MakinaRocks, an industrial AI software company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Dagem to launch a physical AI partnership program built on its AI operating system Runway. The deal marks a structural shift away from the traditional reseller model - partners with machine learning capabilities will now develop and deliver specialized solutions directly on the Runway platform, starting with Dagem's ultra-precision semiconductor inspection technology.
Dagem provides AI-based anomaly detection and predictive maintenance solutions for micro-scale semiconductor processes measured in micrometers. Its AI camera solution, Dagem i-KIT, is already deployed in manufacturing environments that demand high-speed, high-precision inspection under complex production conditions.
How the partnership reworks the reseller model
Rather than simply distributing MakinaRocks software, Dagem will use the Runway OS as an infrastructure layer to build solutions that combine its own domain expertise and manufacturing data. MakinaRocks provides the stable AI OS and handles technical support optimized for industrial settings - including secure offline networks and on-premise systems, which are critical in semiconductor fabs with strict security requirements. The two companies expect this approach to produce joint offerings in predictive maintenance, machine vision-based quality inspection, and anomaly detection faster than either could manage alone.
Seo Won-gyum, CEO of Dagem, said the combination of MakinaRocks' AI OS Runway and Dagem's domain expertise would enable "faster and more scalable delivery of ultra-precision process quality control solutions to manufacturing sites globally."
Infrastructure meets domain expertise
The collaboration splits responsibilities along a clear line. MakinaRocks supplies the OS infrastructure that partners build on, while Dagem contributes data and knowledge accumulated from real ultra-precision manufacturing environments. For IT and development teams tracking the industrial AI market, this signals a move toward platforms that function more like operating systems than application suites - where AI for Operations workloads such as predictive maintenance get developed by the engineers closest to the factory floor, not by a centralized vendor's product team.
Yoon Seong-ho, CEO of MakinaRocks, described the broader ambition: "We aim to build a system where partners with on-the-ground expertise can lead solution development, and starting with Dagem, we will form a large-scale industrial AI alliance to accelerate manufacturing innovation."
Market expansion plans
The two companies intend to pursue domestic and global markets through shared marketing, sales, and reference-building initiatives. MakinaRocks said it plans to scale the partner ecosystem by targeting ML-capable companies, positioning Runway as core infrastructure in the industrial AI market rather than a single-vendor application stack.
Why this matters for IT and development professionals
The partnership signals a practical trend: industrial AI platforms are beginning to look like development environments, not just software products. When companies like Dagem build directly on an AI OS rather than reselling a pre-built tool, the result is a model where domain engineers - not just the platform vendor - write the solutions. For AI for IT & Development teams, this means evaluating industrial AI tools increasingly requires assessing their extensibility, API surface, and support for offline and on-premise deployment, not just their feature list.
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