Merger between Rebellion and Sapyon Korea
SKT supports global AI semiconductor market entry as strategic investor
Unified corporation to be launched within the year..KT also joins
Expectation of synergy between SK Hynix HBM and SKT Telco LLM, ‘[E-Daily Kim Hyun-a IT Specialist Reporter] AI semiconductor startup Rebellion (CEO Park Sung-hyun) and SK Telecom (017670)(CEO Yu Young-sang) are collaborating to establish Korea’s leading AI semiconductor company. The two companies announced on the 12th that they are pursuing a merger between Rebellion and SKT’s affiliate Sapyon Korea.’,
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, ‘In this merger aimed at launching a unified corporation by the end of the year, Rebellion’s CEO Park Sung-hyun has been appointed as the representative of the merged company. This decision was made based on Rebellion taking charge of management in response to the rapidly changing system semiconductor industry. Also, the IPO schedule of the merged corporation will proceed according to Rebellion’s plans.’,
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| From left, Rebellion CEO Park Sung-hyun and SK Telecom CEO Yu Young-sang. Photo=E-Daily DB |
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| [E-Daily Reporter Moon Seung-yong] |
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, Strong Executive Will…Unified Corporation to be Launched by Year-End,
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, ‘The merger between Rebellion and Sapyon Korea reflects the strong will of the management. The artificial intelligence (AI) neural processing unit (NPU) market for AI tasks is growing rapidly, making competition in the global market even more fierce.’,
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, ‘Currently, NVIDIA dominates the AI semiconductor market for generative AI training. However, in the AI inference (service) market, there is intense competition from companies such as Intel, Cerebras Systems, and Groq. In particular, Intel is building the “Gaudi” ecosystem in collaboration with Naver.’,
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, ‘In this context, the merger between Rebellion and Sapyon Korea is seen as a strategic decision to enhance competitiveness in the global AI semiconductor market. Considering the next 2-3 years as a “golden time” for South Korea to take the lead in the global AI semiconductor market, the plan is to strengthen competitiveness through swift merger. Accordingly, after going through necessary procedures such as due diligence and shareholder approval, the merger master agreement is expected to be signed in the third quarter, and the unified corporation will be launched within the year.’,
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, ‘An SK Telecom official stated, “The two companies have around 200 AI developers, and they officially announced the merger plan at an employee briefing this morning,” and added, “There is also a sense of urgency in making the announcement to prevent talented personnel from leaving.”‘,
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| SK Hynix headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi-do. (Photo=Yonhap News) |
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, KT Also Joins Merger…Expecting Synergy with SK Hynix,
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, ‘Following the merger, SK Telecom plans to actively support the global AI semiconductor market entry and enhancement of Korea’s AI semiconductor competitiveness as a strategic investor. Additionally, KT Group, which has invested 66.5 billion won in Rebellion and is currently active as a strategic investor, also joined this merger to secure technological sovereignty and to create a globally competitive AI semiconductor company.’,
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, ‘The merged corporation of Rebellion and Sapyon is expected to receive substantial support from SK Group, which is strengthening its semiconductor and niche business. Particularly, there are high expectations for synergy with SK Hynix’s high bandwidth memory (HBM) business and the acquisition of Intel’s NAND flash business unit, named SoliDaim, for 9 billion dollars. With server companies expanding storage to support AI demand, there has been a ripple effect in the NAND market. Moreover, there is a high possibility that the products of the merged corporation will be used in the infrastructure construction of the 5-country Global Telco Giant Language Model (LLM) project led by SK Telecom.’,
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, ‘SK Telecom CEO Yu Young-sang stated, “Rebellion, which has been focused on NPU, will receive support from SK Telecom and SK Hynix through the merger with Sapyon, significantly increasing the chances of success in the global market.”‘,
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, Who Are Rebellion and Sapyon?,
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, ‘Rebellion is an AI semiconductor fabless startup founded in 2020 by CEO Park Sung-hyun and CTO Oh Jin-wook, recognized with a corporate value of 88 billion won by releasing two products within 3 years of establishment. Their second product, the AI semiconductor “ATOM,” succeeded in commercializing in domestic data centers last year and has entered mass production this year. Currently, they are developing the next-generation AI semiconductor “REBEL” in collaboration with Samsung Electronics and others.’,
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, ‘Sapyon Korea is an AI semiconductor specialist company spun off from SK Telecom’s internal research and development organization in 2016, recognized with a corporate value of over 500 billion won after attracting 60 billion won in investment last year. In 2020, they unveiled the first AI semiconductor for data centers in Korea and last year expanded their business scope with the introduction of the next-generation AI semiconductor “X330,” focusing on autonomous driving and edge services.’,
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