Samsung-Backed Rebellions Raises $400M: South Korean AI Chip Startup Eyes U.S. Expansion and IPO

TLDR

• South Korean AI chip startup Rebellions raised $400 million at a $2.34 billion valuation
• The round was led by Mirae Asset and the Korea National Growth Fund under South Korea’s “K-Nvidia” initiative
• Total funding now stands at $850 million, with $650 million raised in the past six months
• Rebellions designs NPU chips focused on AI inference, competing with Nvidia, Groq, and Cerebras
• The company is planning an IPO and targeting U.S. AI labs like Meta and xAI as customers

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South Korean AI chip startup Rebellions has raised $400 million in its latest funding round, valuing the company at $2.34 billion. The round was led by Mirae Asset Financial Group and the Korea National Growth Fund.

The raise brings Rebellions’ total funding to $850 million. Around $650 million of that has come in just the past six months, following a $250 million Series C in September 2025.

The Korea National Growth Fund contributed 250 billion Korean won, roughly $165 million. This marks the first direct government investment under South Korea’s “K-Nvidia” initiative, a program led by the Financial Services Commission and the Ministry of Science and ICT.

The “K-Nvidia” program is designed to help South Korea build a globally competitive AI chip company to challenge U.S. dominance in the sector.

Rebellions was founded in 2020 and designs neural processing units, known as NPUs, for AI inference. Inference is the process of running AI applications, as opposed to training AI models from scratch.

CEO Sunghyun Park said the company’s chips offer higher energy efficiency compared to competitors when running inference workloads.

Targeting U.S. AI Labs

Park told CNBC the new funds will be used to expand into the U.S. market. He named Meta and xAI as target customers, rather than large cloud providers like Amazon or Microsoft.

The company currently has active proof-of-concept trials with U.S. customers, Park said.

Rebellions competes with Nvidia as well as a growing list of AI chip startups including Groq and Cerebras. Nvidia’s GPUs have long been the standard for AI training, but demand is growing for chips that handle inference more efficiently.

IPO Plans and Memory Supply Challenges

Park confirmed the company is preparing for an initial public offering but gave no details on timing or listing location.

One challenge the company faces is securing enough memory chips. These components, made by Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, are in high demand and short supply, pushing prices up.

Park said memory is difficult to obtain but noted that Samsung and SK Hynix are both investors in Rebellions, which he said gives the company an advantage in securing supply.

Other investors include Saudi Aramco’s Wa’ed Ventures, Arm, KT, and SK Telecom.

Rebellions is headquartered in South Korea and operates in the United States. The company said it is now focused on scaling production of its Rebel100 platform and expanding its U.S. presence ahead of a future IPO.

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