HyperAccel

HyperAccel is a Seoul-based fabless semiconductor startup designing AI accelerators specialised for large-language-model inference. Founded in January 2023 by CEO Joo-Young Kim, a KAIST professor who previously worked at Microsoft, it is often described in Korea as the next AI-chip leader after FuriosaAI and Rebellions. Its flagship is the LPU, or LLM Processing Unit, which pairs a dedicated inference architecture with low-power LPDDR DRAM instead of high-bandwidth memory, targeting GPU-class LLM throughput at roughly a third of the power and at lower cost. The data-center chip Bertha is heading into mass production, and an on-device variant, Bertha-Edge, is aimed at robots and home appliances. The company works with Naver Cloud and LG Electronics, demonstrated Bertha at HOT CHIPS 2026, and was named to Forbes Asia's 100 To Watch 2026. It raised a KRW 55B Series A led by Korea Investment Partners at the end of 2024 at a reported valuation of about KRW 200B. In September 2026 it had effectively completed a KRW 200B Series B, co-led by Korea Investment Partners and Company K Partners and anchored by a KRW 50B strategic investment from game publisher Krafton, at a reported post-money of about KRW 800B; that round is scheduled to close in October 2026.