Forbes "Meta in Talks to Acquire Korean Fabless Startup 'PuriosaAI'"

Citing Sources on the 11th (Local Time)

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, is arriving in Seoul through the Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, on February 27 last year. Forbes reported on the 11th (local time) that Meta is discussing the acquisition of Puriosa AI, a Korean artificial intelligence (AI) chip design startup. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms (Meta) is reportedly in talks to acquire the South Korean AI chip design startup Puriosa AI, according to the US economic media Forbes on the 11th (local time).

Forbes cited sources saying that the acquisition discussions could be concluded as early as this month.

Puriosa AI is a fabless startup specializing in developing AI inference computation semiconductors for data center servers. It was founded in 2017 by CEO Baek Jun-ho, a former engineer at Samsung Electronics and the US semiconductor company AMD. After unveiling its first AI semiconductor 'Warboy' in 2021, the company revealed its next-generation AI semiconductor 'Renegade (RNGD)' in August last year.

Puriosa AI is currently attracting interest from multiple companies, and Meta is said to be one of them, according to sources.

Meta's interest in this startup is interpreted as part of its efforts to develop its own AI chips. Meta is currently purchasing NVIDIA's AI chips at a huge cost. In addition, it is collaborating with US semiconductor company Broadcom to develop its own customized AI chips.

Meta has announced plans to invest up to $65 billion (93 trillion KRW) this year for AI and large-scale new data center construction.

Puriosa AI has raised approximately $115 million (167.1 billion KRW) to date, and earlier this month secured an additional 2 billion KRW investment from venture capital firm Crit Ventures. Naver and Korean investment company DSC Investment participated in the initial funding round, and CEO Baek is known to hold an 18.4% stake.