Lawmakers float bill to triple tax benefits for chipmakers

South Korean lawmakers are poised to propose a new bill aimed at providing domestic chipmakers with more extensive tax benefits in return for facility investment, a step toward its own version of the US-passed CHIPS Act to be effective Thursday. The new bill, unveiled Tuesday by a group of lawmakers led by independent lawmaker Rep. Yang Hyang-ja, is designed to triple the tax incentives for chipmakers, an apparent move to encourage more investment from semiconductor players. At least 20 perce

Aug. 2, 2022

SK hynix completes Key Foundry acquisition

South Korean chipmaker SK hynix said Tuesday it has completed the acquisition of domestic contract-based chip manufacturer Key Foundry The announcement came nine months after SK hynix signed a 575.8 billion won ($440.3 million) deal in October to acquire the entire stake of the 200-millimeter wafer foundry company based in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, from local private equity firms Alchemist Capital Partners and Gravity Private Equity. SK hynix added that it has won the antitru

Aug. 2, 2022

LG Chem looks to begin final stage of clinical trials for gout drug with FDA

LG Chem has applied for phase 3 clinical trials of its gout treatment candidate Tigulixostat with the US Food and Drug Administration, the South Korean company said Monday. If the application gets the go-ahead sign from the FDA, it will mark the first time for LG Chem to carry out phase 3 clinical trials of its self-developed new drug candidate globally including in the US, according to the company. Gout is a painful form of arthritis that is characterized by sudden, severe attacks of pain, sw

Aug. 1, 2022

SK Bioscience eyes Europe as market for COVID-19 vaccine

SK Bioscience has submitted the application for conditional approval of the COVID-19 vaccine SKY Covione with the European Medicines Agency in efforts to expand its presence in the global market, the South Korean vaccine developer said Monday. Beginning with the European region, SK Bioscience said it will look to showcase the South Korean COVID-19 vaccine on the global stage as the size of the coronavirus vaccine market grows rapidly. South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Ministry gav

Aug. 1, 2022

[Market Eye] Will Samsung make cars again?

“Will Samsung make cars again?” is a decades-old question that has dogged the tech giant since it sold off its automotive business to France’s Renault Group during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. Samsung has seen success in almost every sector it set sights on, but making and selling its own brand cars has remained a rare failure for the nation’s largest conglomerate. Despite repeated denials by the top brass, speculation has resurfaced about Samsun

July 31, 2022

Krafton’s popular battle-royale game banned in India

South Korean gaming giant Krafton’s popular battle-royale format game Battleground Mobile India, the Indian version of its global smash hit PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, has been slapped with a download ban in India, its Seoul headquarters confirmed Friday. Both Google and Apple removed the gaming app from their respective app stores on Thursday, citing the Indian government’s ban order. “We are still checking on the situation with the local authorities,” a Kr

July 29, 2022

LG, SoundHound team up for in-car voice assistant system

LG Electronics said Thursday it has teamed up with US audio experts SoundHound to develop an artificial intelligence-based voice system for vehicles with demand growing for both driving convenience and safety. Best known for its music recognition service, Santa Clara, California-based SoundHound supplies voice assistant systems to a slew of automotive, mobile devices, smart home and robotics companies. As part of a memorandum, SoundHound’s voice recognition technology will be applied t

July 28, 2022

Drug Ministry looks to become 1st WHO-listed authority

South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety aims to become the first regulatory body recognized by the World Health Organization to hold globally recognized authority for granting domestic permits of new drugs by December, officials said Thursday. Introduced earlier this year, the WHO-Listed Authority, or WLA, is the global organization’s initiative to certify a regulatory body as a globally recognized authority to replace the procurement-oriented concept of stringent regulatory

July 28, 2022

Launch of Korea's 1st lunar mission 'Danuri' delayed

The highly anticipated launch of Danuri, South Korea’s first lunar mission, has been postponed at least two days, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Thursday. Danuri’s launch, which was planned to take place on Aug. 2 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon rocket, has been delayed after SpaceX found that it needed to carry out additional checkups on the space vehicle before the launch. The ministry said SpaceX is currently in the process of obt

July 28, 2022

Samsung’s profit surges 12% in Q2 on server demand, premium phone sales

Samsung Electronics logged an operating profit of 14.1 trillion won ($10.77 billion) during the second quarter, up 12.2 percent from the previous year despite rising material prices and recession fears that are weakening consumer demands, the company said Thursday. The South Korean tech giant’s quarterly revenue from April to June came to 77.2 trillion won, up 21.3 percent from a year prior, slightly beating the market consensus of 77 trillion won. The quarterly sales figure was the seco

July 28, 2022

[Newsmaker] SK chief unveils $22b investment plan in meeting with Biden

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on Tuesday (US time) announced South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate’s new $22 billion investment plan in the US in his meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House. Biden in return touted SK’s new multi-billion dollar commitment as one of the “most significant investments” ever seen in the US. “We are announcing another $22 billion in new investment in the US,” Chey told the US president. “All this m

July 27, 2022

Philips looks to expand self-health care market in Asia

Global health technology giant Philips said Tuesday that it would open up the new era of self-healthcare in Asia through helping consumers achieve their best health conditions with the firm’s lineup of personal healthcare products. “This approach is especially relevant in Asia, where a growing population and a greater emphasis on health and well-being are re-shaping people‘s health priorities,” said Deeptha Khanna, executive vice president at Philips Personal Health, in

July 26, 2022

[Photo News] Summer Extravaganza

A woman performs a hydroflying show at Caribbean Bay, Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Monday.

July 25, 2022

Dunamu to build metaverse map to aid global relief initiative

Dunamu, the operator of one of South Korea’s largest crypto exchanges, has teamed up with the international humanitarian medical non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders to build a map on its metaverse platform to help the global medical initiative, officials said Monday. Dunamu and Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, signed a memorandum to build a partnership on contributions in accordance with the environmental, social and governance movement i

July 25, 2022

Samsung starts shipping world’s first 3nm chips

Samsung Electronics has started shipping chips produced using the world’s most advanced 3-nanometer manufacturing technology, which has drastically improved power consumption and performance. On Monday, the tech giant held a ceremony to celebrate the departure of the first batch of 3nm chips from its chip-making complex in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, with some 100 company and government officials in attendance. The 3nm technology is Samsung’s secret weapon to outpacing its rival

July 25, 2022

Matica Biotechnology aims to reach W1tr annual sales by 2030

Matica Biotechnology, local firm Cha Biotech’s US subsidiary, has set out a goal of posting 1 trillion won ($761 million) in annual sales to become a global top five contract development and manufacturing organization business in cell and gene therapy by 2030, the company said Thursday. “The global cell and gene therapy CDMO market is expected to reach 25 trillion won by 2030 with a compound annual growth rate of over 20 percent,” said Song Yun-jeong, CEO of Matica Biotechnol

July 21, 2022

Samsung foldable smartphones to hit 10 million in shipments

Ahead of the global unveiling event for Samsung Electronics’ newest mobile lineup, the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4, next month, the company’s mobile business chief said Thursday that its foldable series is having its moment with shipments of foldables nearing the 10 million mark. “Last year, we saw almost 10 million foldable smartphones shipped worldwide. That’s an industry increase of more than 300 percent from 2020, and I predict this fast-paced growth will continue,”

July 21, 2022

ICT minister calls for caution on joining Chip 4

Amid pressure building on South Korea to join a US-led chip alliance that strategically isolates China from the global semiconductor supply chain, Science Minister Lee Jong-ho on Wednesday said in rare remarks that the government should be careful in making such a decision, citing its impact on other industries. “I have talked to business executives who have been to China. It’s difficult to talk about the details, as it is an ongoing matter, but we have to make a decision that will

July 20, 2022

Samsung to debut new foldable phones on Aug. 10

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday sent out invites to the 2022 Galaxy Unpacked event for its new foldable phones that will be held online via its official website at 10 p.m. (Korea time) on Aug. 10. Titled “Unfold Your World,” the event will feature Samsung’s latest Z series, including the larger Z Fold 4 and the more compact Z Flip 4, along with its smart watch Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Buds wireless earphones. Since last year, Samsung has held two separate unveiling events fo

July 20, 2022

SK Bioscience upgrades vaccine deal with Novavax

SK Bioscience has renewed a contract manufacturing organization deal with US biotech Novavax to produce COVID-19 vaccines targeted at preventing the spread of highly contagious variants such as BA.5, officials said Tuesday. The two firms had signed a CMO deal to produce Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine last year. According to the South Korean company, the renewal will allow the transfer of Novavax’s technology to SK Bioscience, which will then manufacture Novavax’s undiluted COVI

July 19, 2022