South Korean chip start-up FuriosaAI has turned down a US$800 million takeover offer from Meta Platforms Inc, choosing instead to grow the business as an independent company, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Meta had been in discussions about acquiring Seoul-based FuriosaAI since the start of this year, the person said.
FuriosaAI is one of only a handful of Asian start-ups that have attracted Meta Platforms. Led by June Paik, who previously worked at Samsung Electronics Co and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, FuriosaAI develops semiconductors for artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing, or services.
Photo: Reuters
The eight-year-old company’s second-generation processor, RNGD (pronounced “renegade”), is designed to challenge products from industry leader Nvidia Corp as well as fellow start-ups Groq Inc, SambaNova Systems Inc and Cerebras Systems Inc.
Meta Platforms is investing heavily in AI infrastructure, seeking to better compete in a fast-moving race against the likes of OpenAI and Google as well as upstarts such as Hangzhou-based DeepSeek (深度求索).
The Menlo Park, California-based company is also working on its own chips designed for its own AI workloads, including powering the ranking and recommendations ads on Facebook and Instagram. In 2023, it introduced its first custom AI inference chips — and it unveiled an upgraded version last year.
FuriosaAI plans to raise capital before eventually pursuing an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. The start-up, which has about 150 employees, including 15 in its Silicon Valley office, is currently providing samples of its chips to customers including LG AI Research, the AI arm of the LG Group, and Saudi Arabian Oil Co, the people said.
They are part of a broader pipeline of about a dozen customers engaged in sampling during the first half of this year, they said.
The company’s latest chip, RNGD, is built on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) 5-nanometer process technology and uses HBM3 memory chips supplied by SK Hynix Inc.
NEW MARKET: The partnership opens up India to the Dutch company, which already has a strong hold in the semiconductor market of South Korea, Taiwan and China ASML Holding NV entered into a partnership agreement with Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd aimed at ramping up India’s goal to develop domestic chip-manufacturing capabilities. The Dutch company’s technology would help power Tata Electronics’ planned 300 millimeter (mm) semiconductor foundry in Gujarat, according to a joint statement from the two companies on Saturday. The signing of a memorandum of understanding coincides with a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Netherlands, which is looking to deepen bilateral relations with New Delhi. ASML, whose top customers include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co, makes lithography machines that can print
Tokyo Electron's Taiwan unit today said in a written response that it respects the judicial process, takes the court ruling seriously and would not appeal in the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) trade secrets case. Last month, a court fined the Taiwan unit of Japan's Tokyo Electron NT$150 million (US$4.74 million) in a case involving trade secrets related to TSMC's sensitive chip technology.
ROUGH RECORDS: Bonds in Japan, as well is in New Zealand, Australia and the US, are seeing the effects of a nervy market as stock exchanges across Asia edge down A deepening slump in Japanese government bonds added fuel to the selloff in global debt markets as rising oil prices stoked inflation fears and pushed yields to multi-decade highs. Japan’s 30-year yield yesterday surged as much as 20 basis points to the highest level since the tenor’s debut in 1999, before paring some of the move. Shorter-maturity Japanese debt was also under pressure, underscored by weak demand at a sale of five-year notes that offered a record-high coupon of 2 percent. Concerns over inflation and government spending rippling through markets including the US, Australia and New Zealand are being amplified in Japan,
Wall Street is licking its chops over an unprecedented slate of massive initial public offerings (IPOs) set to arrive in the coming months, beginning with Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) next month. That is expected to be followed by artificial intelligence (AI) rivals OpenAI and Anthropic PBC. The trio of mega listings, each eyeing valuations around US$1 trillion or more, constitutes a heady period of elevated risk and reward. SpaceX is targeting an IPO that would raise up to US$80 billion — about double the funds generated from all IPOs last year. OpenAI and Anthropic are eyeing IPOs raising US$60 billion. “We’re
RSS