South Korean fabless AI chip startup Rebellions recently announced the successful closure of a Series B round of funding, securing an impressive $124 million (165 billion KRW). This significant investment will fuel the development of the company's highly anticipated third AI chip, aptly named Rebel. Furthermore, the startup intends to leverage this funding to scale up production of its data center-focused chip, Atom, and to facilitate strategic hiring efforts.
Rebellions' CFO, Sungkyue Shin, revealed in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch that this Series B financing has led to a post-money valuation of approximately $658 million (880 billion KRW) for the three-year-old company. Notably, the latest funding round has propelled the total capital raised since Rebellions' inception in 2020 to approximately $210 million.
The substantial investment was led by KT, South Korea's telecom behemoth, with support from previous investors such as Temasek's Pavilion Capital and Korea Development Bank, as well as new backers including Korelya Capital and DG Daiwa Ventures.
This funding milestone arrives at a pivotal juncture in the chip industry, particularly in the realm of AI chip development and utilization. While Nvidia currently leads the AI chip market, formidable challenges persist in the form of data processing and associated high costs within AI applications. Consequently, there is a fervent pursuit of innovative breakthroughs to address these obstacles, with notable contributions emerging from established tech giants and a cadre of ambitious startups.
Of particular significance is Rebellions’ collaboration with industry titan Samsung Electronics to develop its next-generation Rebel chip, aiming for completion by the end of 2023 and mass production commencing in 2025. Notable features include the utilization of Samsung's 4-nanometer fabrication process and integration with Samsung’s advanced memory chip technology HBM3E, tailored for large language model operations.
Moreover, Rebellions' previously released AI chip, Atom, designed for data centers and language models of up to 7 billion parameters, has already been deployed by strategic investor KT in its cloud-based neural processing units (NPU) infrastructure. This successful utilization underscores the company's progress and future revenue potential.
In addition to Atom, Rebellions' earlier AI chip, Ion, tailored for edge computing and particularly relevant in financial services applications, is currently undergoing qualification testing in the U.S., paving the way for potential commercial partnerships.
Established in 2020 by CEO Sunghyun Park and four co-founders, including former quant developer at Morgan Stanley, Sunghyun Park, Rebellions' proactive strides in AI chip innovation and strategic partnerships position the company as a key player in the evolving landscape of AI and chip technology.
