Meta Platforms (Meta) is reported to be considering the acquisition of the South Korean AI semiconductor design startup Furiosa AI.
On the 11th (local time), U.S. economic media Forbes reported, citing sources, that Meta is in discussions to acquire Furiosa AI and that negotiations could be concluded as early as this month.
Furiosa AI is a fabless corporation (specializing in semiconductor design) that designs AI semiconductors for data centers, founded in 2017 by CEO Baek Joon-ho, who has a background at Samsung Electronics and AMD. After launching its first AI semiconductor, 'Warboy', in 2021, it unveiled its next-generation AI semiconductor, 'Renegade' (RNGD), in August of last year.
Currently, several corporations have shown interest in Furiosa AI, and Meta is reportedly one of them. Analysts suggest that the reason Meta is looking to acquire this company is to secure its own AI chip development capabilities.
Meta is currently incurring high expenses to purchase Nvidia AI chips in bulk and is working with Broadcom to develop custom AI chips. The company plans to invest up to $65 billion (about 93 trillion won) this year, including for AI research and the construction of new data centers.
Furiosa AI has raised about $115 million (approximately 167.1 billion won) to date and secured an additional 2 billion won from venture capital firm Krit Ventures earlier this month. Naver and DSC Investment participated in the initial funding, and CEO Baek Joon-ho is reported to hold an 18.4% equity stake in the company.