Meta Offered $800M – This AI Chip Startup Said No.
FuriosaAI just made a gutsy calland investors should take note. The Seoul-based AI chip startup turned down an $800 million acquisition offer from Meta (NASDAQ:META), choosing to chart its own course instead of getting absorbed by Big Tech. Talks reportedly collapsed not over money, but over how the company would be run post-acquisition. FuriosaAI, founded by June Paik (ex-Samsung, ex-AMD (NASDAQ:AMD)), has been quietly building serious firepower: its second-gen chip, RNGD, uses TSMCs 5nm process and SK Hynixs HBM3 memory to take on Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Groq, and Cerebras in AI inferencing. The chips already in trials with LG AI Research and Aramcoand it’s set to launch later this year.
Rather than cash out, FuriosaAI is now raising around $48 million to fuel its next phase of growthlikely a lead-up to an IPO. It’s one of the few Asian startups to catch Metas eye, and it’s betting big on staying independent. That decision has real consequences: shares of DSC Investment, a key early backer, dropped over 16% after the Meta deal fell through. Meanwhile, Meta is moving full steam ahead with its $65 billion AI infrastructure push, building its own chips to lessen reliance on Nvidia. But with FuriosaAI staying privatefor nowthe chip wars just got a lot more interesting in Asia.
The bigger picture? This is a signal shift. Emerging chipmakers arent just waiting to be boughttheyre gunning for market share. FuriosaAIs refusal could inspire a new wave of homegrown challengers in the AI hardware race, especially across Asia. And for investors watching the next generation of semiconductor disruption unfold, this might be the one to keep on your radar.
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Meta Offered $800M – This AI Chip Startup Said No., source
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