Sapeon Korea Inc. and Rebellions Inc., two South Korean artificial intelligence (AI) chipmakers, said Wednesday they will seek a merger to gain a strong foothold in the global AI chip market.

Sapeon Korea and Rebellions plan to seek their shareholders’ approval with the aim of completing a merger by the end of September. A merged entity will be launched by the end of this year, according to company officials.

Sapeon Korea is an AI chip processor affiliate of SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s leading mobile carrier, and Rebellions is an AI chip fabless startup, established in 2020.

Sapeon Korea created the country’s first AI chip for data centers in 2020, and last year, Rebellions developed an AI system-on-chip, named ATOM, which supports large language models.

The two companies said their integration will boost the envisioned company’s competitiveness in the neural processing unit (NPU) market, viewing the next couple of years as the “golden time” to gain a strong foothold in the global AI chip industry.

Re
bellions will tentatively take charge of the management of the integrated firm, with its current CEO Park Sung-hyun planning to also head the new company, whose name has yet to be decided, officials said.

Source: Yonhap News Agency