DSouth Korean AI chip startup eepX has raised $80 million in a Series C round at a valuation of $530 million.
The Series C was led by Skylake Equity Partners. The rest will come from South Korean private equity firms AJU IB Investment, BNW Investment and Timefolio Asset Management.
Skylake Equity Partners, another South Korean private equity firm, was founded by Jin Dae-jae, a former Samsung Electronics executive who was instrumental in building the company into the world's top memory chip maker by sales. being led.
“Skylake is investing in the best AI semiconductor companies,” DeepX founder and CEO Lokwon Kim said in a video interview. “They asked me to explain the technical details of his DeepX, and I actually understand it.” Skylake's previous investments include billionaire Kwak Dong-shin's chip equipment maker; These include Hanmi Semiconductor and billionaire Lee Soo-jin's travel super app Yanolja.
“We also met with many big companies in South Korea,” Kim added. “But we didn't want to receive investment from strategic investors right now because we want to offer our technology to all companies.”
The new funding will be used to develop a power-efficient AI chip, with mass production expected to begin by the end of this year. DeepX's chips are designed to run his AI models on the device itself without requiring a network connection to the cloud, reducing latency and increasing security. This chip can be used in cars, factories, robots, surveillance cameras, and electronic equipment.
“AI is huge right now, and people want to integrate that functionality into their devices,” says Kim, who worked at Apple before founding DeepX in 2018. “When electronic devices draw a lot of power, they overheat and shorten battery life. If it gets very short, it can cause serious problems for the device.” Kim said DeepX's chips are powered by Nvidia's It claims to be 10 to 20 times more power efficient than chips.
Kim said more than 100 companies around the world have expressed interest in DeepX's AI chips, including Hyundai Motor Robotics Lab and POSCO DX, the digital technology arm of South Korean steel giant POSCO.
Of course, DeepX isn't the only company designing power-efficient AI chips for devices. Competitors include Israel's Hailo and Silicon Valley's SiMa.ai, both of which raised funding last month. Hailo raises $120 million from Israeli investors, while SiMa.ai raises money from “Tiger Cub” hedge fund Maverick Capital, billionaire Steve Cohen's Point72, Dell Technologies Capital and others Raised $70 million.
DeepX is the latest AI startup in South Korea's semiconductor hub to raise funding even as venture capital deals slow globally. In recent months, SqueezeBits, which helps AI models run faster and at lower cost, has raised about $2 million in pre-Series A funding, and Rebellions, another AI chip startup, has raised $124 million in Series B funding. It raised $210 million, bringing its total funding to $210 million. —It has become the most capitalized startup of its kind in Japan.
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