The fresh merging has actually developed the merging of South Korea’s initial AI-chip unicorn, and Rebellions head Sunghyun Park is preparing the future generation of labor-saving utilize chips that make the young firm ideal for the market’s titans.
This tale becomes part of Forbes’ record on South Korea’s wealthiest 2025. See the complete checklist below
one Sunghyun Park, founder and chief executive officer of Seongnam-based AI chip style firm Rebellions, got the telephone call he the very least anticipated. Ryu Young-Sang, head of SK Telecommunications, South Korea’s biggest mobile driver, remembered the 40-year-old park, and he intended to satisfy and talk about the union of South Korea’s arrogant semiconductor market. Yet also in Ryu “relates to me speaking about mergings, I believe mergings are the only method to make it through,” Parker claimed truthfully.
From high-frequency trading to huge language design devices such as Openai-enabled Chatgpt, the Disobedience as soon as utilized its energy-efficient AI integrated circuit to call itself. After introducing the firm in 2020, Parker increased $225 million in 5 rounds to money its atomic chip collection, which has actually ended up being the favored negotiating chip for South Korea’s information facilities. The future generation of disobedience’s low-power exhaust chips (created for electrical power usage AI elevation criterion) get on the method. Yet Parker recognized extremely well that he can not send it alone to accomplish his worldwide passions.
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On The Other Hand, SK Telecommunications is the crown precious jewelry that Chey Tae-Won (the 36th wealthiest in South Korea) made in the business realm – possesses its very own AI chip start-up Sapeon South Korea, whose X330 chips rebel in the residential market. Ryu and Park wrapped up that by collaborating, they will certainly not just produce a nationwide chip champ, yet additionally have sufficient weight and dimension to settle abroad worldwide rivals, consisting of the market’s indisputable leader, the united state technology titan Nvidia.
” Just a handful of AI chip gamers can make it through,” Parker claimed. “In this swiftly transforming market, we require to settle all the leading skill in South Korea in one firm.” He included: “I do not intend to lose time and power to complete in Korea.”
Also recording a component of the worldwide market will certainly alter the video game. The need for AI chips has actually blown up in the previous 2 years as business complete to take on generative AI devices that have actually been educated with considerable information. International sales are anticipated to get to $92 billion in 2025, up 29% from $71 billion in 2024, according to United States modern technology consulting company Gartner.
In December, all-share deals were secured, and Sapeon released 2.4 shares per disobedience to produce South Korea’s initial AI Chip Unicorn, worth 1.3 trillion won, which amounted $1 billion at the time ($ 900 million today). The joined entity that preserves the defiant administration group and name is the biggest distributor of AI chips. Its blue chip customer checklist consists of SK and the cloud department of Web gigantic Kakao (by Kim Beom-Su, No. 7) and Naver (Lee Hae-Jin, No. 19).
” combine [with Sapeon] It is just one of the most intelligent relocations. Why do you take on your next-door neighbors? “
” Just a handful of AI chip gamers can make it through.”
The brand-new partnership supplies Parker, that preserves virtually 10% of the mixed entity under governing filings, accesses HBM3E, a sophisticated high-bandwidth memory chip that considerably enhances information handling rates and is made by the team’s memory chip arm, SK SK Hynix. “Failing in factories [manufacturing] Parker claimed the capacity, along with the lack of HBM. “Along with SK Hynix, the various other 2 worldwide distributors of sophisticated chips are Samsung Electronic devices and Idaho-based Boise.
Still, boosting sales locally and expanding globally is a difficult suggestion. Persuading information facilities are AI chips from business aside from NVIDIA, which has a market share of regarding 90%, practically as hard as making the chip itself, according to British study company Futurum Knowledge. NVIDIA (market cap: $2.8 trillion) reported that information facility chip sales were $35.6 billion in the 4th quarter finished January 2025, 9 times the price of its closest rival, The golden state chip manufacturer AMD (market cap: $156 billion), creating $3.9 billion in earnings in the last 3 months of 2024.
Comparative, Minnow’s disobedience targeted 2025’s earnings of 100 billion won, regarding $68 million. According to the most up to date offered files, the firm got 2.7 billion won in earnings (the previous year’s sales, bottom line was inaccessible), with bottom line broadening to 13.7 billion success of 13.7 billion won, from 8.8 billion won in 2022222222.
Chip business with worldwide passions have to initially verify that their chips have noticeable benefits over Nvidia. In very early 2026, the rebel will certainly start automation of its rebel chips called in the very same name, created for energy-efficient thinking, i.e. behavior habits utilized for when to utilize AI versions. According to International Power Firm, this is a large bargain, since the CHATGPT ask for AI web servers is the International Power Firm, which takes in 10 times even more power than Google searches.
According to firm efficiency screening, Park asserts that the brand-new cpu will certainly triple the AI work, and the H100 is the H100 introduced in the 2nd fifty percent of 2022 contrasted to NVIDIA’s many energy-efficient AI chips. The chief executive officer claimed Rebel’s 144 Gigabytes is HBM3E’s 144 Gigabytes HBM3E Mebory Cosite aa Huge aa ag a able a 100 chef aa 100 chef a a100 able 100 able 100. He discussed that, as an example, this calls for 2 H100s to power the Meta’s Llama 3.1 huge language design contrasted to simply one Rebel chip.
Chip business with worldwide passions have to initially verify that their chips have noticeable benefits over Nvidia.
” In regards to complete price of possession [purchase price plus operating costs] Rebel’s thinking is less costly than H100. “Park states. The H100 has a peak power usage of 400W, while the Rebel Chip can just supply one PETAFLOP (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, while utilizing just 350W of power. Nonetheless, Park clastes, “the H100 is the best option if you intend to do training and training and principles.” “
The firm would certainly not reveal the number of rebel chips it intends to generate, mentioning a private arrangement with its consumers. NVIDIA is preparing its next-generation AI chip B200 for set distribution this quarter. It states the most up to date in its Blackwell line is Receptacle’s follower, which depends on 30 times extra thinking efficiency and 25 times extra power effectiveness than the HBM3E’s receptacle chip and 192GB. Still, this power loaded chip is anticipated to be extra pricey, offering the rebel an opportunity to place the rebel chip as a cost-effective choice.
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South Korea’s semiconductor exports struck a document $142 billion in 2024, representing one-fifth of the complete exports.
Resource: South Korea Ministry of Profession, Market and Power
r Kakao Ventures chief executive officer Ki-Jun Kim claimed Ecruiting leading skill was a vital consider the success of the disobedience, conference Park for the very first time in 2019 and determined to spend 2 billion won in an hour of discussion. Kim claimed Park’s stringent hiring requirements, such as employing seasoned style designers at leading semiconductor business, aided the disobedience make South Korea’s credibility as “the spaceship that everybody intends to sign up with.”
Although South Korea has a fairly little nation, South Korea has leading semiconductor skill. It is the globe’s 2 biggest memory chip suppliers (Samsung Electronic devices from Chey’s SK Hynix and Jay Y. Lee) and essential market distributors, consisting of devices manufacturer Kwak Dong Shin’s (No. 22) Soulbrain from Hanmi semiconductor and chemical supplier Chung Ji-Wan. Encouraging federal government plans have actually aided cultivate a thick modern technology ecological community of extensive organization teams and start-ups in the nation, as an example, Soulbrain’s biggest consumer is Samsung, while Hanmi supplies SK Hynix.
In very early 2026, the rebel will certainly start automation of its rebel chips called in the very same name, intending to run AI versions with much less power.
Jae-hyun Kim Asia Forbes
Semiconductors are additionally the biggest export classification in the nation’s trading nation, with yearly exports of roughly $684 billion, and the united state market represent 19% of the nation’s total amount. While semiconductors were spared from Head of state Donald Trump’s toll axe, at the very least in the meantime, they can not entirely leave it since they are installed in items, such as AI web servers, which might deal with extra import obligations.
After getting his bachelor’s level from the Oriental Advanced Institute of Scientific Research and Modern Technology (KAIST) in 2006, Parker relocated to the USA, where he examined electric design and computer technology at MIT. This brought about function from Intel, Samsung Mobile and Elon Musk’s Starlink (where he was a chip style designer), prior to the park landed in Morgan Stanley, New York City in 2018. When creating quantum versions for the financial institution’s high-frequency trading system, he thought that if the device is constructed with a customized chip, the order can be implemented much faster.
2 years later on, he returned home and started a disobedience with Jinwook Oh, a Kaist alum and previous principal developer at IBM Research study Laboratory in New York City, that came to be the primary modern technology police officer of the disobedience. They got 5.5 billion won seed financing from fans such as Kakao Ventures, that constructed the model, Ion Chips, in 2021, where they created their initial business AI item, the Power-Lean Atom line, introduced in 2023 and promoted as an expense choice to information facilities.
An additional particular niche of the disobedience, Parker claimed, is to provide an all-in-one option, as opposed to simply marketing chips. “One lesson I gained from consumers is that they desire complete equipment solutions,” he discussed. “Simply connect in.” When super-raters get AI chips, installment calls for technological competence – supply lack of abilities, parks. Couple of chip business exceed marketing equipment to maintain their gross margins.
In November, the rebel joined Taiwanese digital assembler Pegatron to establish an AI web server powered by rebel chips. This was complied with by a cooperation with Penguin Solutions in The Golden State, which was introduced in March to aid consumers establish or connect into web server facilities in their AI chip fleet. “AI chip developers do not intend to collaborate with others to stay clear of revenue sharing and maintain revenue margins high,” Parker claimed. “Yet I such as sharing since the marketplace is growing and larger.”
The larger obstacle is discovering brand-new consumers overseas. Last August, Park reached its initial manage Saudi Aramco to provide AI chips to its information facilities (the oil titan’s WAED Ventures had actually spent $15 million in disobedience a month back, its initial financial investment in South Korea), and got orders from the united state, Japan and Thailand at the end of the year. He claimed that based upon sales this year, an IPO might additionally happen as early as 2026.
Yoo Hoi-jun, the graduate dean of Kaist AI Semiconductor, is extremely hopeful. He claimed using e-mail that the disobedience is driving the boundaries in regards to high-speed memory and AI optimization. In the AI area, “they call it among one of the most interesting names to view in the worldwide chip area.”
