Wasan Tita
South Korean AI chip makers Rebelions and Sapeon Korea said Sunday they signed a definitive merger agreement.
Sapeon Korea, established by SK TelecomNew York Stock Exchange:SKM) — and AI chip startup Rebellions has announced plans. Merge In June, we aim to strengthen global AI infrastructure competitiveness.
After the merger, Sapeon will be the surviving company, and Rebellions’ current leadership will manage the merged company. The new company will retain the Rebellions name and be led by Rebellions’ CEO, Sunghyun Park.
SK Telecom said in a press release on Sunday that in order to secure new management for Rebelions as the largest shareholder of the merged company, current shareholders of Sapeon – SK Telecom, SK Square and SK Hynix – will sell 3% of their Sapeon shares before the merger.
SK Hynix supplies Nvidia (NVDA) with high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, chips. The HBM market is dominated by two South Korean companies, SK Hynix and Samsung (OTCPK:SSNLF), and to a lesser extent, U.S. chipmaker Micron Technology (MU).
SK Telecom said that as a strategic investor after the merger, it will actively support the expansion of the newly established company into the global AI semiconductor market and strengthen Korea’s leadership in AI chip technology.
SK Telecom added that based on the two companies’ development capabilities and expertise in the neural processing unit (NPU) market, the new entity will be well-positioned to compete in the global AI semiconductor industry.
Founded in 2020, Rebellions has successfully launched two AI chips in three years and raised over $225 million from global investors. The company has started mass production of its AI chip ATOM this year and plans to launch its next-generation AI chip ‘REBEL’ by the end of the year.
Sapeon was spun off from SK Telecom’s internal R&D organization in 2016.
