Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Stock Pursues Major South Korean AI Chip Contract

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Advanced Micro Devices is negotiating a deal to provide 10,000 MI355 AI accelerators to Upstage, a South Korean AI firm.
A high-level meeting between AMD’s Lisa Su and Upstage’s Sung Kim took place in Seoul recently to advance negotiations.
The South Korean company seeks to reduce reliance on Nvidia, currently the dominant supplier in Korea’s AI infrastructure market.
Upstage participates in a state-sponsored AI development competition dubbed the “AI Squid Game.”
The firm is developing a massive 200-billion-parameter language model for upcoming summer assessments.

Advanced Micro Devices is pursuing negotiations to deliver 10,000 units of its MI355 AI processing chips to Upstage, a prominent South Korean artificial intelligence company — a potential agreement that could represent a significant breakthrough for AMD in Asia’s rapidly expanding AI sector.

Korean AI startup Upstage is in discussions with AMD to buy 10,000 of its latest AI accelerators as part of an effort to bring large-scale compute into the country https://t.co/PmSjPo7i85

— Bloomberg (@business) March 23, 2026

Following a face-to-face meeting with AMD’s Chief Executive Lisa Su in Seoul, Upstage’s CEO Sung Kim acknowledged the ongoing negotiations. “Korea has substantial quantities of Nvidia hardware, but diversification to alternative platforms like AMD’s is essential,” Kim stated in a Monday interview with Bloomberg Television.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., AMD

These negotiations emerge amid surging demand for artificial intelligence computing infrastructure throughout Asia, while concerns regarding Nvidia’s availability and cost structure drive enterprises toward competitive options.

For Advanced Micro Devices, securing a 10,000-unit contract represents far more than revenue growth. It signifies establishing a meaningful presence in a territory where Nvidia maintains overwhelming market leadership.

Breaking Nvidia’s Market Dominance in South Korea

Upstage represents one of four competitors in a government-sponsored initiative to develop South Korea’s premier national artificial intelligence platform. This competition — informally called the “AI Squid Game” referencing the popular streaming series — operates under supervision from South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT.

Participating teams undergo biannual evaluations, with top performers receiving expanded access to advanced Nvidia graphics processing units. South Korean authorities intend to designate two winning teams by the beginning of next year.

To maintain competitive positioning, Upstage is constructing a sophisticated language model containing approximately 200 billion parameters, scheduled for the upcoming summer evaluation cycle. Such computational demands necessitate substantial processing resources.

Incorporating AMD’s processing technology would enable Upstage to acquire necessary computing power while mitigating concentration risk from relying on a single technology provider.

Pursuing Affordable AI Solutions With International Reach

Beyond the domestic competition, Upstage harbors ambitions for global market penetration. The organization is pursuing opportunities in regions including the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam with “sovereign AI” architectures — systems operating entirely within national boundaries to maintain data sovereignty and infrastructure control.

Cost-effectiveness forms a critical component of this strategic approach. As economically priced AI platforms from Chinese developers capture worldwide market share, Upstage aims to provide superior performance at competitive pricing. Utilizing both AMD and Nvidia components could facilitate achieving this objective.

Should negotiations conclude successfully, this arrangement would constitute a meaningful evaluation of whether AMD’s MI355 platform can perform effectively in rigorous, mission-critical production scenarios.

AMD stock declined approximately 1.92% on Sunday. Analyst consensus on Advanced Micro Devices reflects a Moderate Buy recommendation, derived from 21 Buy ratings and 8 Hold ratings issued during the previous three months. The mean price target from analysts reaches $284.96, suggesting potential upside of approximately 41% from present trading levels.

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