South Korean artificial intelligence chip startup DeepX announced its initial public offering plans on April 14. CEO Lokwon Kim stated that after completing the current funding round in the first half of the year, the company will formally select banks to underwrite its IPO. DeepX will prioritize a domestic listing in South Korea while remaining open to a subsequent U.S. listing. According to informed sources, DeepX has already hired Morgan Stanley to assist with pre-IPO fundraising ahead of a potential 2027 IPO, indicating that preparation work has been underway for at least a year.
Founded in 2018 by former Apple and Cisco Systems engineer Lokwon Kim, DeepX is headquartered in South Korea and specializes in the research, development, and design of edge AI chips. To date, the company has raised approximately $115 million in total funding. In May 2024, DeepX completed a Series C funding round of about $80 million, led by SkyLake Equity Partners, resulting in a post-money valuation of approximately $529 million. DaeJe Chin, founder of SkyLake Equity Partners and a former South Korean Minister of Information and Communication and Samsung Electronics executive, is widely known in the industry as "Mr. Semiconductor." Analysts suggest that the deep involvement of investors with such industry backgrounds reflects DeepX's strong resource network and recognition within South Korea's semiconductor ecosystem. The company currently employs about 65 people and holds over 259 related patents. Its first-generation edge AI chip, the DX-M1, entered mass production in July 2025.
The edge AI chip sector, where DeepX operates, is seen as a key direction for extending artificial intelligence from the cloud to edge computing. Edge AI chips perform AI computing tasks locally on devices, eliminating the need to upload data to the cloud or data centers, thereby achieving lower latency, higher energy efficiency, and stronger data privacy protection. DeepX has built a product portfolio of four chips—DX-V1, DX-V3, DX-M1, and DX-H1—covering consumer electronics, AI computing boxes, and AI servers, with a focus on low power consumption and high energy efficiency. According to Research Nester, the global edge AI hardware market is projected to reach approximately $27-28 billion in 2025, grow to around $33 billion in 2026, and potentially exceed $120 billion by 2035, representing a compound annual growth rate of about 17.9%. A report from Soochow Securities notes that edge AI is the "first entry point for large models moving from computing centers to the physical world," with core application scenarios including automotive, Internet of Things, and embodied intelligence. Lokwon Kim has previously commented, "Running AI solely in data centers has led to GPU power consumption surpassing the total electricity usage of some countries. An edge-cloud collaborative architecture can significantly reduce energy consumption and operational costs."
DeepX has made progress in commercial validation. Through a three-year strategic partnership with Hyundai Motor Group, the jointly developed edge AI chip "Edge Brain" was unveiled at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January 2026 and has entered mass production. This chip consumes less than 5 watts of power and enables real-time environmental perception and autonomous decision-making in robot terminals without requiring a cloud connection. Hyundai Motor Group plans to deploy it in service robots for hospitals and hotels, and further expand into AI security solutions and next-generation mobile robotics. In collaboration with Chinese tech giant Baidu, DeepX has signed a contract to supply 40,000 AI semiconductors for robots, drones, and factory automation equipment, with mass production commencing this year. DeepX has also joined the ecosystem of Baidu's open-source deep learning framework, PaddlePaddle. Commercial expansion data shows that DeepX secured 27 purchase orders from eight countries within seven months, is currently conducting pre-production validation with over 100 global companies, and has established a cooperative ecosystem with more than 20 independent chip design firms in the U.S., South Korea, mainland China, and Taiwan. Domestically, its solutions are already being used in POSCO's DX factory automation systems and Hanjin's express delivery automation systems.
DeepX is not the only South Korean AI company seeking to go public. AI chip unicorn Rebellions is expected to apply for a preliminary listing review in August of this year, with Samsung Securities and Korea Investment & Securities acting as lead underwriters. AI software firm Upstage plans to submit its listing application within the year, targeting a valuation between 2 trillion and 4 trillion won. Another AI chip company, Furiosa AI, is conducting its final pre-IPO funding round. Analysts at Heungkuk Securities project that South Korea's IPO market will reach a total scale of 7.2 trillion won in 2026, a year-on-year increase of approximately 50%, with about 86 new listings, marking the most active IPO window since 2021.
DeepX's IPO push is seen as a landmark event for the development of South Korea's AI chip sector. Its strategy of listing domestically first, followed by a potential U.S. listing, aligns closely with peers like Rebellions, reflecting both improved valuation conditions for tech stocks in the local capital market and government policy guidance. On the policy front, the South Korean government plans to invest 50 trillion won over the next five years into the AI and semiconductor sectors, with 10 trillion won allocated for this year. Such policy support has somewhat altered the traditional tendency for South Korean tech startups to prioritize U.S. listings. However, the Financial Supervisory Service has simultaneously tightened listing review standards, with the preliminary approval rate dropping from around 70% to about 60%, indicating that the path to listing remains uncertain.
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