Samsung is now gearing up to expand its ways of influence across the AI computing stack by investing in South Korea’s leading AI semiconductor startup, Rebellion.
The venture capital arm of Samsung Group, named Samsung Ventures, has made a significant investment in Rebellions, which designs AI accelerators and gives tough competition to local rivals such as FuriosaAI and titans like AMD and Nvidia. Recently, it has merged with SAPEON Korea and become Korea’s first AI chip unicorn.
Noticeably, Samsung Ventures was one of the investors that participated in Rebellions’ Series C funding of $250 million at an estimated $1.4 billion. The chip design giant Arm, Pegatron, and Lion X Ventures are the rest of the investors that also participated.
However, Rebellions is already a familiar brand for Samsung, as they have shared a bond for a few years now. Back in 2021, Samsung made 5 nm chips for Rebellions, then 4 nm chips in 2023, and for now, it has already gained orders to make 2 nm GAA chips. This shows that both brands share a good bond.
The key focus of Rebellions is to make cost-effective and power-efficient AI accelerators to stand strong against power-hungry chips from the likes of Nvidia. Its flagship model, the REBEL-Quad chip, has been designed for large-scale AI inference.
