South Korean AI chip makers Rebellions and Sapeon agree to merge

SOUTH Korean artificial intelligence (AI) chip makers Rebellions and Sapeon Korea have signed a definitive merger agreement, the privately held companies said on Sunday (Aug 18).

They announced merger negotiations in June. The deal is the latest attempt by South Korean companies to challenge global AI chip leaders such as Nvidia.

Sapeon’s shareholders include South Korea’s largest telecom company SK Telecom and the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker SK Hynix.

Rebellions received a US$15 million investment from Wa’ed Ventures, a venture capital arm of Saudi Aramco, in July. Rebellions said this brought its total funding to more than US$225 million. REUTERS