Rebellions and Sapeon merge to challenge chips giants NVIDIA

• In accordance with the SK Telecom Co, the parent company of Sapeon, South Korean AI chip developers Rebellions Inc and the Sapeon Inc, announced their pursuit of a merger.
• In an effort to secure a status in the global AI semiconductor market, South Korean AI chip developers Rebellions Inc and Sapeon Korea Inc are planning to merge within the next two to three years.
• Rebellions focus on the production of the neural processing unit (NPU), the company introduced the ATOM chip last year, the first NPU developed in South Korea for use in a data centre with a large language model (LLM), which performed well in the international authoritative AI benchmark MLPerf, performing 1.5 to 2 times better than NVIDIA and Qualcomm, but it cost only a tenth of NVIDIA’s GPU A100. This year, the chip entered mass production.

OUR TAKE
This growing demand for efficient and low-energy AI processing capabilities is further amplified by the emergence of large language models like ChatGPT. Consequently, the global semiconductor industry has become a battleground for AI chips, as companies strive to meet this heightened demand. Recognising the importance of the semiconductor industry, the South Korean government has repeatedly announced plans to support its growth, creating a fertile ground for the development of local start-ups.
–Miurio, BTW reporter

In accordance with the SK Telecom Co, the parent company of Sapeon, South Korean AI chip developers Rebellions Inc and the Sapeon Inc, announced their pursuit of a merger. This move represents another attempt by South Korea to compete with the market giants NVIDIA, in the ongoing boom of artificial intelligence.

The details of alliance

In an effort to secure a status in the global AI semiconductor market, South Korean AI chip developers Rebellions Inc and Sapeon Korea Inc are planning to merge within the next two to three years. SK Telecom, the parent company of Sapeon, emphasised the urgency of this consolidation as competition in the AI industry intensifies worldwide. The merged company will focus on establishing a strong presence in neural processing units (NPUs) used in AI, with Rebellions taking charge of the merged entity’s management.

“We believe that South Korea needs a leading AI chip design company to better compete globally with companies like NVIDIA and Qualcomm,” Rebellions and SK Telecom said in a joint statement.

Given the rapid expansion of AI into various applications, the merger is expected to be finalised in the third quarter of this year, with the combined company launching by the end of the year, as stated by SK Telecom.

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About the two companies

Rebellions focus on the production of the NPU, the company introduced the ATOM chip last year, the first NPU developed in South Korea for use in a data centre with a large language model (LLM), which performed well in the international authoritative AI benchmark MLPerf, performing 1.5 to 2 times better than NVIDIA and Qualcomm, but it cost only a tenth of NVIDIA’s GPU A100. This year, the chip entered mass production. In September, Rebellions partnered into a partnership with US tech giant IBM to develop generative technology. As part of the partnership, Rebellions said it will test and run its ATOM chip on a system at IBM’s data centre in Albany, New York.

Sapeon Korea is the AI chip processor subsidiary of SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest telecom company, which was spun off in April 2022. Sapeon Mainly designs AI chips for data centres, focusing on optimising AI workloads and improving data processing efficiency. Its latest product, the X330 chip, launched in November, uses TSMC’s 7nm process, is said to be about twice as efficient as its competitors and 1.3 times as efficient as its competitors.

The merger of Rebellions and Sapeon is a partnership between Samsung and SK, aiming to increase South Korea’s share in the global AI chip market by integrating resources.

Although South Korea’s memory chips dominate the global market under Samsung and SK Hynix, it has yet to become competitive enough in AI chips. The merger of Rebellions and Sapeon is a partnership of Samsung and SK, aiming to increase South Korea’s share in the global AI chip market by integrating resources.