The Fourth GMIF2025 Innovation Summit (Global Memory Innovation Forum) was successfully concluded recently in Shenzhen. Under the theme "AI Applications, Innovation Empowered", the GMIF2025 of the year brought together leading representatives across the global memory industry chain to engage in in-depth discussions on compute-storage convergence, AI deployment, and ecosystem collaboration, exploring pathways for storage technology innovations and ecosystem development in the AI era.
Wallace C. Kou, President and CEO of Silicon Motion. Credit:GMIF
Wallace C. Kou, President and CEO of Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, was invited to deliver a keynote speech titled "From Cloud to Edge: Silicon Motion's Controller Technologies Accelerate AI Application Innovation." Wallace offered an in-depth analysis of the transformation of storage architectures in the AI era and showcased Silicon Motion's latest breakthroughs and product roadmap in controllers under AI.
In his keynote, Wallace highlighted that as AI shifts from training to inference, data volumes are surging from PB to ZB levels. Traditional storage architectures are increasingly inadequate for the stringent needs of AI, particularly in high throughput, low latency, and energy efficiency. AI applications are pushing the memory industry evolving from "tiered storage" to "compute-storage convergence" and even "in-memory computing", making storage no longer merely a "warehouse for data" but a critical part of the AI computing pipeline.
"The rapid development of AI has made storage an indispensable core element in the entire value chain," said Wallace, "From cloud data centers to edge devices, AI inference will become the dominant trend after 2026. With leading controller technologies, Silicon Motion is building a full-stack storage solution that spans cloud, edge, and endpoints."
Data Centers: The PCIe Gen5 SSD controller SM8366 supports sequential read/write speeds of 14GB/s and 3.5M IOPS random reads/writes. Equipped with Silicon Motion's in-house LDPC error-correcting algorithm, it ensures high reliability for high-capacity QLC SSDs.
Edge & AI PCs: The PCIe Gen5 SM2508 series is in mass production with over 50% global market share. It supports the SCA interface and low-power design, making it ideal for AI PCs, all-in-one systems, and edge servers.
Automotive & Embedded: The Ferri-SSD, Ferri-UFS, and Ferri-eMMC product families are purpose-built for harsh operating environments. Certified to the AEC-Q100 standard, this product lineup features wide-temperature tolerance, high reliability, and superior data integrity to meet storage needs in autonomous driving systems.
Ecosystem Synergy: A Call for Industry Collaboration
Wallace emphasized that the future of AI storage requires deeper industry collaboration and urged stakeholders across the value chain to join forces to address the potential storage chip shortages forecasted for 2026. He noted that demand will surge due to the rise of AI inference devices, the popularization of TB-level storage in smartphones, and explosive growth in IoT terminals, while production capacity remains insufficient.
Despite global uncertainties tied to geopolitics and tariffs, the structural demand for storage driven by AI remains unchanged. Wallace predicted 2026 will mark an inflection point for AI inference and edge AI, and Silicon Motion is well-positioned to seize this new growth cycle.
"From GPU Direct Storage to DPU architectures, from cloud to edge, no single company can achieve product innovation alone," Wallace said. "Silicon Motion will continue deep collaboration with NVIDIA, cloud service providers, and OEM/ODM partners to jointly build a thriving AI storage ecosystem."
Award Recognition: "Outstanding Controller Technology Innovation Award"
At its booth, Silicon Motion also showcased its latest-generation products, including SM2508, SM2504XT, SM2708, SM2324, SM2264XT-AT, and SM2268XT2-AT, as well as cutting-edge technology platforms such as MonTitan, FDP (Flexible Data Placement), PerformaShape, Ferri-SSD, Ferri-UFS, and Ferri-eMMC. SMI highlighted the value these solutions deliver to downstream device development, technological innovation, and industry applications.
At its booth, Silicon Motion also showcased its latest-generation products. Credit:GMIF
It's worth noting that GMIF2025 had recognized the outstanding enterprises, innovative technologies, state-of-the-art solutions in the storage and memory sector over the past year, and the award list was concurrently released.
Silicon Motion received the "Outstanding Controller Technology Innovation Award" in recognition of its leadership and innovation in controller technologies.
According to the judging panel, Silicon Motion has demonstrated forward-looking technical deployment by being among the first to launch high-performance PCIe Gen5 SSD controllers. The company has also achieved continuous breakthroughs in key areas such as low-power architecture, firmware algorithm optimization, and AI acceleration solutions, significantly enhancing the performance, efficiency, and reliability of memory products. Its innovative solutions are widely deployed in PCs, portable devices, and enterprise markets, providing strong technical support for global ecosystem partners.
Silicon Motion stated that the award reflects high recognition of the company's long-term R&D commitment and innovation strength. Looking ahead, the company will continue to explore frontier technologies and expand the boundaries of storage with more advanced and reliable controller products to empower the digital era.
SMI Honored with"Outstanding Controller Technology Innovation Award". Credit:GMIF
From cloud to edge, AI is reshaping the value map of storage and memory and remodeling the innovation dimensions of controllers. The insights shared by Wallace at GMIF2025 were beyond a technological vision and more of an open invitation to industry co-creation. As the world races into the Zettabyte era, industry progress will be collective-or not at all.
Silicon Motion's achievements are demonstrated through the extreme performance of PCIe Gen6, large-scale deployment of Gen5, and stringent automotive-grade reliability, proving that controllers can act as the "invisible engine" driving leaps in AI computing power. Being honored with the "Outstanding Controller Technology Innovation Award" makes that dedication visible to the industry and trusted by partners. The storage landscape in 2026 will be a battleground of demand and supply, but only synergy across chips, systems, cloud, edge, and devices can turn scarcity into shared opportunity.
By refining controllers into the key that unlocks innovation and scale, performance and efficiency, present and future, Silicon Motion is ready for the next leap-together with its ecosystem partners-to open the next door of AI storage and memory, where every byte of throughput becomes a step forward for intelligent computing.
Article edited by Joseph Tsai
