Key points: The company's CEO has indicated a preference for a listing on South Korea's main KOSPI board over the junior KOSDAQ market. Rebellions is one of many startups competing for a share of the AI inference chip market.

The CEO of Rebellions has exclusively revealed that, capitalizing on intense global investor interest in AI chips, the company plans to complete its initial public offering in South Korea in the first or second quarter of next year.

Park Sung-hyun, CEO of Rebellions, stated that the company favors a listing on the main KOSPI index over the KOSDAQ market.

In an interview on Wednesday, he said, "We are now generating stable, actual revenue, so we are preparing for the IPO together with our underwriters JPMorgan and Samsung Securities."

He added, "Our investors are more optimistic about the Korean market, particularly favoring the KOSPI board. We are deeply involved in a major national-level government project in Korea, which is one of the world's largest AI infrastructure investment plans, making our development highly aligned."

Park Sung-hyun noted that the company is also evaluating other options, including a U.S. listing, and is currently in discussions with both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.

Previous reports had mentioned Rebellions' preparations for an IPO, but this interview marks the first time the company has disclosed specific details of its listing plans.

Inference Chip Market Heats Up

Backed by investors including Samsung, SK Hynix, and key South Korean government industrial funds, Rebellions is among the many startups vying for position in the AI inference chip market. Inference refers to the phase where AI large language models are deployed and run. As major companies race to develop advanced AI agents, the strategic value of inference chips continues to rise.

While Nvidia GPUs have long been the industry standard for training large models, the sector is increasingly seeking specialized inference chips that offer both high-speed computing and low power consumption.

Rebellions' second-generation product, the Rebel-Quad, is comprised of four of its self-developed Rebel AI chips. The South Korean chip company aims to compete with giants like Nvidia in the AI chip arena, primarily selling complete computing server systems equipped with its proprietary Rebel100 Neural Processing Unit (NPU).

Capital markets continue to favor semiconductor companies, with chips being the core hardware foundation for AI industry development. Rebellions' push for an IPO coincides with this favorable industry trend. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which covers numerous chip firms, has risen approximately 80% year-to-date.

Other industry peers are also capitalizing on the investment fervor: earlier this year, inference chip startup Cerebras Systems completed its public listing in the United States.

Meanwhile, global leading memory chip maker SK Hynix is set to list on the Nasdaq in the U.S. this week, aiming to capture market investment enthusiasm for memory chips; the company is already listed on the South Korean stock exchange.