South Korean chip startup Rebellions secures Series B to challenge Nvidia

Rebellions, an AI chip startup from South Korea, has announced a $124M Series B funding round, aimed at boosting the development of their third-generation AI chip named Rebel.

• Funding Allocation: This financial milestone, which saw initial targets exceeded by leaps and bounds, will also fuel the production ramp-up of their data center-dedicated chip, Atom, and bolster their hiring efforts.

• Growth and Valuation: The startup, only three years old and founded by Park Sung-hyun and Hyo-Eun Kim now boasts a total capital raised of approximately $210M, reflecting strong investor confidence. With this latest financial boost, Rebellions’ valuation also soars to $658M post-money.

• Investor Line Up: KT took the lead in this investment round, further strengthened by the continued support of existing backers like Temasek's Pavilion Capital and Korea Development Bank, as well as new players such as Korelya Capital and DG Daiwa Ventures.

• Strategic Ties with Samsung: Intriguingly, last October, Rebellions revealed a partnership with Samsung Electronics to develop the high-potential Rebel chip, targeting prolific generative AI markets.

The race to perfect AI chip technology is heated, with companies like Nvidia, Google, and Apple in the fray alongside startups like Rebellions, all vying to revolutionize data processing and AI applications.