Business - The Korea Times

Japan's Line Yahoo to become largest shareholder of Kakao Games

LY Corp., the Japanese operator of Line and Yahoo! Japan, will become the largest shareholder of Kakao Games through an investment company, investing a total of 300 billion won ($200.4 million) in the game developer to revive its growth momentum. Kakao Games said in its regulatory filings Wednesday that LAAA Investment, an investment company backed by LY Corp., will acquire an undisclosed amount of stake in the company and purchase 240 billion won of new rights and 60 billion won worth of convertible bonds. When the transactions close in May, LAAA Investment will become the largest shareholder in Kakao Games, while its current largest shareholder Kakao will become the second-largest shareholder, the company said. Kakao currently holds a 40.7-percent stake in Kakao Games. The transaction will inject 300 billion won into Kakao Games, which the company plans to use to strengthen its global competitiveness and accelerate efforts to build a mid- to long-term growth foundation. Kakao will also reinvest part of the proceeds from the share sale into the deal, maintaining its partnership with Ka

Mar 25, 2026By Nam Hyun-woo

Japan's Line Yahoo to become largest shareholder of Kakao Games

IITP publishes MWC 2026 technical review

The Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP), the policy-planning arm of the Ministry of Science and ICT, has published its technical review report on MWC 2026, held from March 2 to 5 in Barcelona, Spain. In the report, published Monday, the institute said MWC 2026 highlighted eight key technology trends and major implications. Among them, IITP identified the full-scale emergence of artificial intelligence (AI)-native networks as the most notable trend. AI-native networks are communication systems designed with AI as a core function from the outset, rather than adding AI capabilities to existing systems, enabling the network to autonomously optimize itself, fix errors and adjust performance in real time. The report noted that global telecommunications companies have begun deploying AI-driven autonomous networks in real-world environments, embedding AI across end-to-end networks through agentic AI-based intelligent operating systems. Huawei presented its AI-Centric Network strategy, focusing on AI-driven service assurance, agent-based decision-maki

Mar 24, 2026By Nam Hyun-woo

IITP publishes MWC 2026 technical review

LG Innotek CEO pushes physical AI as new growth engine

LG Innotek is accelerating its transition from a component supplier to a full-fledged solutions provider that integrates hardware and software capabilities, as it bets on physical artificial intelligence (AI), including robotics and autonomous driving, as a key driver of future growth. During the company’s shareholders' meeting at its headquarters in Seoul on Monday, CEO Moon Hyuk-soo outlined a strategy to place physical AI as a core pillar of LG Innotek’s future business with a goal of delivering meaningful results in the next few years. “A business model where we simply win bids to supply developed components is losing its competitiveness,” he said, speaking to the press after the meeting. “Based on the innovative technologies and product lineup we have built over time, LG Innotek aims to shift its business paradigm toward becoming a company that provides optimal ‘solutions’ tailored to customer needs.” LG Innotek holds scalable technologies, such as sensing, substrate and control, that have been refined through years of collaboration with global tech clients. Identify

Mar 23, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee

LG Innotek CEO pushes physical AI as new growth engine

Naver to roll out AI agents across all services within this year

Internet giant Naver said Monday it plans to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) agents across all of its services within the year to accelerate its push to generate profits from AI-driven services. At its general shareholders meeting in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, the company unveiled the mid- and long-term business plan, aimed at capturing opportunities in the AI era by creating seamless services that understand user intent and execute optimal actions. "AI has become a critical inflection point that determines a business' competitiveness," Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Choi Soo-yeon said. "As we have already been demonstrating AI transformation across various sectors, we will offer differentiated agentic experiences that only Naver can deliver." Under the plan, Naver's shopping AI agent, introduced as a beta service on its premium shopping service, Naver Plus Store, last month, will be expanded across all shopping categories within the year. The company also plans to enhance vertical agents specialized for each domain, including search, shopping, local services, finance and health. As p

Mar 23, 2026By Yonhap

Naver to roll out AI agents across all services within this year

Korea eyes 'full-stack' physical AI for manufacturing, agriculture

Korea plans to secure key technologies to become a "full-stack" player in the physical artificial intelligence (AI) industry over the next three years and apply them in various areas, including manufacturing and agriculture, the science ministry said Monday. Under the vision, Korea will leverage its manufacturing infrastructure and advanced technologies to become a leading player in the physical AI industry, amid the growing importance of hardware in real-world industrial settings. "The government believes the next three years will be a golden time for Korea's competitiveness in physical AI and will make all-out efforts to secure world-leading technologies in the field," the science ministry said in a release. In detail, the government plans to develop a robot foundation model applicable to various AI robots capable of performing precision tasks. Korea plans to secure key technologies for the safe operation of humanoid robots, including network and cybersecurity capabilities. The government plans to identify areas with strong demand for AI-powered robots, such as logistics, agriculture, d

Mar 23, 2026By Yonhap

Korea eyes 'full-stack' physical AI for manufacturing, agriculture

Samsung SDS debuts Korea’s 1st Nvidia B300 GPU service subscription

Samsung SDS has rolled out Korea’s first Nvidia B300-based graphics processing unit-as-a-service (GPUaaS) on its Samsung Cloud Platform (SCP). The launch comes as enterprises move beyond developing artificial intelligence (AI) models into applying trained models to real world services, driving surging demand for high-performance computing. The B300 GPU is equipped with 12-layer high-bandwidth memory 3E, delivering 288 gigabytes of memory per unit and bandwidth of up to 8 terabytes per second. This represents a 3.6-fold increase in memory capacity and a 2.4-fold improvement in bandwidth over the previous generation H100, significantly boosting performance for computing-intensive AI inference workloads. The company has been building out its GPUaaS ecosystem since introducing A100-based services in 2021 and H100-based offerings in 2023, supporting cloud-based infrastructure and AI adoption across enterprise operations. With the latest launch, it aims to minimize latency and unlock greater efficiency for large-scale AI applications such as agents; image, video and code generation; and anal

Mar 23, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee

Samsung SDS debuts Korea’s 1st Nvidia B300 GPU service subscription

Will China ask for Samsung's investment during chairman's visit?

Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong is expected to meet with key Chinese business partners during his visit to Beijing to attend the China Development Forum (CDF), stoking speculation over whether Beijing will push for fresh investment in the company’s chip operations, particularly NAND flash memory, in China. According to industry officials, Lee is attending CDF, which opened at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing Sunday for a two-day run. After finishing the official forum schedule, he is expected to stay in China for a few more days to review local business operations and meet with heads of partner companies. His trip comes as Beijing is stepping up efforts to court foreign investment from global tech businesses. This year’s CDF brings together 88 global executives, including Lee, Apple CEO Tim Cook and SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung, under the theme “China in its 15th Five-Year Plan Period: Advancing High-Quality Development and Creating New Opportunities Together.” The forum has long served as a key platform for Chinese policymakers and senior officials to eng

Mar 22, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee

Will China ask for Samsung's investment during chairman's visit?

Adot, Papago named among world's top 50 AI web, mobile services

Homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) services are making their mark on the global stage, with SK Telecom’s AI agent A. (Adot) and Naver’s translation service Papago making the top 50 lists of generative AI web products and mobile consumer apps, respectively. According to U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz’s Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps list for this year, released earlier this month, Adot placed 39th among gen AI web products in unique monthly visits, making it the only Korean service to rank in the top 50 in the category. The AI assistant previously ranked 15th in the first half of last year and 35th in the second half. Two of Naver’s services made the top 50 list in the gen AI mobile apps category, with Papago coming in 43rd and its camera app Snow close behind at 48th, ranked by monthly active users. Andreessen Horowitz, a leading investment firm known for early bets on companies such as Facebook, Airbnb and GitHub, regularly publishes reports on the AI industry. The Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps ranking is based on traffic data from sources such as Similarweb and S

Mar 22, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee

Adot, Papago named among world's top 50 AI web, mobile services

LG Display rolls out world’s 1st 1-120Hz variable laptop panel

LG Display said Sunday it has begun mass producing an LCD laptop panel capable of adjusting its refresh rate from 1 hertz (Hz) to 120 Hz depending on the usage environment. The panel, powered by Oxide 1Hz technology, operates at a minimum refresh rate of 1 Hz when the screen remains static during tasks such as email, e-book reading and document viewing. It automatically switches to a high refresh rate of up to 120 Hz when users move the mouse or start video content or games with rapid screen changes. Refresh rate refers to how many times a panel updates the image on the screen per second. A higher refresh rate reduces screen flicker while delivering smoother and clearer motion with lower input lag. However, maintaining a high refresh rate for a still image leads to unnecessary power consumption, as the same image continues to be refreshed. LG Display said the Oxide 1Hz panel applies oxide material, which has the lowest power leakage in low refresh rate operation, to the display’s thin film transistors. It also developed new circuit algorithms and panel design technology for the panel.

Mar 22, 2026By Nam Hyun-woo

LG Display rolls out world’s 1st 1-120Hz variable laptop panel

Snowflake launches desktop AI agent for enterprise workflows

U.S.-based software company Snowflake launched Project SnowWork, an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant designed to automate enterprise workflows, in a research preview on Thursday, marking the latest step in its push to bring agentic enterprise AI directly to business users’ desktops. “The key insight (of the platform) is we will be introducing ‘profiles’ … There is a profile for product managers, sales leaders and finance. And it personalizes every enterprise context to that specific role with the right data, right skills and right insights,” Christian Kleinerman, the company’s executive vice president of product, said during a media event in Seoul's Jung District. “We are incredibly excited to work with customers to shape what we think is the future of work and the future of the agentic enterprise.” Project SnowWork allows business users to request tasks in natural language and have AI autonomously plan and execute multi-step workflows — from data analysis to report writing and presentation generation. By combining multi-step task execution, persona-specific ski

Mar 19, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee

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