Wise, Powernet and KEC to co-develop AI power supplies
French GaN company Wise Integration has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Korean power firms Powernet and KEC to co-develop next-generation switched-mode power supply (SMPS) solutions for AI server applications in South Korea.
Under the agreement, Wise Integration will supply its GaN power devices, digital-control expertise and technical support. Powernet Technologies will lead development of new SMPS designs using Wise’s WiseGan and WiseWare technologies. KEC will manage backend manufacturing, including module integration and system-in-package production tailored to the thermal and reliability demands of AI-server racks.
In addition to accelerating the design and development of competitive AI-server power supply solutions and creating business opportunities in Korea’s AI server market, the project aims to shorten the solutions’ time-to-market using WiseGan and WiseWare technologies. The collaboration builds on an earlier partnership between Wise Integration and Powernet, launched to serve OEMs that require compact, digitally controlled power-supply systems for faster, smaller and more energy-efficient electronic equipment.
AI servers draw extensive power, generate intense heat, and depend on SMPS designs capable of converting high-voltage input (e.g., 400 V) to stable 48 V rails with minimal loss. GaN devices with digital control are uniquely suited for that task: they enable higher switching frequencies, greater efficiency, and more precise management of fast, high-current load transients.
South Korea’s national ambition
The South Korean government’s investments in AI-dedicated data centres includes high-performance GPU clusters and digital infrastructure that supports demand for more efficient, compact, and scalable power-conversion systems.
“Korea is moving quickly to build the next generation of AI data centres, and power architecture is a critical piece of that effort. Working with Powernet and KEC lets us bring GaN-based digital control into server-grade designs at scale—delivering the efficiency, thermal performance, and responsiveness that modern AI hardware depends on,” said Ghislain Kaiser, CEO of Wise Integration.
Beyond the MoU, Wise has been widening the foundation that supports strategic partnerships. As Korea accelerates AI-ready data centre development, the demands on power-conversion systems intensify — higher switching frequencies, tighter thermal budgets and more aggressive efficiency targets. Wise has been expanding its GaN + digital-control portfolio to meet those constraints, ensuring the technologies Korea aims to deploy at scale already have a maturing, production-validated base behind them.
For example, the company recently launched WiseWare 1.0 for totem-pole PFC and LLC topologies, its newest fully digital controller. While aimed today at gaming, displays and industrial systems, it shares the same architecture—high-frequency GaN operation, compact form factor, digitally managed efficiency—that naturally scales into the server-class designs targeted under the Korea-focused collaboration.
