Valuation Quadruples in Six Months: AI Fuels Chip Startup Boom

*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an 'AI-based personalized news recommendation and summarization service' developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news articles for each reader type.

1. AIO, Riding Semiconductor Tailwind, Becomes Unicorn After 15 Years

- Key Summary: AIO, a fabless company specializing in NAND flash controllers, has joined the ranks of unicorn companies 15 years after its founding. This came as a major domestic asset management firm recently valued the company at 1.2 trillion won and invested more than 50 billion won. AIO was valued at around 200 billion to 300 billion won earlier this year, but its valuation has more than quadrupled in six months. This is the result of increased NAND flash demand from the spread of AI combining with improved earnings, with the company recording revenue of 150 billion won and operating profit of 45 billion won in the first half of this year.

2. 300 Robots Controlled at Hyundai Motor (005380) U.S. Plant…Novatech Attracts 7 Billion Won Investment

- Key Summary: Novatech, an integrated control software company for industrial robots, received 7 billion won in investment from Hyundai Motor Group's ZER01NE and others. Novatech operates a system that integrates the control of more than 300 logistics robots across 12 types at Hyundai Motor Group's plant in Georgia, U.S., and plans to use the funds to advance its physical AI platform "Piper." Separately, on the same day, Nums AI, which develops a tabular foundation model (TFM), attracted 4 billion won led by Stonebridge Ventures, while new drug developer Fraser Therapeutics secured a 50 billion won pre-IPO equity investment. As a result, startup investment is following one after another across various fields including robotics, AI, and bio.

3. From Logistics Transport to Tourism Shuttles…Autonomous Driving Startups Broaden Their Stage

- Key Summary: Domestic autonomous driving startups are accelerating their service expansion in the logistics and tourism sectors. Mas Auto, a large-truck autonomous driving startup, will begin paid trailer transport connecting Busan Port and logistics centers during August, having received approval from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport for autonomous operation of large freight vehicles. Meanwhile, Autonomous a2z has successively won a demonstration project for tourism-specialized autonomous shuttles in Chungju and a circular shuttle bus project in Dangjin, and the cumulative operating distance of its autonomous shuttle "ROii" has surpassed 1 million km. RideFlux has also partnered with Hanjin (002320) delivery to begin autonomous truck freight transport on the Gunsan-Daejeon route, with demonstration and commercialization competition continuing across the industry.

4. HyperExcel, Valued at 1 Trillion Won, Joins IPO Lineup…K-Fabless Big Season Opens

- Key Summary: HyperExcel, an AI chip (LPU) developer specialized in large language model (LLM) inference, is pursuing an initial public offering (IPO). HyperExcel is conducting a Series B funding round worth 200 billion won, and once the fundraising is complete, its expected valuation is around 850 billion won, with its corporate value observed to exceed 1 trillion won when pursuing the IPO. In addition, Mobilint, a neural processing unit (NPU) design company, is also accelerating its IPO roadmap, while other K-fabless companies including FuriosaAI and Rebellions are gearing up to list. The government's policy to nurture the domestic NPU industry is also lending support to fabless companies' IPO drives.

5. Vision AI That Caught Drowsy Driving…Now Sorts Out Defective Products at Factories

- Key Summary: "AIMNet," a vision AI developed by venture company AIMatics, is expanding its range of use beyond safe driving management to defect detection at manufacturing sites. AIMatics' safe driving management device "Roadscope" is installed in more than 6,300 vehicles nationwide, including Samsung Electronics commuter buses, proving its accident prevention effect, and in 2024 the company unveiled its appearance inspection equipment "AIM-T1," which was introduced at the Vietnam plant of its parent company Dreamtech (192650). As a result, the defect detection rate was close to 100%, and productivity on the line rose 26%. Accordingly, the company is expanding exports targeting overseas production bases using the Dreamtech case as a springboard, and last month established its first overseas subsidiary in Bac Ninh Province, Vietnam.

6. "Discounts With Just One Share"…Dalba Opens Shareholder-Perk Own Mall

- Key Summary: Dalba Global (483650), which operates vegan beauty brand Dalba, will officially open Korea's first web-based shareholder-exclusive own mall on the 3rd of next month. Previously, it was only available on the mobile trading systems (MTS) of four securities firms, but going forward it will be accessible on PC and mobile web regardless of the securities firm, improving convenience. In addition, anyone holding just one share can sign up, and the company divides members into three tiers—First, Royal, and Signature—based on the number of shares held, providing differentiated benefits. Meanwhile, during pre-operation conducted since May this year, the average repurchase rate was 35.5%, about twice as high as other e-commerce channels.