Name

SEMIFIVE

Legal name

SEMIFIVE US, Inc.

Website

https://semifive.com

Company type

Public

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Ipo

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Custom Semiconductor Design Services

NAICS

Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415), Semiconductor and Other Electronic Component Manufacturing (33441)

SIC

Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

Foundry Platform & Design Enablement Services (PDK/DFM/Process Qualification) (HDAHACAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

IP Enablement, Characterization & Porting Services (HDAHAFAI), Silicon IP Subsystems & Chiplet IP (Die-to-Die, UCIe, NoC, I/O chiplets) (HDAHAFAH), AI Hardware IP & Chiplet/Packaging for Accelerators (EDA/IP, advanced packaging) (HDAAAAAL)

Keywords

• Custom SoC design
• ASIC design services
• Semiconductor IP licensing
• System-on-chip platform
• Turnkey chip manufacturing

Headquarters

HQ city

Seongnam

HQ country

South Korea

HQ region

Asia

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. ASIC Development Services: Project-based design services for custom silicon — including SoC platform-based development, hand-off ASIC design, and full turnkey engineering. Customers pay NRE (non-recurring engineering) fees per project. Q1 2026 ASIC development revenue was KRW 28.0 billion, a 2.6x year-over-year increase.
2. Mass Production Supply: Revenue from high-volume wafer manufacturing, packaging, and testing of customer chips via Samsung Foundry and OSAT partners. Q1 2026 mass production orders reached 74% of the prior year's total annual volume, indicating strong recurring production-based revenue.
3. IP Licensing (Analog Bits): Licensing of Analog Bits low-power mixed signal IP (clocking, sensor, I/O, SERDES) across 75+ process technologies. Q1 2026 IP revenue nearly doubled year-over-year, driven by surge in 2nm and 3nm process node IP adoption.
4. Turnkey Manufacturing Services: End-to-end supply chain management services including wafer fabrication (MPW reservation, mass production control, yield and quality management), packaging development (FC-BGA, MCM, 2.5D, 3D), and test/qualification (SCAN, MBIST, MBIRA, At-Speed Board testing).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

SEMIFIVE provides platform-based custom system-on-chip (SoC) design and full turnkey ASIC development services, leveraging a pre-verified IP pool and domain-specific architectures across Samsung Foundry's 14nm/8nm/5nm/4nm/2nm process nodes. The company delivers end-to-end execution from specification consulting and architecture planning through IP integration, physical design, tape-out, packaging, testing, and mass-production supply via Samsung Foundry and OSAT partners. Complementary offerings include dedicated sub-platforms for AI inference, AIoT, and HPC, plus low-power mixed-signal IP licensing through its Analog Bits subsidiary.

Product overview

SEMIFIVE offers a platform-based portfolio of custom silicon solutions organized around a core SoC Platform and complementary design, engineering, and turnkey manufacturing services. The SoC Platform is the unifying offering and comprises three pre-built sub-platforms (AI Inference, AIoT, and HPC) that integrate silicon-proven IP and a continuous-integration development framework. Around the platform, SEMIFIVE provides Idea Hand-off ASIC Design (full spec-to-silicon execution), Design and Engineering Service (front-end and back-end augmentation), and Turnkey Manufacturing (wafer, package, and test through Samsung Foundry and global OSATs). The portfolio is strengthened by the Analog Bits subsidiary, which delivers low-power mixed-signal IP (clocking, sensors, I/O, SERDES) integrated into SEMIFIVE's platforms. Together, these offerings enable end-to-end custom SoC development from architecture through mass production, primarily targeting AI, AIoT, HPC, automotive, and edge applications.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Analog Bits: Wholly-owned subsidiary and retained brand for low-power mixed-signal IP (clocking, sensor, I/O, SERDES) used in SoC platforms; Silicon Valley-based IP company acquired in 2022.

Products and services

• SoC Platform A custom silicon platform portfolio providing pre-configured domain-specific architectures, silicon-proven IP pools, and ready-to-action HW/SW bringup frameworks that reduce NRE and time-to-market. Targeted at fabless semiconductor companies and system OEMs building custom SoCs for AI, HPC, AIoT, automotive, and consumer applications.
• AI Inference SoC Platform Custom AI inference accelerator platform built on Samsung 14nm FinFET with SiFive RISC-V quad-core CPU @1GHz, LPDDR4 x32 4-channel memory, PCIe Gen4 x8 lanes, and an integrated AI Neural Engine IP. Targets data center AI accelerators, AI vision processors, big data analytics, image/video recognition, and ADAS applications.
• AIoT SoC Platform Custom IoT and edge processing platform built on Samsung 14nm with SiFive dual-core RISC-V CPU @900MHz, LPDDR4 x32 2-channel memory, integrated ISP, MIPI-CSI, USB 3.0, and 1Gb Ethernet MAC. Targets smart home, voice processing, surveillance, robotics, drones, and wearables.
• HPC SoC Platform Custom high-performance compute platform built on Samsung 5nm FinFET (EUV-enabled) with ARM quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU @1.5GHz, GDDR6 x32 4-channel @16Gbps, and PCIe Gen5 x16 lanes. Targets hyperscale data centers, cloud servers, network processors, and high-performance AI accelerators.
• Idea Hand-off ASIC Design End-to-end ASIC design service where SEMIFIVE manages the entire process from SoC specification and top-level architecture through IP integration, top-level verification, netlist synthesis, physical design, tape-out/MPW, package, test, SoC bring-up/BSP, and supply chain management. Targeted at customers seeking full turnkey custom silicon execution.
• Design and Engineering Service Front-end and back-end augmentation services including architecture/logic design and verification, physical design (netlist synthesis, DFT implementation, place & route, timing closure, tape-out), and package/test services (PKG development, ATE test development, OSAT setup, device drivers, BSP development, evaluation board development). Targeted at customers needing targeted engineering augmentation.

Quantifiable outcome

• 137% year-over-year revenue growth in Q1 2026 (KRW 47.9 billion vs KRW 20.2 billion prior year)
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration22 records

AI capability11 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

27 partnerships are on record, tiered core, moderate, flagship and minor.

• FotoNationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 May 2026Strategic collaboration for turnkey development of TriSilica perceptual AI chip family using Samsung Foundry's 8nm Low Power Ultimate process. SEMIFIVE leads turnkey development for the initial TS-210 product (planned Multi-Project Wafer shuttle at end of 2026). FotoNation is an Irish perception/recognition company with technology embedded in over 4 billion products worldwide. Marks SEMIFIVE's first European deal.
• ICY Tech (寒序科技)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 May 2026Joint development of 8nm eMRAM-based Edge AI SoC using Samsung Foundry's 8LPU process — first commercial deployment of 8nm eMRAM in Asia. Integrates ICY Tech's Processing Near Memory (PNM) technology with SEMIFIVE's SoC design platform. Targets AI PCs, humanoid robots, automotive semiconductors, smart devices. Enables on-device inference for models with up to 2 billion parameters.
• NiobiumcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 February 2026KRW 10 billion (~$6.86M) design win contract to develop the world's first commercially viable Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) accelerator ASIC. Uses Samsung Foundry's mass-production proven 8nm process. SEMIFIVE serves as Design Solution Partner in Samsung's SAFE ecosystem. Marks SEMIFIVE's strategic expansion into the U.S. market and targets hyperscalers and AI infrastructure providers for encrypted computation.
• SAPIEN SemiconductorsmoderateStrategic or Co-development Partner · 26 January 2026Strategic MOU to jointly develop next-generation micro-display 'CMOS Backplane' technology for AI wearables such as smart glasses and XR/AR devices. Combines SEMIFIVE's AI SoC design platform and turnkey development capabilities with SAPIEN's proprietary micro-LED display driver ASIC expertise. Covers design verification, technical guidance, and joint global market expansion strategies.
• Samsung Foundry (Samsung Electronics)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerSamsung Foundry's fastest-growing SAFE Design Solution Partner (DSP). SEMIFIVE provides seamless gateway to Samsung Foundry's process nodes (14nm/8nm/5nm/4nm/2nm) worldwide plus ecosystem (EDA, IP, Cloud, OSAT). Co-developed 14nm data accelerator platform starting 2019. Joint presentations at Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) Forum. Access to mass production control, MPW services, wafer forecast management, yield and quality management.
• Analog BitscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcquired subsidiary of SEMIFIVE (acquired in 2022). Silicon Valley-based low-power mixed signal IP leader offering clocking, sensor, I/O, and SERDES IPs. 1000+ products across 75+ process technologies, 400+ customers. Brought proprietary 'Pinless' IP technology for AI power optimization. CEO Mahesh Tirupattur leads the subsidiary; 21-year TSMC partnership leveraged. Korea branch (ABI Korea) operates from Dongtan office.
• HyperAccelmoderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint design collaboration on 'Bertha' — an LLM Processing Unit (LPU)-based AI inference accelerator. SEMIFIVE successfully executed comprehensive design and verification for the Big Die exceeding 500mm² using Samsung Foundry's 4nm (SF4X) process. Showcased at SAFE Forum 2026 in San Jose.
• HanatecmoderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcquired by SEMIFIVE in December 2021 (merged by absorption in 2022). Hanatec was a Samsung Foundry Design Solution Partner (SAFE DSP) providing ASIC design services. The acquisition added design expertise supporting increased demand for custom silicon in AI, AIoT, and automotive sectors.
• ARMcoreTechnology or IntegrationSEMIFIVE joined the ARM Total Design partner program in June 2024. ARM Cortex-A53 quad-core CPU powers the HPC SoC Platform on Samsung 5nm FinFET (EUV enabled) process. Used in hyperscale data center, cloud server, network processor, and high-performance AI accelerator applications.
• SiFivecoreTechnology or IntegrationSiFive RISC-V processors power both AI Inference SoC Platform (U74 quad-core @1GHz on Samsung 14nm) and AIoT Platform (U54 dual-core @900MHz on Samsung 14nm). Deep integration across SEMIFIVE's domain-specific SoC platforms for data center, vision, and edge AI applications.
• SynopsyscoreTechnology or IntegrationListed as a Global IP Partner on SEMIFIVE's Custom Silicon Solutions page. Provides IP cores and EDA tools integrated into SEMIFIVE's SoC Platform offering.
• CadencecoreTechnology or IntegrationListed as a Global IP Partner on SEMIFIVE's Custom Silicon Solutions page. Provides EDA tools and IP integrated into SEMIFIVE's SoC design platform.
• VeriSiliconmoderateTechnology or IntegrationGlobal IP Partner providing IP cores for SEMIFIVE's SoC Platform; specific IP categories span processor cores, neural engines, system functions, and various I/Os and interfaces.
• RambusmoderateTechnology or IntegrationGlobal IP Partner providing IP cores for SEMIFIVE's SoC Platform across memory, interface, and security IP categories.
• Alphawave IPmoderateTechnology or IntegrationGlobal IP Partner providing high-speed SerDes and interface IP for SEMIFIVE's SoC Platform, particularly relevant for HPC and AI accelerator designs.
• CEVAmoderateTechnology or IntegrationGlobal IP Partner providing DSP and AI processor IP integrated into SEMIFIVE's SoC Platform solutions.
• QuickLogicmoderateTechnology or IntegrationGlobal IP Partner providing FPGA-based and eFPGA IP for SEMIFIVE's SoC Platform.
• Arteris IPmoderateTechnology or IntegrationGlobal IP Partner providing on-chip interconnect (NoC) IP for SEMIFIVE's SoC designs.
• OPENEDGESmoderateTechnology or IntegrationGlobal IP Partner providing memory subsystem IP (DDR controller/PHY) for SEMIFIVE's SoC Platform.
• PLDAmoderateTechnology or IntegrationGlobal IP Partner providing PCIe and high-speed interconnect IP for SEMIFIVE's SoC designs.
• ChipsnMediamoderateTechnology or IntegrationGlobal IP Partner providing video codec and multimedia IP for SEMIFIVE's SoC Platform.
• MentamoderateTechnology or IntegrationGlobal IP Partner providing eFPGA programmable logic IP for SEMIFIVE's SoC designs.
• Blue CheetahmoderateTechnology or IntegrationGlobal IP Partner providing chiplet and die-to-die interface IP for SEMIFIVE's advanced packaging and 3D-IC designs.
• Qualitas SemiconductormoderateTechnology or IntegrationGlobal IP Partner providing interface and PHY IP for SEMIFIVE's SoC Platform.
• GlobalFoundriesmoderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerBuilt partnership with GlobalFoundries alongside Samsung Electronics to expand manufacturing options and design capabilities across foundry providers.
• Sesol SemiconductorminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcquired by SEMIFIVE in 2019; merged by absorption in October 2021. Combined semiconductor design expertise into SEMIFIVE's platform.
• Dashim SemiconductorminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcquired by SEMIFIVE in 2019; merged by absorption in March 2022. Combined semiconductor design expertise into SEMIFIVE's platform.

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves11 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Broad incumbents

• Cadence Design Systems: Cadence is a leading EDA and IP provider, also offering design services and IP subsystem integration. Comparable to SEMIFIVE as an IP partner used in SEMIFIVE's platform and as a broader competitor in design services and advanced-node silicon enablement.
• Marvell Technology (Custom Silicon): Marvell is a major US semiconductor company with a substantial custom silicon and ASIC business serving hyperscale data center, 5G, and storage customers. Comparable to SEMIFIVE in custom AI/HPC silicon engagements but at vastly larger scale and broader scope; competes for the same hyperscaler custom-AI-chip programs.
• Synopsys (Design Services / IP): Synopsys is the leading EDA tools provider and a major IP licensor, and operates design services and IP integration offerings through its Synopsys Professional Services and IP portfolios. Comparable to SEMIFIVE as both an IP partner (SEMIFIVE uses Synopsys IP) and a broader design services competitor for advanced-node custom silicon.
• Broadcom (Custom Silicon / ASIC): Broadcom is a large incumbent semiconductor company with a significant custom ASIC business, including AI accelerators for major hyperscalers (e.g., Google's TPU partnership). Comparable to SEMIFIVE in custom AI/HPC silicon offerings but at dramatically larger scale; overlaps in serving hyperscaler customers seeking custom AI silicon.

Direct peers

• Faraday Technology: Faraday Technology is a Taiwan-based ASIC and IP provider offering turnkey SoC/ASIC design services, IP licensing, and turnkey manufacturing. Comparable to SEMIFIVE in offering platform-based design services and IP integration across advanced nodes, with overlap in networking, display, and IoT customer segments.
• VeriSilicon: VeriSilicon is a Shanghai-based semiconductor IP and custom silicon services company offering IP licensing, SoC design services, and turnkey solutions. Comparable to SEMIFIVE as both an IP licensor (analog/mixed-signal, processor, interface) and custom ASIC design services provider for AI, IoT, and consumer applications, with platform-based offerings.
• Alchip Technologies: Alchip is a Taiwan-headquartered ASIC design services company specializing in turnkey custom SoC design for AI, HPC, networking, and consumer applications. It is the closest direct competitor to SEMIFIVE, with comparable business model (platform-based SoC design + foundry partnership), similar customer segments (hyperscalers, AI startups, system OEMs), and direct overlap on TSMC and Samsung Foundry engagements.
• GlobalUnichip Corp (GUC): GUC is a leading Taiwan-based ASIC design service provider offering custom IC design, IP integration, and turnkey manufacturing services through TSMC and other foundries. Comparable to SEMIFIVE in service breadth (design, IP, supply chain) and in targeting AI, HPC, networking, and consumer ASIC customers with advanced-node designs.

Emerging players

• Rebellions: Rebellions is a Korean AI semiconductor startup designing AI inference accelerators (e.g., Rebel-Quad, RISC-V-based ATOM chip on Samsung 4nm). Comparable as a peer customer of Samsung Foundry and emerging Korean AI chipmaker that may compete for similar hyperscaler and edge AI silicon engagements, and as a fellow Samsung Foundry SAFE ecosystem participant.
• SiFive: SiFive is a US-based RISC-V processor IP company whose cores are integrated into SEMIFIVE's AI Inference and AIoT SoC platforms. Comparable as a complementary IP partner but also an emerging competitor offering AI-optimized RISC-V-based reference platforms that could overlap with SEMIFIVE's platform strategy.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/brandon-cho

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Subsidiaries8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors14 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A2 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about SEMIFIVE