KT injects $23 mn into fabless startup Rebellions

South Korean fabless startup Rebellions Inc. received a 30 billion won ($23 million) extension to its Series A funding from telecom giant KT Corp.

KT aspires to rebrand itself as a full-stack artificial intelligence business through its role as the AI chipmaker's strategic investor.

Rebellions has garnered a total of $103 million since its inception in 2020 – from Kakao Ventures, Shinhan Capital and Korea Development Bank to name just a few of its funders. 

Last October, KT invested in AI infrastructure solutions provider Moreh. 

Moreh develops AI compilers, libraries, and large-scale AI cluster operation solutions. It is known to have large-scale cluster automation solutions and optimization operational capabilities.

KT plans to work with Moreh on next-generation AI semiconductor manufacturing and verification, as well as large-scale language model generation. 

The wireless service provider is slated to launch a graphics processing unit (GPU) farm of unprecedented scale by utilizing KT Group’s infrastructure, Moreh’s software and Rebellions’ microchips.  

KT will prioritize developing a neural processing unit (NPU) optimized for calculating AI algorithms. 

The company will then utilize the product in its mobility and digital transformation projects. Once successful in South Korea, the company will look for export channels. 

“We plan to secure the first-mover advantage in the NPU market, which will see increased demand in terms of building data centers and manufacturing self-driving cars,” a KT employee told The Korea Economic Daily. 

Market research firm Gartner, Inc. projects the global AI semiconductor market to quadruple from last year’s $26.7 billion to $117.9 billion by 2030. 

In a prepared statement, KT CEO Ku Hyeon-Mo said, “We hope Rebellions will become a global fabless company like NVIDIA and Qualcomm through its partnership with KT.”  

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.