South Korea's FuriosaAI Raises $620 Million Series D at $2.9 Billion Valuation

SEOUL — South Korean AI chip developer FuriosaAI said on Thursday, October 29, that it has closed a $620 million Series D funding round (about 820 billion won) at a post-money valuation of $2.9 billion, roughly four times its previous valuation of $735 million. The company said it is the largest funding round ever raised by a South Korean startup; the round had initially targeted 450 billion to 750 billion won, but strong interest from domestic and international investors pushed it above target.

Who backed the round

The largest investor is South Korea's National Growth Fund, which contributed $280 million (about 370 billion won). Among overseas investors, US-based Infinitum Partners put in the largest amount; Infinitum co-led Groq's $650 million funding round in June. Other new backers include Singapore's QUDA Capital, Abu Dhabi-based NeoFort Holding, Cisco Investments, and US firms Jericho Capital and Worldline Capital. Existing shareholders including NAVER, Korea Development Bank, DSC Investment and Kakao Investment also followed on, and the Export-Import Bank of Korea made its first direct investment in a startup.

Where the money goes: RNGD and a third-generation chip

Founded in 2017, FuriosaAI focuses on AI inference chips. Its second-generation chip, RNGD, entered mass production in January this year and is being deployed commercially with partners including LG AI Research, Samsung SDS, Upstage and Daum. TSMC is reported to be producing 20,000 RNGD chips for the company this year, rising to more than 40,000 in 2027. The company said the new funds will accelerate RNGD's global commercialization and advance a third-generation AI accelerator it is developing with Broadcom.

Why investors are betting on inference

Nvidia chips dominate AI data centers, but as growing AI demand drives up electricity consumption, investors are hunting for more energy-efficient alternatives, and cutting inference costs has become a key focus of industry competition. FuriosaAI's pitch is to reduce power-hungry data movement during chip operation to win share in Nvidia's market. Founder and CEO June Paik said the round will fund the move from production ramp to customer scale.