Establishment of 'IOWN AI Fund' to Unify Global Innovation and Build the IOWN Ecosystem

NTT Corporation (NTT), Young Sohn, SK Group (SK), Chunghwa Telecom, and the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) have announced the formation of the 'IOWN AI Fund,' an investment vehicle aimed at building the IOWN ecosystem and creating new businesses through investments in advanced AI-era technologies. Simultaneously, the parties have established 'Catalight Capital,' a fund management company based in Silicon Valley and Tokyo. With this global management structure, Catalight Capital will identify promising startups and promote their growth and development. 1. Background and Objectives of the IOWN AI Fund In recent years, the advancement of physical AI and agentic AI has shifted AI utilization from large-scale model training to real-time, personalized inference applications. This expansion has extended the user base beyond hyperscalers to a broad range of industries, including financial institutions and automotive companies. Consequently, the required AI infrastructure is expected to transition from centralized large-scale public data centers to a more distributed configuration, including medium-scale edge data centers. Furthermore, as power supply constraints become an increasingly critical challenge, there is a strong demand for distributed optical AI data centers connected by photonic networks that can utilize computing resources efficiently and flexibly. Amidst these changes, the role of IOWN—which integrates network, computing, and power optimization—is becoming increasingly vital. Technologies such as photonics-electronics convergence have emerged as core growth areas for next-generation AI infrastructure. The IOWN AI Fund was formed to capture these trends. By investing in a wide range of advanced technologies, including photonics, semiconductors, advanced packaging, power optimization, distributed computing platforms, AI software, and applications, the fund aims to build the IOWN ecosystem, create new businesses, and contribute to the formation of next-generation AI infrastructure and industrial foundations. 2. Overview of the IOWN AI Fund The following members will participate as operating partners in the IOWN AI Fund: - NTT: Leading the IOWN initiative and the IOWN Global Forum since 2019. - Young Sohn: Bringing extensive venture investment and corporate management experience in deep tech, particularly in optical communications and semiconductors, based in Silicon Valley. - SK Group: Leading technological innovation and the social implementation of advanced technologies in the AI and semiconductor fields. - Chunghwa Telecom: Driving the international expansion of IOWN through initiatives like APN (All-Photonics Network) validation with NTT. - Development Bank of Japan (DBJ): Possessing vast experience in supplying growth capital and risk money to domestic and international companies and projects. Young Sohn is the Co-founder and Founding Managing Partner of Walden Catalyst Ventures, and has previously served as President and Chief Strategy Officer of Samsung Electronics, CEO of optical semiconductor company Inphi (subsequently acquired by Marvell), and President of the Semiconductor division at Agilent Technologies (later acquired by Avago Technologies, then Broadcom). By participating alongside other members with deep knowledge of investment and business development in the optical and semiconductor sectors, the fund aims to go beyond providing capital. It will support the growth of portfolio companies globally by leveraging technical evaluation, business collaboration, customer network access, and operational development support. The IOWN AI Fund targets a broad layer of technology, ranging from core IOWN-related technologies—such as photonics, AI semiconductors/packaging, optical devices, photonics-electronics convergence modules, and decentralized AI platform control—to software, AI models/inference, and applications. By organically linking these, the fund intends to construct the IOWN ecosystem. - Photonics Technologies: Data transmission, coherent communications, optical switching, and technologies contributing to improved data transmission performance and power efficiency. - AI Semiconductors/Packaging: AI accelerators (GPU/ASIC/NPU), chiplets, 3D integration, and technologies supporting high-density, high-performance computing platforms. - Optical Devices/Photonics-Electronics Convergence Modules: [Detailed list omitted for brevity]