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Baek Jun-ho, CEO of FuriosaAI / Photo courtesy of FuriosaAI |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] Korean AI semiconductor design company FuriosaAI has declined Meta's acquisition offer and decided to focus on its independent chip development project.
According to the startup industry on Monday, FuriosaAI CEO Baek Jun-ho announced internally that the company would not proceed with acquisition negotiations with Meta. It was also reported that the company officially conveyed its rejection of Meta's offer. Instead of selling its management rights overseas, FuriosaAI will concentrate on the development and mass production of its proprietary "Renegade" chip series.
Founded in April 2017 by Baek, a semiconductor expert who previously worked in design roles at U.S. chipmaker AMD and Samsung Electronics' memory division, FuriosaAI is estimated to be valued at approximately 800 billion KRW ($600 million). Meta’s acquisition offer was reportedly around $800 million (approximately 1.2 trillion KRW).
An industry insider stated, "CEO Baek was strongly committed to developing and mass-producing the Renegade chip independently. The acquisition was just one of the options, and recent performance evaluations of Renegade showing promising results also influenced the decision." Additionally, Meta's focus on FuriosaAI’s system and talent for its AI services rather than AI semiconductor development played a role in Baek’s decision.
Meanwhile, FuriosaAI has recently secured additional funding in South Korea to support the mass production of Renegade. The company has obtained financial commitments, including a 30 billion KRW Letter of Intent (LOI) from the Korea Development Bank, raising a total of 70 billion KRW in the near future to accelerate production readiness.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
