KB Financial Group is joining hands with domestic AI chip company Rebellions to build next-generation AI financial infrastructure.
KB Financial said on Tuesday it signed a “strategic business partnership agreement” with domestic AI chip company Rebellions at the new building of KB Kookmin Bank in Yeouido, Seoul. It said the companies will push to build a next-generation AI and finance ecosystem.
The agreement was pursued to speed up KB Financial’s AI transformation and strengthen the competitiveness of financial infrastructure based on domestically developed AI technology as global competition for AI leadership intensifies. It is meaningful as a case in which a domestic financial holding company and an AI chip company have moved into strategic cooperation to build AI infrastructure.
Under the agreement, Rebellions will provide KB Financial with technology and products needed to build AI chip inference infrastructure. The two companies plan to jointly identify and apply AI use cases optimized for the financial services environment.
KB Financial will provide Rebellions with support for financial services and business operations. The two companies also agreed to jointly pursue cooperation tasks to develop the national AI ecosystem and strengthen the competitiveness of Korean-style AI infrastructure.
The cooperation was made as an extension of the partnership the two sides have maintained for several years. KB Financial formed a cooperative relationship by joining Rebellions’ Series A investment in 2022 through KB Investment. It then expanded cooperation by selecting Rebellions for its startup fostering program, “KB Starters”, in 2023.
KB Investment participated from Rebellions’ early-stage investment phase, and KB Securities later joined the investment from Series B. KB Financial affiliates have continued to invest through the Series C and pre-IPO stages, taking part in Rebellions’ growth process.
Rebellions has recently grown into a leading domestic AI chip company. It won a “new unicorn company award” for surpassing a 1 trillion won valuation at KB Financial’s “HUB Day” event this year, and it was recently selected as the first company for direct investment by the National Growth Fund after being valued at 3.4 trillion won.
Park Sung-hyun (박성현), CEO of Rebellions, said, “KB Financial is a partner that believed in Rebellions’ potential and supported us even before we proved our technological capabilities.” He added, “This agreement will be the starting point of a virtuous cycle in which technology nurtured by finance leads back to innovation in financial infrastructure.”
A KB Financial official said, “Rebellions is a partner that has grown together with us since its early days.” The official added, “With this agreement, we will expand cooperation with various AI and tech companies to strengthen AI competitiveness and secure global-level AI financial leadership.”