Samsung launches InnoX Lab to lead next-gen AI innovation

Samsung Electronics has established a new organization dedicated to advancing humanoid robots, digital twin solutions and physical artificial intelligence technologies as part of its broader strategy to lead in the era of AI. According to industry sources on Tuesday, the tech giant's device experience division has launched InnoX Lab. Internally announced to employees on Monday, the lab is tasked with accelerating the company’s response to emerging megascale challenges and bold strategic initiati

Aug. 5, 2025

LG, SKT, Naver among five selected for Korea’s sovereign AI push

The Ministry of Science and ICT on Monday announced the final selection of five teams to lead South Korea’s ambitious “sovereign AI foundation model” project, aimed at building homegrown, high-performance artificial intelligence models. The selected teams are Naver Cloud, Upstage, SK Telecom, NC AI and LG AI Research. Each will be granted the titles of “K-AI model” and “K-AI company,” the ministry said. The final selection followed an evaluation process that assessed each consortium’s technologi

Aug. 4, 2025

Seoul draws red line: Why high-precision map data excluded from US trade deal

A key issue pushed by US tech giants Google and Apple ― the export of South Korea’s high-precision map data ― was notably excluded from last week’s Korea-US tariff negotiations, underscoring Seoul’s firm stance that its national security is not up a bargaining chip. According to industry sources and the presidential office on Sunday, the Korea-US trade discussions on Thursday focused largely on conventional tariff and commerce issues. The topic of high-precision map data exports, previously flag

Aug. 3, 2025

SK hynix overtakes Samsung to lead global memory market for 1st time with HBM surge

SK hynix has claimed the top spot in the global memory chip market for the first time, overtaking long-time leader Samsung Electronics on the back of its dominance in high bandwidth memory chips, the highly lucrative artificial intelligence products. According to market tracker Counterpoint Research on Thursday, SK hynix recorded 21.8 trillion won ($15.6 billion) in memory sales, including both DRAM and NAND products, in the April-June period, narrowly surpassing Samsung's 21.2 trillion won. SK

Aug. 1, 2025

Korea holds line on chips as US tariff deal offers strategic relief

South Korean chipmakers expressed cautious optimism Thursday following a tariff agreement between Seoul and Washington that ensures they will not be treated less favorably than other countries in any future US tariffs on semiconductors. Experts say the impact of potential tariffs may be limited as Korean chips, especially advanced memory and foundry products, are difficult to replace and critical to US tech firms' ambitions in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. “Korea has se

July 31, 2025

After tariff deal reprieve, Samsung braces for new trade rules

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it is closely monitoring the upcoming decision by the US Department of Commerce regarding semiconductor-related trade regulations, despite an easing in uncertainty following tariff negotiations between South Korea and the US on the same day. During a conference call following its second-quarter earnings announcement, the tech giant said the decision expected in mid-August pertains to the Section 232 investigation under the US Trade Expansion Act, which covers se

July 31, 2025

LG CNS becomes first Korean firm certified in generative AI by Microsoft, AWS, Google

LG CNS, the IT solutions arm of LG Group, announced Thursday that it has earned the “Build AI Apps on Microsoft Azure Specialization” certification — making it the first Korean company to secure generative AI credentials from all three global cloud companies: Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. The certification is awarded to Microsoft partners who demonstrate proven success in building, deploying and managing AI solutions on Azure, and who pass rigorous third-party audits and demon

July 31, 2025

Korea races to seal tariff deal in final US talks

South Korea's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol held two-hour trade talks with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Tuesday in Washington, as part of last-ditch efforts to finalize a tariff agreement before the imminent deadline. The meeting began at 3 p.m. at the US Department of Commerce — just three hours after Koo arrived in Washington. Korea's Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan and Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo also joined the meeting, according to Korea's Industry Ministry

July 30, 2025

Musk backs Samsung AI chip deal, calls it ‘just the minimum’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed Wednesday that he had a video call with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong to discuss a "real partnership" over their recent $16.5 billion AI chip supply deal. Responding to a user on X who claimed Samsung "has no idea what they signed up for," Musk replied, "They do." "I had a video call with the chairman and senior leadership of Samsung to go over what a real partnership would be like," Musk wrote. "Use the strengths of both companies to achieve a great outc

July 30, 2025

LG Innotek partners with US' Aeva for LiDAR development

LG Innotek Co., an electronic component manufacturing unit of LG Group, said Tuesday it has formed a strategic partnership with US software company Aeva Technologies Inc. to collaborate in the laser imaging, detection and ranging sector. Under the agreement, LG Innotek will provide next-generation frequency modulated continuous wave LiDAR modules to Aeva, which will be integrated into Aeva's LiDAR solutions for global automakers, according to the Korean company. "This long-term technology partne

July 29, 2025

LG Innotek to invest $50m in Aeva as part of strategic LiDAR partnership

Korean electronics parts maker LG Innotek said Tuesday that it has signed a strategic partnership with US-based Aeva to supply its next-generation ultra-slim, long-range 4D LiDAR modules, the light detection and ranging sensors that are crucial for self-driving vehicles. Aeva, renowned for its frequency modulated continuous wave LiDAR technology, was the first company in the world to commercialize 4D LiDAR systems capable of long-range object sensing. Since beginning mass production in 2022, the

July 29, 2025

Korea's Enhans makes global top 3 in AI agent benchmark

Enhans, a South Korean startup specializing in vertical commerce AI agents, said Tuesday that its artificial intelligence model, ACT-1, ranked third in the global benchmark for web-based AI agents, Online Mind2Web. The model placed just behind global tech giants OpenAI and Anthropic. The Online Mind2Web benchmark assesses AI agents on their ability to perform complex tasks on the web, emulating human behavior. The evaluation covers 300 real-world tasks across 136 actively operating websites, ass

July 29, 2025

Can LG break into AI chips game with hybrid bonder?

LG Electronics is eyeing a bold expansion in its semiconductor equipment operations, developing critical machinery for manufacturing the high-bandwidth memory chips that power AI innovation. The South Korean tech giant said it has kicked off development of a hybrid bonder at its in-house R&D unit, the Production Engineering Research Institute. A hybrid bonder is a kind of chip packaging machine, and LG wants to develop one for use in the HBM chips used in AI. The confirmation comes after a recen

July 28, 2025

Samsung to produce Tesla's next-gen AI chips in $16.5b foundry breakthrough

Samsung Electronics will be producing Tesla’s next-generation artificial intelligence chip, known as AI6, under a record-breaking $16.5 billion contract deal. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a social media post Monday that Samsung’s chip manufacturing facility in Texas will be dedicated to producing his company’s chips. His post on X came shortly after Samsung announced a foundry deal, disclosing only that the customer is a “global conglomerate.” “Samsung’s giant new Texas fab will be dedicated to m

July 28, 2025

SK Telecom, Krafton debut open-source AI models for math, code

SK Telecom, Korea's largest wireless carrier in terms of subscribers, and gaming giant Krafton have unveiled three open-source language models optimized for inference tasks such as mathematics and code generation, the companies said on Monday. The newly released models are lightweight language models tailored to problem-solving and programming tasks. Developed through collaboration, the models boasting 7 billion parameters incorporate a proprietary learning technique crafted by Krafton to improv

July 28, 2025