FuriosaAI, a South Korean AI chipmaker, has rejected Meta’s $800 million acquisition offer to pursue its own chip development and raise $48 million in funding, signaling its commitment to independence and innovation in the competitive AI hardware space. (Source: Image by RR)

FuriosaAI’s Refusal of Meta Offer Highlights Strategic Vision Over Immediate Payout

South Korean AI chip startup FuriosaAI, according to a story in finance.yahoo.com, has declined an $800 million acquisition offer from Meta, choosing instead to continue independently developing its custom AI chips. According to local reports, the deal fell through not over pricing, but due to disagreements on business strategy and organizational structure post-acquisition.

Meta, like many other tech companies, is seeking to reduce its dependence on Nvidia for AI chip supply, especially as it scales efforts to build and train large language models (LLMs). Although Meta has launched its own AI chips and committed $65 billion to AI development this year, the failed acquisition underscores the challenges in aligning with external chip startups like FuriosaAI.

In parallel, FuriosaAI is reportedly in talks to raise approximately $48 million (KRW 70 billion) from investors, with a goal to complete the fundraising round by the end of the month. The startup is intensifying its efforts to build a competitive edge in the AI hardware space without the backing of a tech giant like Meta.

Founded in 2017 by June Paik, formerly of Samsung and AMD, FuriosaAI has already developed two AI chips—Warboy and Renegade (RNGD). It has completed testing RNGD in collaboration with LG AI Research and Aramco, with plans to formally launch the chip later this year, targeting inference and reasoning model workloads in AI infrastructure.

read more at finance.yahoo.com