South Korea’s tech behemoth Samsung Electronics Co. teamed up with private think tanks and university labs to advance research in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and neuromorphic computing.

According to industry sources on Tuesday, Seoul National University, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) jointly set up Neural Processing Research Center (NPRC) last month with support from Samsung Electronics to develop neuromorphic chips - next generation chips that resemble the architecture of human brain that is much more powerful than even today’s most advanced supercomputers.

Global tech giants including Intel, Apple and IBM have also been ramping up their research on neuromorphic engineering that has the potential to take the AI and deep learning to the next level. Market data provider International Data Corp. (IDC) projected that the global AI market would surpass $100 billion by 2022 from $8 billion last year.

Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Samsung Electronics’ research arm, has led the neuromorphic computing project since last year to help the firm take the lead in the global AI market. Samsung Electronics plans to invest 9 billion won ($8.5 million) in the first phase of the project over the next three years, according to sources.

By Hwang Hyung-gyu and Choi Mira

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