Hyundai Mobis, which has led the way in building Korea's automotive semiconductor ecosystem, is expanding collaboration between the mobility and semiconductor industries across the full range of related sectors, from development to mass production. The company plans to build on the automotive semiconductor forum it launched last year to bring more Korean-made semiconductors into actual development. It also aims to get a system fully running in which automakers, parts suppliers, semiconductor companies, and research institutes work together from development through verification to mass production.
Hyundai Mobis held the second Auto Semicon Korea (ASK) forum at DoubleTree by Hilton Seoul Pangyo in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, on October 21. The company first launched ASK last year as a collaboration platform to make Korea's automotive semiconductor industry more competitive and strengthen its supply chain base, bringing together automakers, parts suppliers, fabless companies, foundries, and design houses. This year's event drew more than 90 attendees, including President and CEO Lee Gyu-suk, CEO-level leaders and executives from major companies, and representatives from government, academia, and industry associations. The forum extended collaboration into design IP, testing and evaluation, and functional safety, raising the number of participating companies and institutions to 53 from 27 last year, and ASK is now moving on to more advanced stages of development and commercialization.
The event opened with a welcome address by Lee and a congratulatory speech from the trade and industry minister. It continued with an update on ASK's achievements over the past year and the launch of a task force on automotive semiconductor localization, led by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, Hyundai Motor Company, Hyundai Mobis, and LG Electronics. Participants then discussed topics including competitiveness in localizing system semiconductors, next-generation power semiconductor development, government policy, and automaker roadmaps.
Lee said Hyundai Mobis, as a user of automotive semiconductors, will actively share the know-how it has accumulated. He explained that the company will connect each participant's strengths and build a full-cycle collaboration structure that shares responsibility from development through verification to mass production, so that no single company has to bear the high barriers to entry in automotive semiconductors alone. Since launching ASK, Hyundai Mobis has worked with Korean companies to identify 19 collaboration projects in system semiconductors, and development is underway on 13 chips from that list. For 9 of the 13, the target vehicle models have already been selected. In power semiconductors, joint reviews have begun to raise development capabilities, quality, and mass-production competitiveness. At a media briefing before the event, Lee noted that last year's forum focused on finding opportunities to extend Korean companies' home appliance, mobile, and industrial semiconductor technologies to automotive use, while this year the focus moves to confirming the potential for actual product development, vehicle application, and commercialization.
This year, Hyundai Mobis plans to develop ASK into a full-cycle ecosystem covering the entire development process, tying together software, IP, foundry, packaging, testing and evaluation, functional safety, and quality. It will also share automaker demand and technology roadmaps from the earliest stages so that Korean semiconductor companies can align their technology development and investment with real vehicle applications. Park Chul-hong, Vice President and Head of Hyundai Mobis Semiconductor Business, said the company will proactively set requirements and technology roadmaps for key future semiconductors from a system and controller perspective. By working closely with automakers early to define functions, quality standards, deployment timelines, and target vehicle models, he said, the aim is to strengthen a demand-driven development framework that carries technologies through validation and mass production to real business results.
Hyundai Mobis holds a strategic position as a Tier 1 supplier that uses automotive semiconductors directly while also designing chips in-house and co-developing them with external specialists. Its advantage lies in building the performance and quality automakers require into semiconductor specifications, verifying the chips at the controller and vehicle level, and carrying them through to mass production. Since acquiring Hyundai Autron's semiconductor business in 2020, it has expanded its R&D portfolio around power semiconductors and system semiconductors, increasing the number of in-house-designed chips in mass production and developing semiconductors optimized for core components in electrification and automotive electronics. In power semiconductors, it is focusing on making the electrification value chain, from power semiconductors to power modules, inverters, motors, and PE systems, more competitive. In system semiconductors, it has built capabilities in designing chips for controller functions such as power supply, actuation, communication, sensing, and networking, and it now mass-produces 16 types of in-house-developed system semiconductors through external foundries, with a combined annual volume of 20 million units.
Hyundai Mobis sees ASK as more than an information-sharing forum. Its blueprint is a platform that turns demand into projects, projects into development, development into mass production, and then into concrete business results for participating semiconductor companies. A follow-up consultative body will assign owners and schedules to the projects presented at the forum and track their progress, and the company will work with the government to build the policies and infrastructure needed to support Korean-made automotive semiconductors.
