HYBE, the company behind BTS, is closing Supertone, the voice-synthesis firm it took over in 2023. A regulatory filing dated July 23 shows Supertone's shareholders voted on July 15 to dissolve it and appointed a liquidator. HYBE called it part of a realignment of its AI strategy, saying it had looked for ways to keep the company going but concluded it could not continue.
The numbers help explain it. Korean press reports put Supertone's revenue last year at about $1.6 million against an operating loss of about $10.5 million. HYBE had put close to $35 million in across two deals: a minority stake in 2021 and a majority takeover agreed in 2022. It is reported to be trying to sell the voice-conversion and noise-removal products Shift, Clear and Air.
Supertone's technology sat behind several of HYBE's AI releases, including MIDNATT's multilingual 2023 single and the virtual group SYNDI8, neither of which became a lasting act. It was also used by the deaf K-pop group Big Ocean for a song premiered at a UN event in 2025, and for an AI copy of a former HYBE chief executive's voice on an earnings call.
The timing is awkward: HYBE's sustainability report, filed only about two weeks before the vote, still listed Supertone as one of its three technology-led growth businesses. The group says AI remains central to its plans, and chairman Bang Si-hyuk has kept talking it up, including at a June event with Universal's Lucian Grainge.
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