application domains at this pace is highly unusual, according to industry observers. The company's chips are now being deployed across eight countries spanning Asia, North America, and Europe.

Early Global Supply Chain Execution

DEEPX established a global distribution network early in its commercialization phase through partnerships with Avnet, DigiKey, and WPG. Industry analysts note that it is rare for an emerging fabless semiconductor company to secure a global supply chain at such an early stage of mass production.

In Europe, DEEPX signed a distribution agreement with Avnet Silica — the European arm of Avnet — establishing a regional supply chain ahead of broader market entry. Avnet Silica has already identified more than 30 prospective customers across high-performance embedded segments including smart city infrastructure, autonomous mobile robots (AMR), machine vision, and smart factories. Both companies are actively expanding purchase contracts as European industrial demand for edge AI inference accelerates.

Partner Ecosystem: From Silicon Vendors to AI Software Leaders

A key driver of DEEPX's commercial momentum is a cross-industry partner ecosystem spanning semiconductor vendors, industrial computing platforms, and open-source AI software leaders — reflecting a deliberate strategy to position its silicon as an embedded AI standard rather than a point solution.

Renesas Electronics: Has integrated DEEPX NPUs into more than three types of industrial boards combining Renesas application processors, delivering solutions applicable to smart factory deployments. The collaboration between a tier-one AP semiconductor company and an AI chip startup has been widely noted as an uncommon signal of hardware ecosystem maturity.

Sixfab and Raspberry Pi: Have jointly developed and released an AI HAT module built around the DX-M1, alongside a real-time smart traffic analysis solution using the CES 2026 Best of Innovation-winning 'ALPON X5' AI PC that integrates DEEPX products.

AAEON (ASUS subsidiary), IEI, WeLink, Endrich, Toradex, and Lanner: Industrial system developers have deployed customized AI hardware solutions for smart cities, automated logistics, and security systems powered by DEEPX chips, extending the company's reach across diverse embedded application segments.

Ultralytics & Network Optix: Ultralytics, developer of the widely-adopted YOLO vision AI model family, has demonstrated 'Open-Source Physical AI Alliance' workloads running on the DEEPX NPU with a one-click deployment flow. Network Optix has validated an intelligent Video Management System capable of managing thousands of camera feeds simultaneously using DEEPX inference.

New Products: DX-M1M and DX-AIPlayer

Alongside its commercial order momentum, DEEPX has launched two mass-production product lines designed to reduce integration friction for industrial developers across its key markets:

DX-M1M (M.2 Module): A standard M.2 form factor module embedding the DX-M1 AI chip, designed to drop into existing industrial PCs and edge servers. The format allows customers to add powerful AI inference capability without redesigning hardware, significantly lowering the barrier to deployment.

DX-AIPlayer: An edge AI acceleration solution integrating the DEEPX NPU with a high-efficiency CPU board. Positioned as a 'one-stop' platform covering the full workflow from model development to industrial deployment, the product enables developers to implement vision AI applications without complex integration overhead.

Large-Scale Global PoC Strategy

The company attributes its rapid adoption to a large-scale pre-production engagement strategy. In the semiconductor industry, it typically takes 9 to 18 months from PoC initiation to full production deployment in customer applications. To shorten this cycle, DEEPX began working with customers well before mass production began.

Over more than one year prior to production, the company collaborated with approximately 350 global companies, supporting proof-of-concept testing and system integration. This approach created a large pipeline of customers already familiar with the silicon and ready to transition into commercial orders once production began.

Physical AI Moving from Concept to Reality

CEO Lokwon Kim pointed to the growing volume of PoC activity as the clearest signal that physical AI is no longer a forward-looking concept. "Many people still view Physical AI as a concept for the future. But when we look at the growing number of PoC projects with global companies today, it becomes clear that Physical AI is already becoming a reality," he said.

On the commercial order milestone, Kim was direct. "Securing 27 commercial orders within seven months is one of the early signs that this transition is already happening in the industry."

With distribution in place across Asia, North America, and Europe, and a partner ecosystem spanning silicon vendors, industrial platform makers, and open-source AI software leaders, DEEPX appears positioned to expand its commercial footprint across multiple regions simultaneously. If the current order velocity holds, the company's ambition to establish its NPU as the default physical AI inference chip for embedded developers worldwide may be closer to reality than the industry expected.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/deepx-secures-27-commercial-orders-across-8-countries-within-7-months-of-mass-production-302727200.html

SOURCE DEEPX

• Reinforces leadership as a trusted partner in specialized SoC design
• Diversifies the ASIC portfolio with highly complex private computing solutions

SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- SEMIFIVE, a leading global provider of custom AI semiconductor (ASIC) solutions, announced today that it has secured a design win from Niobium, a U.S.-based leader in Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) hardware acceleration platforms. This partnership represents a strategic milestone in SEMIFIVE's expansion in the U.S. market.

The contract, valued at around KRW 10 billion (USD 6.86 million), covers the development of Niobium's high-performance FHE hardware accelerator. It is expected to become one of the world's first commercially viable FHE accelerators, enabling encrypted computation at speeds practical for real-world cloud and AI infrastructure.

FHE is widely recognized as one of the most complex domains in encrypted computing, as it allows computation directly on encrypted data. This capability is becoming increasingly critical for privacy-centric workloads, private cloud services, and next-generation data protection architectures, including Zero Trust computing environments and private AI. Niobium's dedicated accelerator is designed to deliver high-performance processing while offering significant advantages over software-based encryption approaches.

The chip will be developed using Samsung Foundry's 8nm Low Power Ultimate (8LPU) process technology. SEMIFIVE's end-to-end ASIC solution empowers Niobium to accelerate the commercialization of its FHE accelerator through tailored turnkey services. These services encompass design, packaging, and testing, all supported by streamlined supply chain management. Building on this achievement, SEMIFIVE will continue to strengthen its role as a trusted and pivotal design partner for global innovators across the advanced ASIC sector.

"Encrypted computation will become inevitable," said Kevin Yoder, CEO of Niobium. "Once enterprises can compute directly on encrypted data at fast enough speeds, processing sensitive information in the clear will no longer be acceptable. With SEMIFIVE and Samsung Foundry, we're translating years of R&D into production-ready silicon for encrypted cloud and AI environments. This represents the next step in our transition from prototype systems to accelerators suitable for customer deployments."

"Niobium is at the forefront of encrypted computation, and their FHE accelerator platform represents one of the most important emerging architectures in privacy-first computing," said Brandon Cho, CEO and co-founder of SEMIFIVE. "We are pleased to support Niobium in translating this cutting-edge FHE innovation into manufacturable silicon through SEMIFIVE's proven SoC development and platform execution. This collaboration will set a new benchmark for technical excellence in advanced ASIC development."

"Encrypted computation will play an increasingly critical role in the future of AI and cloud systems," said Taejoong Song, vice president and head of Foundry Technology Planning at Samsung Electronics. "Through Samsung Foundry's advanced process technology and SAFE™ ecosystem of partners, we are proud to support SEMIFIVE and Niobium as they bring next-generation private computing silicon to global markets."

###

Media Contact:  robin.kim@semifive.com

About SEMIFIVE

SEMIFIVE Inc. (KOSDAQ: 490470) is a pioneer of platform based SoC design, working with customers to implement innovative ideas into custom silicon in the most efficient way. Our SoC platforms offer a powerful springboard for new chip designs and leverage configurable domain-specific architectures and pre-validated key IP pools. We offer comprehensive spec-to-system capabilities with end-to-end solutions so that custom SoCs can be realized faster, with reduced cost and risks for key applications such as data center or AI-enabled IoT. With a strong partnership with Samsung Foundry as a leading SAFE^TM DSP partner, as well as the larger ecosystem, SEMIFIVE provides a one-stop shop solution for any SoC design needs. For more information, please visit www.semifive.com.

About Niobium

Niobium is building the first dedicated hardware platform designed to advance fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) into commercial applications. FHE keeps data encrypted even during computation, mathematically guaranteeing privacy. Niobium is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, with offices in Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, California. More information is available at niobiummicro.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/semifive-partners-with-niobium-to-develop-fhe-accelerator-driving-us-market-expansion-302692312.html

SOURCE SEMIFIVE