This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 4:56 p.m. on June 9, 2026.
FuriosaAI, an artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor startup that was named as the third corporations for direct investment by the Public Growth Fund, has set out to raise more than 1 trillion won in pre-IPO (pre-listing fundraising), including overseas money. It is understood to have received a letter of intent (LOI) from Mubadala, a "big player" in the global capital market.
There is a view that Mubadala's LOI was a key reason the Public Growth Fund and Korea Development Bank (KDB) moved first with 400 billion won. The Public Growth Fund's core principle is 1:1 matching of policy funds after securing private investment. However, because an LOI is nonbinding, some note that a final investment is uncertain.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 9th, FuriosaAI secured LOIs from overseas investors totaling more than 500 billion won during its pre-IPO fundraising. In particular, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) sovereign wealth funds Mubadala, which manages more than 480 trillion won in assets, is understood to have submitted a letter of intent worth about 400 billion won.
Mubadala is considered one of the big players favored not only by corporations but also by major domestic institutional investors. Ahn Seung-gu, former Director General of private equity investment at Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), leads the Korea investment team, and it is said that in some cases more than 100 billion won is invested or committed in a single investment.
There is an assessment that Mubadala's LOI also influenced the background to the Public Growth Fund's decision, together with the Industrial Bank, to directly invest 400 billion won in FuriosaAI. The Public Growth Fund invests an amount equal to the private money that corporations have first secured, but FuriosaAI was handled differently.
The Public Growth Fund showed a different approach in the FuriosaAI investment. For Rebellions and Upstage, which were the first and second direct investments, the Public Growth Fund's Fund Management Deliberation Committee required a letter of commitment (LOC) before its resolution and invested in line with the LOC amount, but in the case of FuriosaAI, it accepted an LOI instead.
On the 28th of last month, when the Public Growth Fund's Fund Management Deliberation Committee passed the resolution, FuriosaAI's LOCs secured from existing financial investors such as venture capital (VC) DSC Investment were understood to be only around 100 billion won. In effect, the Public Growth Fund approved a preemptive investment despite the lack of matching funds.
Some note that the decision to inject 400 billion won in policy funds ahead of time into FuriosaAI, whose private investors' LOCs amount to around 100 billion won, could lead to operational burdens. In particular, an LOI is, as the term suggests, merely a document expressing intent and reportedly does not impose legal liability even if the investment is not executed.
In the industry, the view is gaining ground that Mubadala may not execute the investment or may invest less than 400 billion won. Although Mubadala has built a Korea direct investment team and is accelerating the search for new targets, many say it has often backed out at the time of final execution after failing to pass the threshold of its Asia Investment Committee. Mubadala was also mentioned as a new FI candidate during FuriosaAI's Series C bridge round fundraising that began in mid-2024, but it backed out at the final investment stage.
Some also analyze that Mubadala or global VCs are expressing doubts about FuriosaAI's valuation. They say a 4 trillion won corporate value is excessive for a startup that logged 5.7 billion won in revenue and a 62.5 billion won operating loss last year.
FuriosaAI is said to be focusing on immediately securing 400 billion won in private money. In addition to DSC Investment, it added Naver, Korea Investment Partners, Woori Financial Group, and Hanwha Asset Management as participating FIs in the pre-IPO and received LOCs, but the 400 billion won private matching has yet to be raised.
An IB industry source said, "The Public Growth Fund's decision to directly invest in FuriosaAI appears to show some favoritism," adding, "If Mubadala does not change its LOI to an LOC and does not proceed with the final payment, controversy over the Public Growth Fund's operational fairness will be unavoidable."
Meanwhile, FuriosaAI is a fabless startup that designs AI semiconductor chips and was founded in 2017. It focuses on designing AI semiconductor chips specialized for inference, such as large language models (LLMs), and its representative product is the second-generation AI chip for running LLMs, "RNGD2," which is equipped with high bandwidth memory (HBM3).