AI chip startup FuriosaAI reportedly turns down $800M acquisition offer from Meta

FuriosaAI, a South Korean startup that makes chips for AI applications, has rejected an $800 million acquisition offer from Meta, opting instead to focus on developing and producing its AI chips, according to a local media report.

Disagreements over post-acquisition business strategy and organizational structure, rather than price issues, caused the negotiations to break down, the report said.

Along with other tech companies building large language models (LLMs) for various AI applications, Meta has been trying to reduce its reliance on Nvidia for chips that are specialized for training and building LLMs. The tech giant last year unveiled its custom AI chips, and in January said it would invest up to $65 billion this year to support its AI initiatives.

FuriosaAI did not respond to a request for comment. Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

Meanwhile, FuriosaAI is reportedly in talks with investors to raise approximately $48 million (KRW 70 billion), and aims to complete the fundraise this month.

Founded in 2017 by June Paik, who previously worked at Samsung Electronics and AMD, FuriosaAI has developed two AI chips, called Warboy and Renegade (RNGD), to take on the likes of Nvidia and AMD.

The startup has said it has completed testing the RNGD chips, which are said to be best suited for reasoning models, in partnership with LG AI Research and Aramco. LG AI Research reportedly plans to use RNGD chips in its AI infrastructure, and the startup plans to launch the chips later this year.