Tech giants eye growing home appliances subscription market

Subscription services in the home appliances market are fast expanding in South Korea, with the country’s top players targeting younger and smaller households. LG Electronics, the country's leading home appliance giant, has achieved a record sales figure surpassing the 1-trillion-won ($ 736 billion) mark for its subscription service, and Samsung Electronics is also reviewing to launch a similar service for its home appliances in the latter half of the year. For 2023, LG Electronics re

Aug. 4, 2024

Samsung unveils 1 terabyte microSD storage cards

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chip maker, said Thursday it has launched two types of 1 terabyte high-capacity microSD cards: Pro Plus and Evo Plus. These new products incorporate the industry's highest capacity, 1-terabit triple-level cell eighth-generation V-NAND technology, stacked in eight layers. This technological advancement allows terabyte-class high capacity previously achievable only in SSDs to be implemented in the compact form factor of a microSD card, wit

Aug. 1, 2024

Samsung projects 15-fold surge in Q2 earnings on AI chip boom

Samsung Electronics said Wednesday that it will continue its earnings growth by expanding sales of the high-performance high bandwidth memory chip in the second half, particularly the fifth-generation HBM3E, to meet rising demand in the fast-growing artificial intelligence market. “Customer evaluation of the 8-layer HBM3E product is currently in progress, and mass production supply is scheduled to begin in earnest in the third quarter,” Kim Jae-june, executive vice president in cha

July 31, 2024

SK hynix to mass-produce GDDR7 DRAM chip in Q3

SK hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker, on Tuesday unveiled its next-generation GDDR7 graphics memory chip that boasts the industry’s most outstanding performance in terms of operating speed and power efficiency. The company said it will start mass production in the third quarter. GDDR is a type of high-performance memory commonly used in graphics cards. It has recently gained popularity as graphics cards are increasingly used to power artificial intelligence workloads

July 30, 2024

[Photo News] Sweet collaboration

Samsung Electronics on Monday unveiled its latest collaboration with US chocolate maker Hershey’s for its mobile device accessories from cases for foldable phones to watch straps. Starting from Korea, the products are set to hit shelves in overseas markets, including the US, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines, in phases in the coming weeks. (Samsung Electronics)

July 29, 2024

Can Samsung adapt to being a latecomer in HBM sector?

High bandwidth memory chips are becoming a headache for Samsung Electronics, as the world's No. 1 memory chip maker is months behind its crosstown rival SK hynix in supplying the profitable components to Nvidia, the dominant player in the burgeoning AI market. Samsung’s fourth-generation HBM3 chips have reportedly been cleared for use by Nvidia recently, but SK hynix, the No. 2 in the memory chip market, has supplied it with more advanced fifth-generation HBM3E chips since March this

July 28, 2024

SK hynix confirms W9.4tr investment in Yongin Cluster's 1st fab

SK hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker, said it has decided to invest about 9.4 trillion won ($6.77 billion) in building the first manufacturing plant and business facilities of the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster in a board meeting on Friday. The chipmaker plans to start construction of the first fab in the Yongin cluster in March next year, and complete it in May 2027. The envisioned manufacturing plant will produce next-generation DRAM, including High Bandwidth Memory, a rep

July 26, 2024

Samsung may supply advanced image sensors for Apple: analyst

Samsung Electronics may supply its advanced camera sensors for Apple, ending Sony’s longstanding rein as an exclusive supplier to the global tech giant, according to a supply chain analyst. According to Ming-Chi Kuo, a supply chain analyst at TF International Securities, Samsung is expected to “begin shipping its 1/2.6-inch 48MP ultra-wide CMOS image censors (CIS) as early as 2026.” “To this end, Samsung has established a dedicated team to serve Apple” the analyst w

July 26, 2024

LG Electronics achieves record earnings in Q2

LG Electronics said Thursday it achieved its all-time high quarterly earnings in the April-June period this year, largely buoyed by the solid growth of its home appliance and vehicle component businesses. Sales increased 8.5 percent on-year to 21.7 trillion won ($15.7 billion) in the second quarter of this year, while operating profits soared 61.2 percent to 1.2 trillion won during the same period. The company attributed the upbeat earnings to the "balanced" management of its core busi

July 25, 2024

SK hynix Q2 earnings soar to record high on AI chip boom

SK hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker by revenue, said Thursday it logged all-time-high sales of 16.4 trillion won ($11.8 billion) in the April-June period this year, riding on the robust demand for artificial intelligence chips. Reporting the second quarter's earnings, the company said it will supply the cutting-edge 12-layer HBM3E chips to customers before the end of the year, keeping its dominance in the burgeoning AI chip market. The operating profit posted 5.46 trilli

July 25, 2024

[Business Diplomacy] Korea becomes popular destination for US governors

South Korea seems to have been a popular destination for US state governors. This year alone, four governors leading the US industrial heartlands of the Midwest and the South visited Korea to meet with corporate partners and attract new investors. “We're very excited about the relationship that we have built with Korea and Korean companies and we want it to grow,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said upon his first visit to Korea in July. “If there are ways that we can improve

July 24, 2024

Seomjae to debut AI-powered math program at CES 2025

Seomjae, a Seoul-based education solutions developer, is set to launch officially its AI Retrieval-Augmented Generation model-based mathematics learning program at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next January. In preparation for the launch, Seomjae announced on Tuesday that it completed gathering beta testers for the program. The beta test, starting on July 29 and lasting about a month, will involve 50 students from Seoul, Ulsan, and Boston. The program, developed over two years by a

July 23, 2024

Founder's arrest leaves Kakao's future in doubt

Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea's top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, has been plunged into crisis, as its founder and top decision-maker Kim Beom-su was arrested on Tuesday on charges of stock price rigging linked to last year's takeover of K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment. With a leadership vacuum and a dent to its reputation, concerns are rising over the impact of the disruption on the tech giant’s drive for corporate restructuring and growth in burgeoning technologies i

July 23, 2024

Samsung Electro-Mechanics to supply advanced substrates for AMD processors

Samsung Electro-Mechanics, the electronic parts manufacturing affiliate of Samsung Electronics, announced Monday that it would supply high-performance substrates for hyper-scale data centers to AMD, the US chip design firm. According to the company, the flip chip ball grid array (FCBGA) substrate offers larger surface areas and higher layer counts for dense interconnections, which means better operational efficiency and lower energy consumption. The product will be produced at the company’

July 22, 2024

LG Innotek unveils new digital key solution for cars

LG Innotek said Monday that it has developed a more advanced digital key solution for smartphone-based vehicle control. The technology uses wireless communication to connect with smartphones, allowing users to unlock and start their vehicles without carrying a key, thus reducing the risk of key loss and enhancing security. Since launching its first automotive digital key module in 2021, the company has continued upgrading the technology. The new next-generation solution combines the previous mod

July 22, 2024

Is Samsung on track for large-scale M&A deals?

Samsung Electronics is seen ramping up its merger and acquisition efforts to secure a stronger footing in the rising technology sectors, including artificial intelligence. The South Korean tech giant, leading in mobile devices and semiconductors, announced Thursday its acquisition of Oxford Semantic Technologies, a UK-based startup specializing in knowledge graph technology. It is the first time the company makes such an investment via Samsung Research, its research and development hub. The deal

July 21, 2024

10 Korean companies on recovery from Microsoft IT outage

Following the mass global tech outage linked to Microsoft that disrupted critical public services and grounded planes, 10 companies affected in Korea have restored their operations or are on their way to recovery, said industry officials on Sunday. A faulty update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike was released worldwide to Microsoft's Windows operating systems on Friday, resulting in “blue screen of death” crashes and systems being knocked offline in airports, hospitals and

July 21, 2024

Will Galaxy Ring renew Samsung-Apple rivalry?

Competition between global tech rivals Samsung Electronics and Apple for domination of the burgeoning digital health care market heats up as elderly populations grow rapidly in many parts of the world. Samsung considers digital health care as a future growth engine. The strategy is to put health management app Samsung Health at the forefront and use the Galaxy Watch series as a pivotal element, particularly highlighting its sleep management feature. Last week, the Korean tech giant unveiled the

July 19, 2024

Samsung sees fewer preorders for Galaxy Z foldable phones

Preorders for Samsung Electronics’ new foldable smartphones have topped 910,000 units in South Korea, a decline from 1.02 million preorders for their predecessors last year, according to the tech giant on Friday. Ahead of the official release of the Galaxy Z Flip6 and Fold6 on July 24, Samsung accepted preorders for the new phones for a week until Thursday in Korea. Despite a nearly 10 percent decline from last year, consumers in their 20s and 30s – Samsung’s target audience &n

July 19, 2024

LG eyes W1tr sales in smart factory solutions by 2030

LG Electronics said Thursday it has set a goal of achieving over 1 trillion won ($724 million) in sales in the smart factory solutions business by 2030, by integrating artificial intelligence and digital transformation technologies as well as manufacturing and production data. “Despite it being the inaugural year of operation, substantial progress has already been made,” said Song Si-yong, a smart factory business division leader of LG PRI (Production Engineering Research Institute),

July 18, 2024