South Korean AI chip startup Rebellions has secured fresh investment from tech giant Samsung and is currently in the midst of raising up to $200 million in a funding round ahead of a planned public listing. The company is emerging as a notable competitor to global semiconductor leaders like Nvidia and AMD, particularly in the AI inferencing space.
Founded in 2020, Rebellions recently merged with Sapeon, another Korean AI chip startup, bolstering its position in the domestic and international markets. Since inception, the firm has raised a total of $220 million. The latest funding round, which includes Samsung’s contribution, is expected to push the company’s valuation above $1 billion, according to CFO Sungkyue Shin, though an exact figure has not been disclosed.
The funding efforts are ongoing, with Rebellions engaging both current investors and new backers from South Korea and global markets. Existing investors include major South Korean names such as SK Hynix, SK Telecom, Korea Telecom, and Saudi Arabia’s Aramco. Once the current round concludes, the company intends to proceed with an initial public offering.
Rebellions specializes in AI inferencing chips — which execute pre-trained models on real-time data — rather than training chips. This focus positions the company within a highly competitive niche, aiming to provide efficient alternatives for high-performance computing.
The firm is working closely with Samsung to commercialize its second-generation AI chip, known as Rebel. Four of these chips are combined into a single product, the Rebel-Quad, slated for launch later this year. The chips are being manufactured using Samsung’s advanced 4-nanometer process, a technology comparable to what’s used in Nvidia’s Blackwell line, produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
The new chips will also integrate high bandwidth memory (HBM), essential for managing large-scale data workloads. While Rebellions has not yet finalized an HBM supplier, this opens a potential avenue for Samsung to further expand its reach in semiconductor components.
Samsung’s investment is seen as both a strategic and technological endorsement. The performance results from Rebellions’ chip tests have been described as highly promising by CEO Sunghyun Park. If Rebellions successfully scales its customer base, it could significantly enhance Samsung’s foundry business, providing the tech giant with a valuable client in a rapidly evolving market.
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