Business - The Korea Times

Samsung shows confidence in HBM, portrays next-gen road map

Samsung Electronics Chief Technology Officer Song Jai-hyuk said Wednesday the company’s high-bandwidth memory 4 (HBM4) chip is showing “good” manufacturing yield, adding that clients have expressed strong satisfaction with its performance. “We may have fallen short of demonstrating our world-class technological responsiveness to customer needs for a while, but this should be seen as a return to that standard,” Song told reporters before his keynote speech for SEMICON Korea 2026 in Seoul. Samsung reportedly plans to begin HBM4 mass production and shipping to major customers later this month. Its HBM4 chips are using its 1c process, the sixth-generation 10-nanometer-class DRAM technology, for the DRAM cell die, while using a 4-nanometer foundry process for the base die. Based on these technologies, Samsung had its HBM4 chips achieve data processing speeds of up to 11.7 gigabits per second (Gbps), exceeding the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council’s standard of 8 Gbps. Since they are the industry’s latest technologies, questions have been raised over how the company will

Feb 11, 2026By Nam Hyun-woo

Samsung shows confidence in HBM, portrays next-gen road map

KT posts earnings surge on property gains, AI-cloud push

KT sharply expanded earnings last year, delivering solid top‑line growth on the back of artificial intelligence (AI)‑cloud businesses and one-off real estate gains, despite the recent hacking weighing on its fourth-quarter margins. The company announced it posted revenue of 28.24 trillion won ($19.34 billion) last year, up 6.9 percent year-on-year, while operating profit jumped 205 percent to 2.47 trillion won. The sharp profit increase was largely driven by gains from property development and leasing business with projects in Daejeon and northern Seoul, alongside improved profitability across group-wide cloud, data center and platform units. However, its fourth quarter profit was partly weighed down by nonrecurring costs tied to the company’s response to the security breach that surfaced in September. The costs, including free universal subscriber identity module replacement, contract termination fee waiver and related security measures, compressed margins late in the year. “We apologize to customers, shareholders and investors for causing concerns with the 2025 security inciden

Feb 10, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee

KT posts earnings surge on property gains, AI-cloud push

Hanwha Aerospace, KAI to jointly develop air-launched weapons

Hanwha Aerospace and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) are joining forces to develop advanced airborne weapons, including a new long-range air-to-air missile, for use on Korean-built aircraft. Hanwha Aerospace announced Tuesday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with KAI on Monday during the World Defense Show (WDS), taking place through Thursday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Under the agreement, the two companies will integrate air-launched weapon systems on KAI’s twin-engine fighter, the KF-21 Boramae, and the light combat aircraft FA-50. “We are confident that by combining our experience in executing a wide range of missile development programs — from air-to-air and air-to-ground to surface-to-air — with KAI’s expertise in integrated fighter systems, we can achieve our goal of developing fully domestic air-launched weapons,” Hanwha Aerospace CEO Son Jae-il said. “Building on this foundation, we aim to help defend South Korea’s airspace, earn the trust of customers worldwide and support the sustainable growth of K-defense.” The two companies also agreed to purs

Feb 10, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee

Hanwha Aerospace, KAI to jointly develop air-launched weapons

Gov't to provide nearly $884.5 mil. for materials, equipment technology development

The industry ministry will provide 1.29 trillion won ($884.5 million) this year to support projects aimed at developing materials, parts and equipment technologies, officials said Tuesday. The amount marks a 9.6 percent increase from the corresponding tally for last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources. The ministry said it has earmarked 470.6 billion won for projects aimed at developing materials technology for advanced industries, such as semiconductor, display, secondary battery and biohealth. Another 545.7 billion won will be used for supporting projects related to fostering the high-value transition of major industries, such as machinery, automobile and chemical, as well as their efforts for green transition. Some 93.9 billion won will be funneled into developing materials for the space and hydrogen industries. Specifically, the ministry plans to support 30 projects on developing advanced materials for the steel and petrochemical industries, currently working to boost their competitiveness to tackle the industrywide crisis stemming from global oversupply. T

Feb 10, 2026By Yonhap

Gov't to provide nearly $884.5 mil. for materials, equipment technology development

LG Innotek accelerates camera, sensor biz for humanoid robots

LG Innotek is accelerating its camera, sensor and other key component businesses for humanoid robots, as the timeline for industrial deployment draws closer and the market quickly emerges as a new revenue source. According to industry officials Tuesday, LG Innotek is now in talks with a U.S. humanoid robot firm to supply camera modules. JAHWA Electronics, a Korean midsized electric component firm that develops actuators for camera modules, is also involved in the talks. LG Innotek refused to confirm matters related to its client, but the humanoid firm reportedly plans to establish a mass production system this year, with a plan of rolling out 1 million units a year. If the supply is finalized, LG Innotek will be one of the camera module suppliers for the firm. LG Innotek has been working to diversify its portfolio, which has been centered on mobile and IT device components, and has identified sensing components for humanoid robots, such as camera, radar and others, as a new growth driver. During CES 2026 last month, LG Innotek CEO Moon Hyuk-soo said “sensing components for humanoid rob

Feb 10, 2026By Nam Hyun-woo

LG Innotek accelerates camera, sensor biz for humanoid robots

Power semiconductors gain traction amid AI boom

Foundry companies producing power management integrated circuits (PMICs) are gaining traction amid the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI). Demand is diversifying toward data centers and electric vehicles (EVs), while major foundries such as Samsung Electronics and TSMC shift their focus toward advanced processes. According to domestic 8-inch foundry specialist DB HiTek on Monday, its 2025 revenue and operating profit stood at 1.4 trillion won ($954.85 million) and 277.3 billion won, up 24 percent and 45 percent year-on-year, respectively. The company said, “the expanded demand in PMICs stemming from AI services has affected its earnings favorably.” DB HiTek’s revenue fell in 2023 and 2024 due to weak demand for IT devices, before rebounding in 2025 on recovering power semiconductor demand and growth in the AI and EV markets. The company’s average fab utilization rate rose sharply to 96 percent last year from 76 percent in 2024. A PMIC is a semiconductor that converts, stores, distributes and controls power supplied to electronic devices, playing a critical role in optim

Feb 10, 2026By Nam Hyun-woo

Power semiconductors gain traction amid AI boom

InterviewSaxony believes Korean chipmakers can afford to invest in German state

The German state of Saxony remains optimistic about attracting semiconductor investments from Korea, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's pressure on global chipmakers to expand manufacturing in his country and the ongoing large-scale factory construction by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix near Seoul. "We do not view global semiconductor investment as a zero-sum equation," Saxony Trade & Invest CEO Thomas Horn told The Korea Times via email on Sunday. "Leading companies are increasingly pursuing geographic diversification to strengthen supply chain resilience rather than concentrating capacity in a single region." The head of Saxony's state government-run investment promotion agency made the remarks ahead of a business delegation from Saxony and neighboring Saxony-Anhalt arriving in Korea on Monday for a five-day trip aimed at encouraging semiconductor and tech firms here to build facilities in the eastern German state. "The delegation's visit to Korea is focused on strengthening our strategic dialogue with the broader technology ecosystem," he said. "Our goal is to engage with a wide

Feb 9, 2026By Park Jae-hyuk

Saxony believes Korean chipmakers can afford to invest in German state

Naver to supercharge e-commerce with AI after record growth

Naver is doubling down on its fast-growing e-commerce business this year by rolling out artificial intelligence (AI)-powered shopping tools, after the segment emerged as one of the top contributors to the company’s record-breaking earnings. The company posted its biggest annual earnings last year, with revenue climbing 12.1 percent year-on-year to about 12.04 trillion won ($8.42 billion) and operating profit rising 11.6 percent to 2.21 trillion won. The e-commerce division was a standout, accounting for more than 30 percent of total sales for the first time. Sales in the segment jumped 26.2 percent year-on-year to 3.69 trillion won, fueled by a combination of advanced recommendation technology on the Naver Plus Store platform and users switching from rival Coupang following a massive data breach. Positioning the business as a core growth engine and strategic test bed for AI-driven services, Naver is preparing to infuse generative AI into its e-commerce stack this year — from smarter search and recommendation engines to automated ad-targeting and seller support tools — as it seeks

Feb 9, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee

Naver to supercharge e-commerce with AI after record growth

PHOTO KAIST-NYU summit on AI governance

Participants pose following an open discussion session at an artificial intelligence and digital governance summit co-hosted by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and New York University, held at NYU, Saturday (local time). KAIST said the two-day summit shared insights from over 60 experts on the balance between technological innovation and moral responsibility, with more than 450 people attending the session. Courtesy of KAIST

Feb 9, 2026By Nam Hyun-woo

[PHOTO] KAIST-NYU summit on AI governance

Top tech firms ban OpenClaw over security breach fears

Major Korean tech companies, including Kakao, Naver and Karrot Market, are moving to restrict the use of the popular artificial intelligence (AI) agent OpenClaw within corporate networks due to the rising concerns about security and data privacy. The move reflects mounting global caution around the autonomous agent that is capable of performing human-like tasks without direct supervision. OpenClaw is a self-hosted, open-source AI agent designed to act as the “hands” of a large language model. While large language models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini serve as the brain that understands and reasons, OpenClaw carries out real-world actions, such as browsing the web, editing files, running system commands and interacting with online services through modular add-ons. It rose to prominence after it was first introduced last November as an early-stage AI agent. However, concerns have grown that it can access sensitive corporate data or personal information, and that such access can create the potential for data leaks, system manipulation and cyberattacks. Kakao, Naver and Karr

Feb 8, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee

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