SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang (left) and Rebellions CEO Park Sung-hyun shake hands at Rebellions headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. (SK Telecom)

Artificial intelligence startup Rebellions and Sapeon Korea officially signed a merger, signaling the birth of the country's first AI unicorn, SK Telecom, Sapeon Korea’s parent company, said Sunday.

Rebellions, a fabless chip designer valued at 900 billion won ($664 million), and Sapeon Korea, the AI chip supplier for data centers valued at 550 billion won, have joined hands to carve out a spot in the global AI chip market that is currently dominated by US-based graphic processing unit maker Nvidia. The global AI chip market was valued at $34.3 billion in 2023, and Nvidia took 94 percent of the market share.

Rebellions and Sapeon Korea plan to launch the merged corporation before the end of the year.

The two companies agreed to a corporate value ratio of 1:2.4 for Sapeon Korea and Rebellions. The newly merged company is expected to exceed 1 trillion won in corporate value and become the country's first "unicorn" company in the AI sector.

Sapeon Korea will remain the surviving company, but the merged company's name will be Rebellions. Rebellions co-founder and CEO Park Sung-hyun, who led the rapid growth of the startup, will be in charge of management.

“This merger was possible because of the strong determination and support of the investors and major business partners of both companies," Park said.

“We are starting the real game, and we will demonstrate our strength as Korea’s top firm in the AI chip war, which is more intense than ever.”

To ensure the stable operation of the merged company by Rebellions management, shareholders of Sapeon Korea, consisting of SK Telecom, SK hynix and SK Square, will sell 3 percent of their shares -- based on the post-merger stakes -- for Rebellion executives to maintain their position as largest shareholders.

Promising preemptive investment and support, SKT CEO Ryu Young-sang said, “With the merger, we will be able to boost the competitive edge in the global AI chip market, which is one of the three main parts of SKT’s AI value chain.”

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)