South Korea’s total market cap increased by nearly 100 trillion won ($72 billion) during the first quarter of this year, backed by jumps in stock prices in key industries, including semiconductors, data showed Tuesday. According to a report from local corporate tracker Korea CXO Institute, the combined market cap of 2,692 local firms jumped 96 trillion won during the January-March period to reach 2,599 trillion won. The figures exclude the value of preferred shares. The number of stocks wi

Industry April 16, 2024

The US government announced Monday that it will award up to $6.4 billion to Samsung Electronics for its chip fabrication facilities in Taylor, Texas. "The return of leading-edge chip manufacturing to America is a major new chapter in our semiconductor industry," said White House National Economic Adviser Lael Brainard in a press briefing. US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo also revealed that the subsidy plan, coming under the US Chips Act, will support Samsung's two chip produ

Industry April 15, 2024

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, the leading home appliance giants in Korea, are participating in this year’s Milan Design Week this week to showcase their new built-in appliances incorporating artificial intelligence and connectivity. Milan Design Week is one of the largest international design and furniture exhibitions, held in the city in northern Italy with the participation of some 2,300 companies. This year the event runs from Tuesday to Sunday. The tech giants have also set u

Industry April 15, 2024

Korean IT giant Kakao joined AI Alliance, the global open-source community dedicated to the responsible development of artificial intelligence, becoming the first Korean firm to do so, the company said Friday. “We will work together with the AI Alliance to establish an open AI ecosystem meeting the global standard for the open, responsible and safe development of AI technology,” Kakao AI Safety Leader Kim Kyung-hoon said. “We will take on the social responsibility as a digital

Industry April 12, 2024

South Korea is largely aligned with the US government’s export curbs on chips to China, but it is also making efforts to maintain trade ties with Beijing, Korea’s trade minister said in the US on Wednesday. Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Ahn Duk-geun, who is visiting the US for the first time after he was inaugurated in January this year, added that the government is working to ensure the US trade curbs do not hurt the interests of Korean chipmakers. "Our basic stance is

Industry April 11, 2024

US chip giant Intel is teaming up with Naver, Korea's leader in artificial intelligence, in an apparent move to counter Nvidia's dominance in the burgeoning AI chip market. Unveiling its more powerful next-generation AI accelerator, Gaudi 3, on Tuesday, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said the cutting-edge central processing unit has been enhanced to perform better than Nvidia's graphic processing unit "at a fraction of the cost." He also said the company is working together wit

Industry April 10, 2024

Samsung Electronics is striving to shed the reputation of its flagship Galaxy smartphones as "ajeossi" phones among teens and users in their 20s, with short films starring popular TV celebrities. An "ajeossi" is an older married man or an uncle in Korean, but in this context, it implies a sense of being "old" or "out of style." The world's largest smartphone maker by shipment said its short film series, “S24 Hours Movie Series,” starring a

Industry April 9, 2024

South Korean chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have been boosting investment in the US to secure federal subsidies and get ahead in the intensifying competition in the advanced chip packaging and artificial intelligence chip sectors. Samsung Electronics, the world's top memory chipmaker that also runs chip design and foundry businesses, is reportedly planning to increase its investment in its semiconductor fabrication plant currently under construction in Taylor, Texas. According

Industry April 8, 2024

The powerful earthquake that hit semiconductor powerhouse Taiwan last week may push up memory chip prices temporarily, as chipmakers there face operational disruptions, according to market watchers on Sunday. The earthquake, which struck off the east coast of island with a magnitude of 7.4 on Wednesday, put the tech industry on edge, as Taiwan is home to 18 percent of global chip manufacturing capacity and approximately 92 percent of the world's advanced semiconductors are produced there. M

Industry April 7, 2024

As governments around the world fiercely compete to boost their semiconductor industries by distributing large subsidies, South Korea is pointed out as falling behind other chip powerhouses, raising concerns about the gap widening in the future. On Tuesday, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry approved subsidies of up to 590 billion yen ($3.9 billion) for chip foundry venture Rapidus, adding to its promise earlier to provide funds worth some 330 billion yen into the chip project.

Industry April 2, 2024

Samsung Electronics has established a special team dedicated to High Bandwidth Memory, going all-out to get an edge in the advanced memory chip, which is currently in the spotlight as a key component in raising the processing speed for artificial intelligence applications. Highlighting the importance of HBM in the wake of the AI boom, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kyung Kye-hyun vowed to keep up efforts to secure leadership in the burgeoning market and revealed the company has formed a team

Industry April 1, 2024

Business leaders joined relatives to mourn the death of Cho Suck-rai, the honorary chairman of Hyosung Group, a textile giant, on Sunday. Cho died of a chronic illness Friday at the age of 89. Cho led the textile giant from 1982 until 2017, when he stepped down from the top management position due to health issues. His eldest son, Cho Hyun-joon took the baton to lead the conglomerate. On Saturday, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and his mother Hong Ra-hee paid respect for Cho at the fu

Industry March 31, 2024

Marking the 40th anniversary of its founding, SK Telecom, South Korea's largest wireless carrier by the number of accounts, promised to transform into a global artificial intelligence company, Thursday. The mobile carrier, first established in March 1984 under the name, Korea Mobile Telecommunication Services Corp., celebrates its 40th anniversary on Friday. "SKT's 40 years of achievements were made possible by its unique DNA of overcoming challenging situations and creating a his

Industry March 28, 2024

In the latest artificial intelligence boom, SK hynix will boost sales of its high bandwidth memory, or HBM, a critical chip to generative AI tools, to improve profitability, SK hynix Chief Executive Officer Kwak Noh-jung said at a general shareholders meeting Wednesday. Concerning the Wall Street Journal's report on SK hynix' plan to invest $4 billion to build an advanced chip packaging facility in Indiana, Kwan said nothing has been decided yet. "Even if (the market) experiences

Industry March 27, 2024

LG Electronics Chief Executive Officer Cho Joo-wan vowed "winning" changes and growth to overcome continuing uncertainties in the business environment at the regular shareholders meeting on Tuesday. Organizing this year's shareholders event under the concept of "openness," the chief came to present the company's mid- and long-term strategies to shareholders for the first time. The event was livestreamed for the first time as well. "(LG Electronics) is a ‘

Industry March 26, 2024