According to Korean media reports, some insiders revealed that Fadu, a Korean semiconductor startup, is undergoing Apple ’s supplier qualification certification.

On April 16, the source pointed out that Fadu is seeking to provide NAND flash memory controller for Apple's cloud data center. The report pointed out that if the company can obtain Apple's supplier qualification and reach an agreement with the latter, then this event will promote the startup to cooperate with other major global cloud computing companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon.

However, a person familiar with the matter said that due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the progress of Fadu's supplier qualification review seems to be delayed.

It is understood that Fadu was established in July 2015 as a fabless chip design company. Earlier, the company received a seed investment of 8 billion won from the SK Group; by the end of 2017, the Korea Development Bank, Company K Partners and other investment institutions made a Series A investment in Fadu with a value of 13.6 billion won.

As of the end of 2018, the company received another 20 billion won in Series B investment from Revert Partners. At the time, the chip startup had already received a total investment of 41.6 billion won.

In the second half of 2019, Fadu's valuation also soared from 60 billion won to about 300 billion won in the seed period, and Fadu is expected to receive more investment this year.

However, so far, Fadu has not released business data. It is reported that in 2019, the company's operating deficit reached 16.2 billion won. Korean media believes that the deal with Apple will change the fate of Fadu.