FuriosaAI, a South Korean AI chip startup, has raised US$125 million in series C bridge funding, bringing its total funding to US$246 million.

The Seoul-based company designs AI chips and is valued at US$735 million, according to a company statement.

Investors in this round include Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, Kakao Investment, Keistone Partners, and PI Partners.

FuriosaAI plans to use the funds to ramp up production of its RNGD inference chip and develop its next-generation chip.

FuriosaAI was founded in 2017 and is led by June Paik.

The company’s chips use HBM3 memory from SK Hynix and are manufactured with TSMC’s 5-nanometer process.

LG AI Research recently adopted FuriosaAI’s chip for its EXAONE large language models and enterprise AI agent, ChatExaone.

In 2024, the company reported a revenue decline of 18.3% to 3 billion won (US$2.3 million), with net losses doubling to 152.2 billion won (US$109 million).

🔗 Source: Forbes

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Government support transforms South Korea into AI chip powerhouse

FuriosaAI’s ability to raise $125 million and reject Meta’s $800 million acquisition offer reflects South Korea’s significant state investment in becoming self-sufficient in semiconductors.

The Korean government announced a $23 billion support package for its chip industry in 2025, including $14 billion in financial assistance for domestic manufacturers like Samsung and SK Hynix 1.

This builds on an even larger $450 billion K-Semiconductor Strategy launched to create a complete semiconductor ecosystem by 2030 2.

The strategy appears to be working, as South Korea now controls over 50% of the global high-bandwidth memory market, with HBM projected to reach $2.3 billion by 2025 2.

These investments illustrate how startups like FuriosaAI can compete with global giants despite South Korea’s relatively small 50 million population, leveraging state backing alongside private capital to challenge established players like Nvidia.

Recent FuriosaAI developments