Rebellions aims to capitalize on large investor interest in AI chips and is targeting an initial public offering in South Korea in the first or second quarter of next year, its CEO told CNBC exclusively.
Rebellions CEO Park Sung-hyun told CNBC that the company is leaning toward listing on the Kospi rather than the Kosdaq.
“Right now, real revenue is being generated, so we are preparing for an IPO with JPMorgan and (Samsung Securities) as underwriters,” Park told CNBC on Wednesday.
“Fundamentally, our investors like the Korean market, and in fact KOSPI, because we are well aligned with the Korean government’s megaproject, which is one of the world’s largest initiatives for AI infrastructure,” he added.
Park said the company is also considering other listing options, including the US, and is currently in talks with both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.
CNBC previously reported that Rebellions was planning to go public, but Park’s comments are the first details of the plan.
Inference chips take off
Rebellions, supported by Samsung, SK Hynix The company, backed by a major fund from the South Korean government, is one of many startups aiming to grab a share of the AI inference semiconductor market. Inference refers to the process of executing AI models and is gaining importance as companies talk about more advanced AI agents.
meanwhile Nvidiagraphics processing units (GPUs) are the gold standard for training AI models, and there is a growing focus on chips that are more energy efficient and can execute inference processes quickly.
Rebel-Quad is Rebellions’ second generation product and consists of four Rebel AI chips. South Korean company Rebellions is trying to compete with companies like Nvidia in AI chips.
rebellion
Rebellions sells server systems equipped with Rebel100 NPU chips. The possibility of Rebellions going public comes as investors remain bullish on semiconductor companies that have been at the center of AI development. The PHLX Semiconductor Index, which tracks a variety of semiconductor companies, is up about 80% this year.
Other companies are also looking to take advantage of this benefit. Earlier this year, inference chip startup Cerebra Systems went public in the United States.
Meanwhile, SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest memory chip makers, plans to list its shares on the US Nasdaq this week to take advantage of investor appetite for memory. The company is already listed in South Korea.
— CNBC’s Sam Meredith contributed to this article.
