South Korean fabless AI chip startup, Rebellions, announced today the successful closure of a $124 million Series B funding round led by the South Korean telecom giant KT. The company plans to utilize the capital not only to advance the development of its third AI chip, Rebel, in partnership with Samsung Electronics but also to scale up production of its data center-focused chip, Atom. This funding, which surpassed its initial target of $90 million, values Rebellions at approximately $658 million post-money, marking a significant milestone for the three-year-old startup. With the latest infusion, Rebellions has raised a total of around $210 million since its inception in 2020. In the rapidly evolving landscape of AI chips, where industry leader Nvidia has established a formidable presence, Rebellions' fundraise comes at a crucial juncture.

The demand for innovative breakthroughs in data processing and cost efficiency remains high, prompting not only established tech giants like Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft to develop their own chips but also attracting investments from strategic backers. Open AI, for instance, is reportedly raising billions to establish chip fabrication factories, reflecting the intensified race for advancements in AI chip technology.Last October, Rebellions unveiled its collaboration with Samsung Electronics for the development of the Rebel chip. The two companies aim to complete its development by the end of 2024 and commence mass production in 2025. Rebel, utilizing Samsung's 4-nanometer fabrication process, will be integrated into Samsung's advanced memory chip technology, HBM3E, designed for large language models (LLMs) and hyperscalers.

Rebellions claims a unique selling point with its technology, asserting greater versatility than customized AI chips, allowing support for various generative AI models requiring AI accelerators. The company's CFO emphasized the extensive cooperation with Samsung, spanning co-development, chip design, and mass production, positioning Rebellions for a significant role in the evolving AI chip market.Rebellions' strategic investor, KT, installed Atom, the company's data center-targeted AI chip, in its cloud-based neural processing units (NPU) infrastructure in May 2023.

Rebellions anticipates generating revenues from Atom in the second half of 2024 and plans to continue production of this chip model using Samsung's 5-nanometer fabrication process. While Ion, Rebellions' first AI chip, launched in November 2021, undergoes qualification testing in the U.S., the startup's focus on diverse applications, from edge computing to financial services, positions it for a competitive edge in the dynamic AI chip market. Rebellions CEO Sunghyun Park and his co-founders, drawing on their background in finance and technology, founded the startup in 2020, setting the stage for their current endeavors in shaping the future of AI chip technology.