SEMIFIVE to Develop FHE Accelerator

- The partnership's initial contract is valued at approximately $6.86 million (KRW 10 billion) and will utilize Samsung Foundry's 8nm Low Power Ultimate (8LPU) process technology. - Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) allows for computation directly on encrypted data, meaning data can be processed without ever being decrypted, which is a foundational element for Zero Trust security architectures. - A significant challenge for FHE has been its high computational overhead; Niobium claims its hardware accelerator is 2,500 times faster than performing FHE computations on a standard CPU. - Ohio-based Niobium Microsystems was founded in 2021, spun out of cryptography firm Galois, and has raised $28.5M in funding to date. - SEMIFIVE, founded in 2019 and based in South Korea, is the fastest-growing design solution partner for Samsung Foundry and has raised over KRW 240 billion (approximately $175M USD). - The FHE accelerator chip is designed as a low-power PCIe card that can be integrated into existing servers to accelerate machine learning and statistical analysis applications where data privacy is critical. - The market for FHE is driven by increasing demand for secure data processing in sectors like finance, healthcare, and government, with the global market projected to reach approximately $1.5 billion by 2034. - FHE is considered resistant to quantum computing threats, offering a long-term solution for data security as quantum capabilities advance.