HYBE is liquidating Supertone, the AI voice company it put $35M into

HYBE, the South Korean company behind BTS, is winding down Supertone, the AI voice-synthesis firm it took control of in 2023. Shareholders resolved to dissolve the company and place it into liquidation, according to a regulatory disclosure filed on July 23, 2026.

The decision came at an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on July 15, with a liquidator appointed to run the wind-down. HYBE had put nearly $35 million into the company.

Why HYBE is dissolving Supertone

HYBE called the move “a matter decided as part of a realignment of its AI business strategy,” according to The Korea Economic Daily. The company added that it had “reviewed the possibility of maintaining the corporate entity from various angles, but concluded that continued operation would be difficult.”

The numbers explain the conclusion. Supertone posted revenue of KRW 2.3 billion last year, about $1.6 million, against an operating loss of KRW 15.4 billion, roughly $10.5 million.

Business with its own parent was drying up too. Internal-transaction revenue between Supertone and HYBE fell from KRW 200 million in 2023 to KRW 61 million last year.

What HYBE spent on Supertone across five years

Supertone has posted a dissolution notice on its website and now lists Hoon Heo as CEO in place of co-founder Lee Kyo-gu.

The Shift, Clear and Air tools may survive the liquidation

HYBE is in talks to transfer Supertone’s voice-conversion and noise-removal products, Shift, Clear and Air, to an outside buyer. Seoul Economic Daily reported the discussions on July 26, citing investment banking sources.

That split matters. The corporate entity is being dissolved while the working audio tools are being shopped, which says the products found buyers and the business model around them did not.

There is a market for that kind of asset. Splice bought Kits AI for its voice-cloning stack rather than build one, and Supertone’s three products come with a track record inside a major label.

MIDNATT and SYNDI8 never became commercial acts

Supertone’s tech sat behind HYBE’s most visible AI releases. MIDNATT issued the 2023 single Masquerade in six languages. The virtual group SYNDI8 followed, and its 2024 debut drew criticism from parts of the K-pop fanbase.

Neither turned into an established commercial act. The clearest win came from outside the label’s virtual-artist projects: in July 2025 the deaf K-pop group Big Ocean used Supertone’s voice-conversion system on a single.

HYBE is not stepping back from AI policy while it steps back from AI products. The company is one of the 11 signatories behind this week’s proposed AI chart eligibility rules.