Key Points
- Advanced Micro Devices is negotiating a supply agreement for 10,000 MI355 AI accelerators with South Korean company Upstage.
- Lisa Su, AMD’s CEO, traveled to Seoul to meet with Upstage CEO Sung Kim for deal discussions.
- Upstage seeks to broaden its hardware supplier base beyond current GPU vendors serving Korea’s AI sector.
- The startup participates in a government-sponsored AI development competition known informally as the “AI Squid Game.”
- Upstage aims to complete a 200-billion-parameter language model before the summer assessment phase.
Advanced Micro Devices has entered negotiations to deliver 10,000 MI355 AI accelerators to Upstage, a South Korean artificial intelligence company. This potential agreement represents a significant opportunity for AMD to establish a stronger presence in Asia’s rapidly expanding AI infrastructure sector.
Upstage’s CEO, Sung Kim, acknowledged the ongoing discussions following his meeting with AMD chief executive Lisa Su in Seoul during the previous week. Speaking to Bloomberg Television on Monday, Kim explained, “We have a lot of Nvidia chips in Korea, but we want to diversify to other chips, including AMD’s.”
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., AMD
The negotiations unfold amid rising demand for AI computational resources throughout Asia, with companies exploring alternative hardware suppliers due to supply chain and pricing considerations.
Securing a 10,000-chip commitment would provide AMD with meaningful market entry in a region where competitors maintain strong positioning.
AMD Enters Korea’s Competitive AI Hardware Landscape
Upstage belongs to a group of four organizations participating in a government-backed initiative to develop South Korea’s premier national AI system. The program, informally called the “AI Squid Game” in reference to the popular Netflix series, operates under the guidance of South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT.
Participating teams undergo biannual evaluations, with top performers gaining access to additional advanced Nvidia GPU resources. South Korean authorities plan to identify two final candidates by early in the coming year.
To remain competitive, Upstage is developing a large language model featuring approximately 200 billion parameters, with completion targeted for the upcoming summer evaluation. Such computational workloads demand substantial hardware infrastructure.
Incorporating AMD’s accelerators would enable Upstage to obtain necessary capacity while diversifying its supplier relationships.
Upstage Pursues Efficient AI Solutions for Global Markets
Upstage has ambitions extending beyond the domestic competition. The organization is pursuing opportunities in territories including the UAE and Vietnam with “sovereign AI” offerings—systems that operate entirely within national boundaries to maintain data and infrastructure sovereignty.
Cost efficiency forms a central element of this strategy. With affordable AI models from Chinese providers gaining worldwide adoption, Upstage seeks to deliver strong performance at competitive pricing. Deploying a combination of AMD and Nvidia hardware could support achieving this objective.
Should the agreement materialize, it would provide a significant demonstration of the MI355’s capabilities in a challenging, production-grade deployment scenario.
AMD stock experienced a decline of approximately 1.92% on Sunday. The consensus view among Wall Street analysts remains Moderate Buy, reflecting 21 Buy ratings and 8 Hold ratings issued during the past three months. Analysts’ average price target of $284.96 suggests potential upside of around 41% from present trading levels.
