South Korean semiconductor startup Rebellions on Tuesday announced that it has raised $124 million in a Series B funding round led by homegrown telecom behemoth KT.
The deal saw participation from follow-on investors including Shinhan Venture Investment, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek’s Pavilion Capital, and KT subsidiary kt cloud. New investors included French Koreyla Capital and Japanese DGDV.
The latest round puts the total funds raised by Rebellions at $200 million.
The new capital will be used to attract more talent and accelerate the development of Rebel—the company’s next-generation AI chip designed for running Large Language Models (LLMs) with Samsung Electronics.
Rebellions and Samsung had announced their partnership in October last year.
“In a tough investment climate, our investors have shown remarkable confidence by committing $124 million, solidifying our status as South Korea’s premier AI chipmaker and demonstrating Rebellions’ further potential,” stated Sungkyue Shin, Chief Financial Officer of Rebellions.
“This investment is a robust foundation for expanding our global presence, particularly in markets like the US and Japan, and will accelerate the pace of our global business strategies and next-gen product development,” he added.
Other investors named as part of the round were KDB(Korea Development Bank), Noh & Partners, KB Securities, KB Investment, SV Investment, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Mirae Asset Capital, IMM Investment, KT Investment, Seoul Techno Holdings, Oasis PE, Gyeongnam Venture Investment, and SDB Investment.
Founded in 2020, Rebellions previously developed Atom, a data centre-targeted AI chip.
According to a report by TechCrunch, Shin said that the company is aiming to complete development of Rebel by this year’s end and begin mass production in 2025. The company is also reportedly expecting to start earning profits from Atom by the second half of this year.