S. Korea to spend W200b for R&D digitalization

South Korea will spend 200 billion won ($144 million) on digital integration strategy projects over the next five years to shorten the time researchers take to solve complex problem surrounding new technologies by decades, the Ministry of Science said Tuesday. According to the ministry, the government will use the financial support for projects that integrate artificial intelligence, digital twin and big data into developing diagnoses of diseases such as intractable cancer and dementia, nine ne

Sept. 20, 2022

Korean battery makers set for growth as demand outside China soars

Three major South Korean battery cell makers -- LG Energy Solution, SK On and Samsung SDI -- are projected to see steady growth in revenue and profitability in the next few years as they race to meet the growing demand for secondary batteries to power electric vehicles in the United States, data showed Tuesday. The three companies' combined revenue will reach $121 billion by 2025, up nearly fivefold from the $27 billion recorded in 2021, according to Korea-based battery market tracker

Sept. 20, 2022

Korea Herald to hold forum on tech reshaping humanity

The Korea Herald, the nation’s largest English newspaper by circulation, will hold its annual business forum on Oct. 19 to shed light on the latest technology trends that could change the way people live and the ways to make the transition smooth and effective. Under the theme of “Humanity in Tech,” the forum invites policymakers, industry leaders and diplomats to discuss what technological advances mean for people-to-people exchanges and the life adjustments needed to make the

Sept. 19, 2022

Memory chip downtrend haunts Samsung, SK hynix

South Korean semiconductor stocks are treading on a bumpy road as slowing orders in the chip industry plaguing memory powerhouses Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have dampened prospects. Since January, Samsung Electronics' share price has fallen nearly 30 percent, while its hometown rival SK hynix has seen its share price drop over 30 percent. On top of this, stock analysts are revising down the price target of the two memory chip giants, and expecting the quarterly profit to turn slimmer

Sept. 19, 2022

Celltrion’s anticancer biosimilar Vegzelma gets sales approval in UK

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency -- the UK’s drug authorization body -- has granted Celltrion sales approval for oncology biosimilar Vegzelma in the country, the South Korean company announced Monday. According to Celltrion, Vegzelma was authorized for the treatment of multiple types of cancer including metastatic breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer and cervical cancer. The UK approval came a month after Vegzelma received a green light from th

Sept. 19, 2022

State review on national R&D projects to be shortened

South Korea will cut down the time it takes to complete the review process for national research and development projects to 4 1/2 months from the current seven-month period to secure the timeliness of certain projects, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Friday, as it announced the revised policies to enhance the country’s preliminary feasibility study for R＆D projects. According to the ministry, projects that will be subject to the new review policy will be limited to those that pass th

Sept. 18, 2022

Korean drugmakers unfazed by Biden order to beef up US bio sector

US President Joe Biden’s executive order on bolstering the country's biotechnology and biomanufacturing sectors with over $2 billion in spending will not dampen the outlook for the South Korean bio industry, according to industry insiders and analysts. The US-first initiative could rather serve as an opportunity for Korean companies, they said. “The US’ move appears to be another attempt to solidify the ‘made-in-America’ efforts, similar to the electric vehicle and

Sept. 18, 2022

Samsung chip plants look to stamp out carbon footprint

Chip factories have long been considered the biggest culprit in the computing industry behind climate change. Advancing abatement technologies to reduce carbon emissions is the top priority in the Samsung Electronics semiconductor unit's goal to become carbon neutral by 2050, a top official said Friday. "Treatment of gas used to manufacture semiconductor chips is our biggest focus in our spending (to achieve net-zero emissions)," Song Doo-guen, executive vice president and head of th

Sept. 18, 2022

LG Uplus vows to go all in on platform businesses

LG Uplus, South Korea’s third-largest telecom operator by market share, has pledged to increase the sales proportion of non-telecommunication services to 40 percent of the total by 2027 with a focus on developing platform businesses. “Now moving beyond the area of traditional telecom businesses, we are looking to open up the era of ‘U+3.0’ that creates data- and technology-based platforms and services centered around customers to discover future growth engines,” sa

Sept. 15, 2022

NFT to be made available on Samsung's smart TVs

Digital art platform ArtToken said Thursday it has partnered with Samsung Electronics to provide non-fungible token art contents on Samsung’s smart televisions. Customers will now be able to purchase, store and view NFT artworks from home through Samsung’s smart televisions. ArtToken’s NFT platform will be connected to Samsung’s smart hub through a smart TV application, the company said. The app was showcased at Europe’s largest home appliances tech show IFA 2022, h

Sept. 15, 2022

Samsung Electronics declares transition to renewables, zero carbon by 2050

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it has joined the RE100 initiative to set net-zero targets by 2050 and ensure the full use of renewable energy, making a major shift in the IT devices manufacturing giant that consumed the largest amount of electricity in the world. By pledging to use less electricity and reuse and recycle resources like plastic and water, the chips-to-consumer electronics giant aims to transition to 100 percent renewables for its operation, and at the same time become carbon ne

Sept. 15, 2022

Google, Meta fined W100b for illegal collection of personal data

The South Korean government has imposed a total of 100 billion won ($72 million) in fines against Google and Meta for illegally collecting and using personal information for customized advertisements, officials said Wednesday. The Personal Information Protection Commission under the Prime Minister's Office decided to impose fines of 69.2 billion won and 30.8 billion won against Google and Meta, respectively, after it held a plenary session earlier in the day. According to the PIPC’s inve

Sept. 14, 2022

Naver Z joins global alliance to fight online child abuse

Naver Z, the metaverse affiliate of South Korean IT giant Naver, has joined the Tech Coalition to fight online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, the company said Wednesday. Established as a voluntary working group in 2006, the Tech Coalition is a global alliance of technology companies that have come together to better detect, report, remove and prevent online child sexual abuse. With Naver Z becoming the newest member of the alliance, there are now 28 companies including Amazon, Appl

Sept. 14, 2022

Lee Jae-yong heads for Panama, first importer of Samsung's color TV

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong has visited Panama to hold talks with Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo and meet Samsung executives there, the tech giant said Wednesday. The isthmus country, which connects Central and South America, was the first importer of Samsung Electronics' color TVs in 1977, and is home to Samsung's oldest overseas office. Lee, heir to South Korea's largest conglomerate dedicated to electronics, construction and finance, met President Cortizo at Heron'

Sept. 14, 2022

World's largest OLED TV set for local release on Sept. 21

LG Electronics said Wednesday it plans to release the world's largest 97-inch premium television using the flat-panel organic light-emitting diode display for home cinema experience in South Korea on Sept. 21. Dubbed the LG OLED evo Gallery Edition, the massive TV measures more than 2.4 meters across. The ultralarge TV will feature a 4K resolution and Dolby's cutting-edge vivid video format Dolby Vision IQ and surround sound technology Dolby Atmos. LG’s alpha 9 Gen 5 intelligent processors

Sept. 14, 2022

Hanmi Pharmaceutical scores 1st US FDA approval

Hanmi Pharmaceutical has scored its first approval from the US Food and Drug Administration with its novel biomedicine Rolontis. Rolontis -- Hanmi Pharmaceutical's treatment for neutropenia, a disease that occurs when a specific type of white blood cells is lacking so that the body cannot fight infections, especially those caused by bacteria -- was given the FDA’s approval on Friday, according to the Korean firm’s US partner Spectrum Pharmaceuticals’ announcement. Neutropenia's

Sept. 13, 2022

LG, Parsons come together for AI-generated design projects

  LG Corp. and Parsons School of Design will collaborate to combine contemporary art and design practices with artificial intelligence technology, LG's tech arm LG AI Research said Tuesday. LG AI Research, which runs a hyperscale AI platform called Exaone, will carry out joint research projects for advanced AI technologies and emerging research domains with experts in fashion, design and media at Parsons for three years. Through the partnership, artists and designers will explore the inters

Sept. 13, 2022

SK-backed AI chip outperforms Nvidia's GPU

Sapeon, an artificial intelligence-powered chip designer backed by South Korea's SK Group, unveiled Tuesday a test result that its first commercialized product X220 has outperformed US graphic processor giant Nvidia's newest product A2. The chips for data centers in two varieties, X220-Compact and X220-Enterprise, were both superior to Nvidia's A2 in terms of AI processing speed and power consumption, according to a benchmark test result in MLPerf's inference. The large-scale AI cloud service pe

Sept. 13, 2022

[Herald Interview] ‘Huge amount of future will be happening through Asia’

Grand plans laid out by Seoul and Busan show how South Korea will play a major role as Asia's influence grows, according to futurist Richard Yonck. “One of the things that are very apparent to me is that a huge amount of the future is going to be happening through Asia,” Yonck, founder of Intelligent Future Consulting, told The Korea Herald in Seoul on Sept. 5. Mentioning the Seoul Vision 2030 plan and the government efforts to host the 2030 World Expo in Busan, the futurist said t

Sept. 13, 2022

Memory down cycle to unseat Samsung

Samsung Electronics is projected to see a 19 percent drop in quarterly sales during the July-September period, which will drop the tech giant to the second place in the world's semiconductor market by sales following Taiwan-based foundry company TSMC's swift rise to the top, data showed Monday. The third-quarter revenue of Samsung's chip business -- which oversees memory products, foundry services and non-memory products like mobile processors -- is forecast to amount to $18.29 billion, down 19

Sept. 12, 2022