Business - The Korea Times

KAIST student receives best paper award at international symposium

Lee Jung-hyun, a graduate student at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) TERA Lab, received the Best Student Paper — Honorable Mention at the 2026 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, Signal & Power Integrity, the semiconductor research group said Thursday. During the symposium held from Aug. 3-7 in Dallas, Texas, Lee received the award for his paper, “Physics-Aware Tensor Learning for Data-Efficient Multi-Port Power Distribution Network Analysis.” The paper proposed a new tensor-based method for efficiently storing and analyzing massive amounts of power distribution network (PDN) data generated in advanced semiconductor packages such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chiplet systems. Using a mathematical technique called Tucker decomposition to extract representative patterns from the data, the research team achieved a compression ratio of about 695 to 1 in a test involving a 256-port PDN, while maintaining the targeted reconstruction accuracy. “I became interested in tensors while st

Aug 13, 2026By Nam Hyun-woo

KAIST student receives best paper award at international symposium

PHOTO Power supply deal for chip clusters

From left, Kim Yong-kwan, president of management strategy at Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions division, Gwangju Mayor Min Hyung-bae, Climate Minister Kim Sung-whan, KEPCO CEO Kim Dong-cheol and Yeom Seong-jin, president of SK hynix's communications division, pose after signing a power supply deal for the planned chip clusters in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, and Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City at KEPCO's office in Seoul, Wednesday. KEPCO will supply 3 gigawatts of electricity to the new semiconductor industrial complex in the southwestern region from 2029, with plans to expand the cumulative supply to more than 6 gigawatts through additional facilities. The agreement follows up on the government’s initiative involving three megaprojects announced on June 29 and is intended to establish power-supply networks in line with the operating schedules of factories in the regions. Courtesy of Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment

Aug 12, 2026By Jung Min-ho

[PHOTO] Power supply deal for chip clusters

Telecoms see AI businesses gain traction in Q2

Major telecom operators are seeing early results from their push into artificial intelligence (AI), with AI data centers (AIDC), cloud and AI transformation businesses posting growth in the second quarter even as traditional telecom operations remained largely stagnant. SK Telecom reported the sharpest growth in its AI infrastructure business. Its second-quarter revenue rose 0.5 percent year-on-year to 4.3591 trillion won ($3.08 billion), while operating profit jumped 67.3 percent to 566 billion won. The profit increase was partly due to the absence of one-off costs from last year’s hacking incident. Despite the company’s marginal growth in overall revenue, its AIDC business surged 92.5 percent year-on-year to 136.2 billion won this quarter. It attributed the growth to expanded data center operations and rising demand for high-performance computing infrastructure as generative AI adoption accelerates. The company established a new company, SK Hyper, late last month to oversee AIDC business development and plans to invest 750 billion won through 2030. It aims to build out 5 gigawatts

Aug 12, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee

Telecoms see AI businesses gain traction in Q2

Korea unveils 7 tech projects for securing future growth engines

The government on Wednesday announced key projects to nurture advanced technologies in seven sectors, including renewable energy and space science, as part of broader efforts to seek new growth engines. The projects are part of the "strategic emerging engines for disruptive innovation," or SEED, initiative announced during a policy briefing at Cheong Wa Dae by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources. The SEED initiative aims to secure new growth engines for Korea by focusing on three areas: renewable energy, frontier technologies and an advanced supply chain ecosystem, the government said. In the renewable energy area, the government plans to commercialize water-cooled small modular reactors (SMRs) by 2035, while beginning construction of non-water-cooled SMRs around 2030. In particular, for advanced modular reactors, the government plans to establish a special purpose company (SPC) in cooperation with the private sector to oversee the project from the development stage. Korea also seeks to build a locally developed nuclear fusion reactor by 2035

Aug 12, 2026By Yonhap

Korea unveils 7 tech projects for securing future growth engines

KAIST study flags 24,000 online accounts suspected of foreign-linked influence

A research team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has identified about 24,000 foreign-linked accounts exhibiting behavior consistent with coordinated manipulation aimed at fueling political divisions on Korea’s largest news portal. The researchers developed a tool using artificial intelligence (AI) technology that can flag suspicious online accounts, and also explain the basis for its assessments. The accounts did not focus on a particular political party or ideology, but instead posted messages targeting both conservative and liberal politicians, including former and incumbent presidents, in ways that could amplify divisions and confrontation, raising suspicions of links to foreign influence operations. The team, led by professors Lee Won-jae, Cha Mee-young and Oh Hae-yun, will present their research, titled “Cross-National Information Attacks: A Two-Decade Analysis of Troll Behavior in Korea,” at USENIX Security Symposium 2026 on Thursday, according to KAIST. The research was co-authored by doctoral student Kim Jae-hong and master’s student Kim

Aug 12, 2026By Nam Hyun-woo

KAIST study flags 24,000 online accounts suspected of foreign-linked influence

ContributionWhy Google and Meta turned away from Korea

Employees from Google’s and Meta’s headquarters each paid a visit to Korea recently. Unbeknownst to the news media, they quietly met with Korean renewable energy start-ups to discuss potential investments in supplying clean energy to AI data centers the firms are considering building in Korea. Big name companies always make sure they remain committed to environmentally friendly efforts to reduce carbon emissions when making investments. These efforts are publicly disclosed under the label of environmental, social and governance practices and are subject to evaluation. Google and Meta are no different, and when they plan to build data centers that consume large amounts of electricity, running them on clean energy is always on their list of criteria. After meeting with the Korean start-ups, the companies decided to halt their investments in Korea due to the country’s limited capacity to supply clean energy. They wanted a steady supply of clean energy for their data centers, which run 24 hours a day. Providing that supply with solar or wind energy, which is generated intermittently

Aug 11, 2026By Choi Youn-jin

Why Google and Meta turned away from Korea

Google surpasses Naver in monthly active users in Korea for 1st time

Google has surpassed Naver in the number of monthly active users (MAU) in Korea for the first time, signaling that artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping one of the few markets in the world where a homegrown portal has long maintained its lead over the U.S. tech giant. According to domestic market tracker Mobile Index, the Google app recorded 47.02 million MAU last month, ranking first in the productivity app category. The figure was 177,837 higher than Naver’s 46.84 million. It marked the first time Google overtook Naver in MAU since Mobile Index began tracking relevant data in March 2021. Google’s MAU in Korea surpassed 40 million for the first time in May last year and topped 46 million in May this year. On the other hand, Naver’s monthly user count remained in the 43 million to 46 million range from January 2023 through last month. Industry officials attribute Google’s rise to the growing convergence of search and generative AI, which is diversifying the ways users seek and consume information. Both Naver and Google operate AI-powered search services that display AI-generat

Aug 11, 2026By Nam Hyun-woo

Google surpasses Naver in monthly active users in Korea for 1st time

'At least No. 2': Financial expert warns China chipmakers potentially threaten Korean market

"In semiconductors alone, no Chinese firm ranks No. 1 globally. They are always followers or underdogs," said Phil S. Lee, executive director at Mirae Asset Global Investments' Hong Kong office. "But we must note that there are many companies positioned as 'at least No. 2' across every segment of the supply chain, from fabless design and foundries to packaging." Lee described the recent leap of China's semiconductor industry as positioned across the entire supply chain in an interview with the Hankook Ilbo on Wednesday. China's top DRAM maker went public on July 27, and concerns grew over a potential crisis for the three leading memory-chip producers of Korea and the United States: Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron Technology. "Across all manufacturing processes, China trails by at least two generations, and because it lacks extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment, closing the gap with the top three in the short term remains unlikely," he said. "In semiconductors, China's goal is not to catch up with the top companies immediately, but to prevent the gap from widening fur

Aug 11, 2026By Hankookilbo

'At least No. 2': Financial expert warns China chipmakers potentially threaten Korean market

LX Semicon supplies automotive semiconductor to Hyundai, Kia

LX Semicon has begun supplying its first automotive microcontroller unit (MCU) to Hyundai Motor and Kia, marking the first tangible achievement of its automotive semiconductor business. The company said Monday that it has begun mass production of the LX61101, an MCU optimized for motor control in automotive body electronics. The chips will initially be used in Hyundai Motor and Kia vehicles that will go into production in the second half of this year, with applications set to gradually expand to a wider range of models. Based on a 40-megahertz Arm Cortex-M3 core, the chip enables stable and precise motor control by monitoring speed, position, rotational direction and torque in real time. The chip will be used in vehicle window safety systems, which automatically reverse direction when an object is detected while a window is closing, as well as in systems that control vehicle aerodynamics. LX Semicon said the chip marks the company’s first tangible achievement in its automotive MCU business, a new growth area it has been fostering since 2022 to diversify its portfolio beyond display-rel

Aug 10, 2026By Nam Hyun-woo

LX Semicon supplies automotive semiconductor to Hyundai, Kia

Goheung, Jeju vying to host Korea's 2nd space center

Two regions are vying to host Korea’s planned second space center, which will be capable of launching and landing reusable launch vehicles, with the host region to be announced in October, the country’s space authority said Sunday. According to the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA), Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City (formerly South Jeolla Province and Gwangju) and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province have applied for the open bidding for the country's second space center. KASA did not specify exact sites for the space center, but South Jeolla Province has been promoting Goheung County as a candidate region, while Jeju has reportedly proposed using a floating launch facility in waters off the city of Seogwipo on the island. The second space center is designed to support more than 10 reusable launch vehicle operations annually from the mid- to late 2030s. The government aims to establish launch, landing and maintenance facilities for reusable launch vehicles on a site covering about 5.62 million square meters by 2034. Korea currently mostly relies on the Naro Space Center i

Aug 9, 2026By Nam Hyun-woo

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