FuriosaAI's RNGD artificial intelligence accelerator / Courtesy of FuriosaAI

FuriosaAI, a Korean artificial intelligence (AI) chip startup, gained market attention on Wednesday following a report that U.S. tech giant Meta Platforms is in talks to acquire the company in a bid to lower its reliance on Nvidia's expensive AI processors.

Citing unnamed sources, Forbes reported on Tuesday that Meta is in discussions to acquire FuriosaAI, and the talks could conclude as early as this month.

FuriosaAI was unavailable for comment.

FuriosaAI is a fabless company specializing in developing data center accelerators catered to AI inference. In August last year, the company revealed its next-generation accelerator RNGD chip, claiming that it offered advantages in terms of price and power efficiency compared to similar products from Nvidia.

Forbes said the potential takeover could boost Meta's efforts for in-house chips amid a shortage of Nvidia accelerators and a growing demand for alternatives.

Meta last year introduced its in-house AI chip, MTIA, but is still in the early stages of achieving independence from Nvidia. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last month that it will spend up to $65 billion in 2025 to secure data center infrastructure and plans to deploy 1.3 million graphics processing units (GPUs) by the end of this year, meaning the company still faces daunting demands for AI processors.

Meta is assumed to be paying attention to FuriosaAI due to the RNGD chip's price and cost-efficiency. According to FuriosaAI, RNGD operates at a thermal design power of 150 watts, compared to up to 1,200 watts for cutting-edge GPUs. RNGD's price was not publicly available, but industry insiders assume it will cost $10,000 per unit, compared to $40,000 for Nvidia's H100.

Following the Forbes report, the share prices of FuriosaAI's investors spiked in the Korean stock market. DSC Investment and TS Investment both hit the upper limit of 30 percent on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market on Wednesday.