FuriosaAI raises $620M to challenge Nvidia

South Korean AI chip startup FuriosaAI has raised $620 million, lifting its valuation to $2.9 billion. The round was led by South Korea's National Growth Fund with $280 million, joined by Cisco Investments, Abu Dhabi-based NeoFort Holdings, and others. FuriosaAI's Tensor Contraction Processor chips use less than half the power of Nvidia's GPUs by minimizing data movement through deterministic execution. Customers include LG Group, Upstage, and Samsung SDS. The company plans to produce 20,000 chips this year and 40,000 in 2027, while co-developing a third-generation processor with Broadcom.