This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 11:31 a.m. on Mar. 4, 2026.
HyperAccel, regarded as a "rising star" in the domestic artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor fabless (design specialist) sector, has moved to raise a large-scale 150 billion won in funding.
With investors flocking to secure the "next bellwether" following FuriosaAI and Rebellions, some project the company's valuation will swiftly top 600 billion won.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 4th, HyperAccel recently finalized plans to raise 150 billion won in new funding and has begun sounding out demand from financial investors (FI), including domestic and overseas venture capital (VC) firms.
It comes about a year after it raised a 55 billion won Series A investment from Korea Investment Partners, BonAngels Venture Partners, and KB Investment at the end of 2024. The latest round is seen as a Series B.
HyperAccel is a startup that develops AI accelerators, logic semiconductors that speed up AI computation, and was launched in Jan. 2023. It drew attention from the outset, founded by Kim Ju-young, a Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology professor who previously worked at Microsoft (MS).
HyperAccel is touting the LPU (LLM Processing Unit), an accelerator specialized for large language model (LLM) inference, as its flagship product. The LPU is a semiconductor optimized to speed up answer generation by Generative AI such as ChatGPT.
Its key edge is cost-effectiveness. Designed to use low-power DRAM (LPDDR) instead of high bandwidth memory (HBM), it aims to deliver performance comparable to existing graphics processing units (GPU) while achieving one-tenth the price and one-third the power.
While the valuation discussed in the market is up to 600 billion won, investor enthusiasm is strong. HyperAccel has already completed performance validation through its prototype chip "Adelia," and it is set to launch the next-generation LPU "Verda" in March.
Revenue visibility has also improved. HyperAccel is collaborating with Naver Cloud, and since Nov. last year it has partnered with LG Electronics to begin developing on-device AI accelerators.
An IB industry official said, "HyperAccel is cited as an AI fabless company following FuriosaAI and Rebellions," adding, "The fact that this is a mid-stage investment before full-fledged revenue begins is emerging as an attractive entry point for investors."
HyperAccel plans to channel the capital secured this time into mass production of the LPU Verda and development of on-device AI accelerators. By using Samsung Electronics' foundry at 4 nanometers (nm), it aims to gain a competitive edge in the global market.
A HyperAccel representative said, "It is true that we are pursuing a Series B to raise new funds," but noted, "The specific amount and the final timing remain fluid depending on the outcome of discussions."