AI Chip Startup FuriosaAI Rejects Meta’s $800 Million Acquisition Offer

South Korean chip startup FuriosaAI has rejected Meta Platforms’ $800 million acquisition offer and opted to maintain independent development. Due to the confidentiality of the matter, the person requested anonymity. FuriosaAI representatives declined to comment. And Meta officials were unable to be immediately contacted outside of working hours on Sunday.
FuriosaAI is one of the few Asian startups that has attracted Meta’s attention. The company is led by June Paik, a former executive of Samsung Electronics and AMD, and focuses on the development of AI inference chips. Since its establishment eight years ago, its second-generation processor RNGD (codenamed “Renegade”) is challenging industry leaders Nvidia and competitors such as Groq, SambaNova Systems, and Cerebras Systems.
Affected by this news, the main investor, South Korean venture capital firm DSC Investment, saw its stock price plummet by over 16% on Monday. After rumors of Meta’s acquisition surfaced in February, the stock experienced a significant increase.

Meta is investing heavily in AI infrastructure construction to compete with companies such as OpenAI, Google, and DeepSeek. In mid January, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he would invest up to $65 billion this year, including building data centers and expanding his AI team. A week later, he revealed to investors that the final investment in AI infrastructure may reach hundreds of billions of dollars.
Meta is developing its own chip for advertising recommendation systems on Facebook and Instagram. After launching the first customized AI inference chip in 2023, an upgraded version was released last year.
According to informed sources, FuriosaAI plans to conduct a new round of financing before launching its IPO. It may complete the C-round expansion financing within about a month, with an amount exceeding the expected target. Currently, of the company’s approximately 150 employees, 15 are located in its Silicon Valley office, and its chip samples have been provided to customers such as LG Group’s AI research department and Saudi Aramco. About 12 customers participated in product testing in the first half of the year.
The latest chip RNGD adopts TSMC’s 5-nanometer process technology and is equipped with the HBM3 storage chip provided by SK Hynix.