Meta In Talks To Buy Korean AI Chip Startup Founded By Samsung Engineer

Core Viewpoint - Meta is in discussions to acquire South Korean AI chip startup FuriosaAI, which could enhance its custom chip initiatives amid a shortage of Nvidia chips and increasing demand for alternatives [1][2]. Company Overview - FuriosaAI, founded in 2017, is led by June Paik, who has a background with Samsung Electronics and AMD. As of the latest public filing, Paik holds an 18.4% stake in the company [4]. - The startup recently raised 2 billion won (approximately $1.4 million) from CRIT Ventures, bringing its total venture funding to about 170 billion won (around$115 million) [3]. Product Development - FuriosaAI introduced its RNGD chip, designed to operate with a thermal design power (TDP) of just 150 watts, significantly lower than cutting-edge GPUs that can consume up to 1,200 watts. This chip is aimed at large-scale deployment of advanced generative AI models like Meta's Llama 2 and Llama 3 [5]. - The RNGD chip claims to deliver three times better performance per watt compared to Nvidia's H100 GPUs, and it is equipped with HBM3 chips from SK Hynix, essential for AI computing [6]. Financial Performance - In 2023, FuriosaAI reported a revenue increase of over 10 times to 3.6 billion won, while its losses narrowed to 63.7 billion won from 51.2 billion won [7]. Market Context - The potential acquisition aligns with trends where major tech companies like Meta, Google Cloud, and Amazon Web Services are developing their own custom chips [8]. - The acquisition comes shortly after FuriosaAI's competitor, Rebellions, merged with SK Hynix-backed Sapeon, creating South Korea's first AI chip unicorn [9].