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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."
