rebellion

Dec. 16 (Asia Today) — Rebellion Chief Executive Park Sung-hyun said Tuesday the South Korean AI semiconductor startup wants to “compete head-to-head” with Nvidia as the company marked its fifth anniversary and said its valuation has reached about 2 trillion won (about $1.5 billion), meeting the threshold commonly used for “unicorn” status.

“Even if it kills me, I want to step into the same ring as NVIDIA and face them head-on,” Park said at a media day at Rebellion’s headquarters in Seongnam, south of Seoul.

Founded in 2020, Rebellion has positioned itself as an AI chipmaker focused on inference – the computing used to run AI services – rather than large-scale model training. The company said it has built “real-world” usage references by deploying its chips in services with live traffic in telecommunications, the public sector and enterprise markets.

Executives said competition in AI semiconductors is shifting as AI services spread and inference becomes a key battleground, where power efficiency and operating costs can matter as much as raw performance. The company pointed to moves such as Google‘s expansion of its Tensor Processing Unit into large-scale cloud offerings as evidence that specialized AI chips developed for internal use can be adapted for commercial services.

Rebellion said it is seeking to differentiate itself in a market not fully centered on Nvidia by focusing from the outset on inference-optimized designs. Park said the company expects measures such as cost per token and throughput per watt to become increasingly important as AI services scale.

Park also criticized what he described as the practical challenges facing domestic AI chip companies, arguing that government support for AI infrastructure – particularly around graphics processing units – has largely benefited large companies and established cloud providers. “This is disappointing for AI semiconductor companies targeting the inference market,” he said, while adding the company plans to pursue competition through chips and systems rather than policy-driven, software-centric approaches.

Rebellion said its merger with Sapion Korea, finalized last year, strengthened its global expansion efforts. Through the deal, SK Telecom and SK Hynix became major shareholders, providing capital and boosting credibility, Park said. He added that SK Hynix’s brand reduces the burden on Korean startups seeking recognition abroad.

The company said it raised 92 billion won (about$70 million) from KT in a 2022 Series A round and 165 billion won (about $125 million) in a 2024 Series B round from overseas investors including Saudi Aramco and Singapore’s Pavilion Capital. Rebellion said a Series C round this year included investment from Arm, which it described as a milestone for an Asian startup.

Rebellion said it mass-produced its first neural processing unit, ATOM, in 2023 and later introduced a higher-performance inference chip, REBEL-Quad. It said it has established overseas subsidiaries in Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States as it expands international business.

Rebellion said it has selected Samsung Securities as lead underwriter for an initial public offering and has begun listing preparations. The company plans to pursue a Korean listing first, while also targeting a longer-term U.S. listing, it said.

Park said the company now sees itself as part of South Korea’s “deep tech” push and aims to become a key player in global AI infrastructure.

-Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

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