Korean AI chipmaker Rebellions closes $124 million funding round

Business news | January 30, 2024

By Peter Clarke

AI chipmaker Rebellions Inc. (Seoul, South Korea) has raised US$124 million in a Series B round of funding led by KT Corp., the country’s leading data center business.

Rebellions is looking to take on Nvidia in the AI data center and is part of a fabless Korean AI wave being supported by Samsung as foundry chip maker (see SK spin-off Sapeon raises funds for neural processors).

Rebellions’ funding is earmarked for the development of Rebellions’ third AI processor – codenamed Rebel – and brings the amount raised by the 2020 startup to more than US$200 million. The funding values the company at more than US$650 million.

Rebellions said it is also targeting global expansion with the funding coming from investors from Singapore, France and Japan.

Singapore onboard

The funding included participation from KT’s subsidiary KT Cloud and Shinhan Venture Investment. The round was also boosted by Temasek’s Pavilion Capital from Singapore making a follow-on investment. New investors include Koreyla Capital from France and DGDV from Japan.

Rebellions second chip called Atom is being geared up for mass production in 2024 while Rebel is being designed to run large language models (LLMs).

“In a tough investment climate, our investors have shown remarkable confidence by committing $124 million, solidifying our status as South Korea’s premier AI chipmaker and demonstrating Rebellions’ further potential,” said Sungkyue Shin, chief financial officer of Rebellions, in a statement. “This investment is a robust foundation for expanding our global presence, particularly in markets like the U.S. and Japan, and will accelerate the pace of our global business strategies and next-gen product development.”