Key points
- Rebellions is considering a Kosdaq listing, Maeil Business reported
- Valued at about 3.4 trillion won ($2.5B) in a March funding round
- Its founder had leaned toward the larger Kospi instead
- A listing could take place in the first half of 2027
Rebellions (리벨리온), a Korean AI chip designer, is considering a Kosdaq listing in the first half of 2027, Maeil Business (매일경제) reported on September 17. Two months ago its founder said he preferred the larger Kospi, so this is a change of plan. The Kosdaq is Korea's market for smaller and faster-growing technology companies.
Rebellions could file for a preliminary listing review with the Korea Exchange before the end of this year. The filing could even skip the outside technology evaluation that usually comes first. The Kosdaq has a fast-track rule for technology companies that allows this, but only for a company the exchange rates highly and values at 1 trillion won ($724M) or more. Rebellions was valued above that level in March, though the valuation alone does not make the company eligible. The exchange still runs its own listing review.
Rebellions designs chips that run a trained AI model to produce answers or other results. The company also sells the servers and racks that hold those chips. The Korean press often calls Rebellions the "K-Nvidia." Rebellions became Korea's most valuable AI chip startup in 2024, after merging with Sapeon Korea, an AI chip maker backed by SK Telecom.
Rebellions was valued at about 3.4 trillion won ($2.5B) in a pre-IPO funding round held in March. That round raised 640 billion won ($463M). The Korean government invested in the company directly for the first time, putting in 250 billion won ($181M) through its national growth fund, and the Korea Development Bank and Mirae Asset joined the round too. The government has named Rebellions the first company in its plan to build a homegrown answer to Nvidia.
Rebellions is run by Park Sung-hyun (박성현), who finished a computer science doctorate at MIT and worked at Intel, SpaceX, and Morgan Stanley before starting the company.
Why is Rebellions considering the Kosdaq?
Korea has two main stock markets. The Kospi holds the big names like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, while the Kosdaq is the junior market where technology companies usually list. In a July interview with foreign media, Park said he was aiming to list in the first half of 2027 and was looking at the Kospi first. Since then the Korea Exchange has been encouraging Rebellions toward the Kosdaq. Maeil Business reported that the company now sees it as the stronger choice, after weighing the state of the market and the Kosdaq's own push to bring in AI firms. Samsung Securities is leading the listing, and KB Securities recently joined the group of banks working on it in place of Korea Investment and Securities.
A larger role for AI and chip companies
Rebellions would join a Kosdaq that is changing. For years its largest companies were drug makers. This year chip companies have moved to the top. Jusung Engineering (주성엔지니어링), which makes equipment used to build chips, has risen about 636 percent in 2026 and is now the fourth-largest company on the market. Upstage (업스테이지), a Korean company that builds its own large AI language model, is also preparing to list there. Their listings would give AI companies a larger presence on the Kosdaq.
Rebellions has also started to look outside Korea. The company recently disclosed a plan to ship more than 100 of its server racks to a data center in Tokyo run by a Japanese AI company called ai&.
Won figures are converted at 1,382 won to the dollar, the Naver Finance rate on September 17, 2026.
