Nvidia in Collaboration Talks with a Chip Startup

Nvidia is in early discussions with Rebellions, a South Korean AI chip designer, regarding possible collaborations, including technical partnerships, investments, or potentially an acquisition. Jensen Huang, Nvidia's CEO, met with Rebellions co-founder and CEO Sunghyun Park at Nvidia's headquarters in Santa Clara, California, to discuss a potential tie-up. These talks remain preliminary and may not result in a transaction.

Huang has led an extensive investment push in recent years as Nvidia works to maintain its central position in the AI industry. In late 2025, Nvidia completed a $20 billion arrangement with US AI company Groq, securing a nonexclusive license while absorbing most of its engineering staff. Nvidia stated the deal did not constitute an acquisition, as Groq continues operating independently and running its own cloud business.

Rebellions, founded in 2020 and based in Bundang, South Korea, has raised approximately $850 million from investors including SK Hynix, Samsung Ventures, Arm Holdings, and SK Telecom. The company was most recently valued at around $2.3 billion in March following a $400 million pre-IPO round led by Mirae Asset Financial Group and the Korea National Growth Fund. Rebellions designs and deploys neural processing units for data centers, focusing on AI inference workloads, and has launched two AI chips since its founding.

The startup represents part of a growing group of semiconductor companies designing chips to compete with market leader Nvidia. The potential collaboration also aligns with South Korea's "K-Nvidia" initiative, which aims to build up the country's domestic AI chip industry.