August 21, 2024 /SemiMedia/ -- According to reports, South Korea is ramping up efforts to secure a significant position in the global AI chip market. SK Telecom's AI chip division, Sapeon Korea, has recently signed a merger agreement with semiconductor startup Rebellions. This merger is expected to create a new company valued at over $740 million. Rebellions' co-founder Sunghyun Park will lead the management of the new entity, with SK Telecom supporting the company's expansion as a strategic investor.

Founded in 2020, Rebellions introduced South Korea's first NPU chip, ATOM, designed for large language models (LLM) in data centers, which entered mass production in 2023. Sapeon, established in 2022, released its next-generation X330 AI chip last November, manufactured using TSMC's 7nm process and also aimed at data centers. The X330 series includes the X330 Compact, with 367 TFLOPs of computing power and 16GB of memory, and the X330 Prime, with 734 TFLOPs of computing power and 32GB of memory.

This merger enables both companies to consolidate resources and strengthen their position in the NPU market. With backing from South Korean tech giants like Samsung and SK, the new company is set on challenging global AI chip leader NVIDIA and securing a key spot in the global market.