Nvidia in Talks with Korean AI Chip Designer Rebellions
Nvidia is in early talks with the Korean AI chip designer Rebellions about a potential technical partnership, investment, or acquisition, according to a Bloomberg report on August 21, 2026.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met Rebellions co-founder and CEO Sunghyun Park at Nvidia’s Santa Clara headquarters this week, sources told the news agency. The talks are preliminary and may not result in a deal.
This would be Nvidia’s fourth such arrangement within a year, after acquiring licenses for rival chip and model designs rather than outright buying companies.
Rebellions, founded in 2020, is based in Bundang, South Korea, and designs neural processing units (NPUs) for data centers, optimized for AI inference. Their products are used by customers in Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, according to DataCenterDynamics.
Nvidia has a history of this type of deal: acquiring a license, hiring key engineers, taking a stake, and allowing the original company to continue operating independently. They recently followed this template with Poolside and Groq.
Groq, acquired by Nvidia for $20bn in 2023, is now valued at only $3.5bn after raising $350mn at its latest funding round, highlighting the risks involved in such deals.
Nvidia already sells its own inference chip based on a Groq license, demonstrating that it can successfully integrate acquired technology into its product line.