• South Korean AI chip developer Rebellions, which has links to SK Telecom and KT Corp., has raised $250m in its Series C funding round  
• Its backers include Arm and Samsung
• Rebellions is now valued at $1.4bn, almost twice the valuation it commanded a year ago

South Korean AI inference chip developer Rebellions, which has links to SK Telecom and KT Corp., has raised $250m in its Series C funding round, which values the company at $1.4bn. 

Arm, SoftBank Group’s chip design giant, has been secured as a strategic partner and investor “to drive ongoing innovation for next-generation AI datacentre infrastructure”. 

Samsung Ventures and Pegatron VC also participated in the funding round, “strengthening strategic ties across the semiconductor and AI module ecosystem”, along with other new and existing investors. 

The investment will accelerate the mass production of the company’s flagship chip,  Rebel-Quad, and “fuel the company’s expanded chiplet-based product roadmap designed to deliver energy-efficient yet powerful inference infrastructure for the world’s most demanding AI models,” the company noted. 

Rebellions also plans to “expand its global presence in the US, Europe, and key Asia-Pacific markets, supporting sovereign AI infrastructure initiatives and attracting leading talent in AI and semiconductors”.

The company’s CFO, Sungkyue Shin, stated: “As AI inference workloads continue to rise, the demand for AI chips is expanding significantly. This investment marks an important milestone in Rebellions’ journey from Korea’s national AI chip champion into Asia-Pacific’s leading AI chip startup. We are deeply grateful to our investors for their trust and confidence in our vision and potential.” 

In August 2024, months after raising $124m in its Series B funding round that was led by KT Corp., Rebellions merged with fellow Korean chip developer Sapeon, which had been spun out of SK Telecom in 2016. The merged company, which retained the Rebellions name, was valued at about $750m at that time, so its value has almost doubled in just one year – see SK Telecom’s AI chip startup seals merger deal.

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV