Shin Jeong-kyu, the CEO of LabUp, is an expert in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure with a background in physics and computer engineering, as well as experience in open-source development. Since founding LabUp in 2015, he has been pioneering the AI infrastructure operations platform market.
Shin dual majored in physics and computer engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH). He later earned a Ph.D. by researching computational neuroscience, agent-based models, and opinion dynamics in the field of complex brain science. He has also served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Software at Hanyang University’s ERICA campus.
During his university years, he led the development of the open-source software Textcube, which became the foundation for Kakao's blogging service, Tistory. Afterward, he worked as a strategic planning advisor at Tatter and Company, which was acquired by Google, and served as the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at Abla Company before establishing LabUp.
At the time of its founding, LabUp aimed to make AI accessible to everyone, addressing the challenges posed by the limited availability of AI development to a small group of experts and the inability of existing supercomputing and high-performance computing (HPC) solutions to meet growing computational demands. This led to the development of dedicated AI infrastructure software.
Since then, LabUp has expanded its goals to 'Make AI Scalable' by operating thousands to millions of graphics processing units (GPUs). Recently, the company has introduced the concept of 'Make AI Composable,' emphasizing versatility by allowing customers to assemble infrastructure tailored to their specific needs and scale, incorporating various AI accelerators such as GPUs and neural processing units (NPUs).
Shin received a presidential commendation for contributions to the development of the software industry in 2018 and was awarded an industrial medal in 2024. He currently serves as a member of the National AI Strategy Committee.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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