Aju Press - Asia News Hub

Journalist

Kim Dong-young김동영

ReporterSamsung Biologics, CJ CheilJedang, LG Chem, Celltrion, Naver, Krafton, Nexon, Hyundai Mobis etc. & energy, game, food, bio, petrochemical, AI

Kim Dong-young is a bilingual journalist at AJU Press (AJP), covering Korean tech, energy, and bio/pharma.
He reports from the field at events like CES and APEC, runs AJP's YouTube channels,
and is pursuing a master's at Sogang's MOT program. "I try everything in this AI era that can improve yet preserve the facts. Journalism still serves as my core."

Latest by Kim Dong-young

Hyperscalers run the infrastructure the AI world stands on a SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - The history of civilization has always been, in part, a history of whoever controlled the core infrastructure. The 19th century was completed by the railway and the steam engine; the 20th was driven by oil and electricity. If the internet and the smartphone reshaped daily life in the early 21st century, then today — with generative AI in full swing — the world stands once again in the middle of a vast civilizational shift. At its center sits a new kind of industrial power: the hyperscaler. Barely a decade ago, a hyperscaler was understood as little more than a cloud-service provider. That meaning has changed entirely. These firms are no longer landlords renting out servers; they are the core infrastructure of digital civilization, building and operating the colossal backbone of the AI era. Today the competitiveness of generative AI is not decided by superior algorithms alone. World-class AI service demands data centers wiring together hundreds of thousands of GPUs, ultra-fast networks, enormous power supply, and the advanced memory and chip supply chains beneath all of it. The name itself comes from the ability to scale to enormous size. Operating anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of servers, building data centers across the globe, and expanding resources instantly when demand spikes — that is the core competitive edge, and it represents an economy of scale on a different plane from an ordinary cloud vendor. Because everything from hardware design to server operation, networking, cooling, AI silicon and software platforms is designed and managed as one integrated stack, cost competitiveness and performance can be secured at the same time. The author would group the firms leading this market into six: Amazon's AWS, the global cloud frontrunner, built on vast data centers and its own AI chips; Microsoft, expanding enterprise AI rapidly through its OpenAI partnership; Google, holding strong ground in data analytics and generative AI behind its TPUs and AI platform; Oracle, raising its profile on high-performance AI infrastructure; Alibaba Cloud, broadening its reach across China and Asia; and Meta, building a new ecosystem on large GPU clusters and open-source models. Where industry watchers draw the line varies — some reserve "hyperscaler" for the top three or four — but the common thread among all of them is the same: relentless, astronomical capital investment. Combined annual capital spending by the global big-tech players now runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars — on the order of $600 billion to $690 billion in 2026 — and much of it flows into AI data centers, GPU procurement, in-house chip development and power infrastructure. The AI race has moved beyond software into a contest over who can secure the most computing resources. In the AI era, in other words, the outcome is not decided by code alone. Infrastructure — data centers, power, semiconductors, networks — has become the new wellspring of competitiveness. In this, hyperscalers carry enormous weight for national economies too. Because AI data centers consume vast amounts of electricity, nuclear power, small modular reactors, renewables and expanded transmission grids are rising up the list of national strategic priorities. The regions where data centers land grow into new industrial hubs, pulling power, telecommunications, construction, semiconductors and cooling technology up with them. Where ports and railways once decided national competitiveness, AI data centers and the digital infrastructure linking them are becoming the bedrock of national growth. Another defining feature is in-house AI chip development. Rather than rely solely on Nvidia GPUs, each firm is building its own accelerator — Google's TPU, AWS' Trainium and Inferentia, Microsoft's Maia, Meta's MTIA — to cut costs and stabilize supply. It is a sign that the AI market is evolving from a simple software contest into a full-stack industry where chips, systems and platforms are fused together. A hyperscaler, then, is no longer a cloud company. It is the power utility and the railway of the AI age — a new kind of industrial empire underwriting national infrastructure. The vast data centers and global networks they have built form the foundation of the AI ecosystem, and on top of that foundation countless companies and industries grow. The balance of power in the world economy ahead is likely to turn less on who built the best AI model than on who builds and runs the most powerful AI infrastructure. The age of AI is the age of vast infrastructure. And the hyperscaler is settling in as the new axis around which that infrastructure turns. The giant that built Nvidia was the hyperscaler When people talk about the generative-AI boom, the first name that comes to mind is Nvidia. Widen the lens a little, though, and it becomes clear the company's explosive growth was never a solo achievement. The single greatest force lifting Nvidia to where it stands today was the astronomical investment of the hyperscalers. As ChatGPT and its peers spread at speed, the world's giant platform companies scrambled into a race to secure GPUs. Training an AI model means wiring tens of thousands — sometimes hundreds of thousands — of GPUs into one massive cluster, a level of computing power far beyond what an ordinary company can shoulder. In the end, only the hyperscalers, with their immense capital and data-center experience, could stand at the center of the AI revolution. But they have no intention of depending on Nvidia forever. Google with its TPU, AWS with Trainium and Inferentia, Microsoft with Maia, Meta with MTIA — each is strengthening its own chip capability. This is less a strategy to shut Nvidia out than a long game to diversify supply and cut costs, because the bigger the AI industry grows, the more designing and optimizing hardware in-house becomes the heart of corporate competitiveness. Inside this upheaval, the global semiconductor order is being redrawn. AI GPUs are produced on TSMC's leading-edge processes, made possible by ASML's extreme-ultraviolet lithography. Broadcom and Marvell supply the high-speed networking and custom silicon, while in memory, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix hold the central axis. AI is no longer an industry any single company can monopolize; it has become a vast ecosystem in which chips, networks, memory and software are tightly interlocked. Memory, in particular, matters now to a degree it never did before. Generative AI has to process enormous volumes of data in real time, and ordinary DRAM is not enough. High-bandwidth memory (HBM), working alongside the GPU, has become a decisive factor in AI performance, and the DDR5 DRAM and enterprise SSD capacity packed into a single server is climbing sharply. Where PCs and smartphones once led the memory market, the hyperscalers' AI data centers are now the source of new demand. Next-generation memory technology adds to the momentum. CXL, which lets CPU, GPU and memory be tapped as a single giant pool of resources, is expected to lift AI-server efficiency dramatically. Add HBM4 and HBM4E and advanced packaging, and the AI memory market looks set to keep growing for a long stretch yet. The essence of the AI industry, then, is not a simple software contest. It is a vast industrial ecosystem in which data centers, chips, memory, networks and power are organically fused — and the hyperscaler is the conductor that keeps that ecosystem moving. The future of Samsung and SK hynix, and Korea's task South Korea holds two assets the world envies: Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, memory chipmakers of the very top rank. As the AI era moves into full gear, the two are graduating from mere component suppliers into core partners that help run the global AI infrastructure. As the hyperscalers' data centers multiply, demand for HBM, DDR5 and enterprise SSDs rises with them. After HBM4 in particular, an era of customer-tailored memory opens up, and Samsung and SK hynix will have to become strategic partners that co-develop with hyperscalers and AI-chip firms from the earliest design stage. Cooperation, in other words, is maturing past a simple supplier relationship toward jointly designing the AI ecosystem itself. But opportunity is not the whole story. Customers are building their own AI chips and diversifying supply, and rivals are accelerating their own HBM and advanced-packaging work. Holding a decisive lead means the pace of innovation cannot slacken; HBM4E, next-generation CXL memory, advanced packaging, low-power technology and reliability all demand sustained R&D. A second crucial task is building long-term supply chains. To keep their AI services stable, hyperscalers are increasingly locking in memory through long-term contracts. Samsung and SK hynix must move beyond simply selling product toward customer-tailored solutions, joint development and expanded long-term partnerships — a path that secures both earnings stability and future growth at once. At the national level the strategy is equally clear. Korea cannot rest on its present strength as a memory power. It must draw up a comprehensive AI-infrastructure strategy that connects data-center investment, expanded power infrastructure, nuclear power and SMRs, optical networks, advanced cooling, AI software and talent development. The competition of the AI era is widening from a single product line — semiconductors — into a contest between entire national industrial ecosystems. In the 20th century the nation that held oil moved the world; in the internet age, the company that held the platform ruled the market. In the 21st-century AI age, the hyperscaler is becoming the center of a new industrial civilization. The heart that drives that vast infrastructure is, in the end, advanced memory — and in that field Korea holds competitiveness of the highest order in the world. A historic opportunity lies before Samsung and SK hynix. The AI memory super-cycle is likely not a short-lived boom but a long-term shift that reshapes the structure of the industry itself. Yet opportunity favors only the prepared. By holding their technology lead, sustaining customer-tailored innovation and binding themselves ever more closely to the global AI ecosystem, the two can vault beyond memory manufacturing to become core platform companies leading the AI age. Korea stands at the same fork. Remain a memory power, or leap to become an AI-infrastructure power? The answer is plain. Only a country that designs the future together with the hyperscalers — and executes a national strategy spanning chips, power, data centers and software, with Samsung and SK hynix at its core — can become a new protagonist of AI civilization. The winner of the AI era will not be the firm that built one superb AI model. It will be the nation and the company that build the largest AI infrastructure, secure the most stable chip supply chains and forge the most powerful industrial ecosystem. Korea already holds that opportunity in its hands. What it needs now is unwavering investment, technological innovation, and the national strategy and follow-through to match. 2026-06-29 13:26:11
K-AI models take root from broadcasting to public administration SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - South Korean firms are widening the reach of homegrown artificial intelligence, deploying domestically built models across sectors including television production, government work, and chip-powered sovereign computing. The Ministry of Science and ICT disclosed Monday a series of field cases showing how the country's so-called 'K-AI' models, developed under a state-backed sovereign AI drive, are moving from the lab into everyday industrial and public use. NC AI is teaming up with broadcaster MBC to bring multimodal technology, including a vision-language model, into post-production, a stage long shackled to manual editing and subtitling that drains time and money. The company aims to trim that drudgery and shorten the overall workflow. Upstage became the first supplier of a generative AI service for public-sector tasks under a contract with the Public Procurement Service, listing its "Public AI Workspace" on the agency's digital marketplace. Built on its homegrown Solar model and optical character recognition, the tool handles Hangul Word Processor, Microsoft Word, and PDF files securely on government networks. KT, meanwhile, is rolling out its proprietary Mi:dm 2.0 model for Gyeonggi Province, laying the groundwork for AI-assisted administration through an open platform that drafts documents, organizes records and retrieves information. The provincial government has secured certification from the Telecommunications Technology Association, vouching for the service's reliability and safety. SK Telecom and Rebellions ran the carrier's A.X K1 model on servers powered by the domestically designed Rebel100 chip, confirming that ultra-large models of more than 500 billion parameters can operate on Korean-made AI hardware. 2026-06-29 10:47:28
Nexon Games to bring 'Blue Archive' to Korean craft art SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - Nexon Games announced it will support the creation of craft artworks based on its popular subculture mobile game "Blue Archive," joining a social contribution project run by the Nexon Foundation. The studio signed a memorandum of understanding on June 26 with the Nexon Foundation and the Korea Ceramic Foundation to launch the initiative, dubbed "Borderless: Craft Archive." The three parties will oversee artwork production, exhibitions and hands-on programs for visitors. Six artisans working in ceramics, metal, woodcraft, glass, mother-of-pearl and textiles will reinterpret the "Blue Archive" intellectual property, with the partners conducting joint reviews and offering guidance at each stage of production. The finished works will be unveiled at the Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale 2026, held from Oct. 23 to Nov. 1 at the Gyeonggi Craft Center in Yeoju, south of Seoul, alongside experience programs for the public and gamers alike. "It is meaningful that 'Blue Archive' is expanding into a new form through the interpretations of craft artists," said Kim Yong-ha, head of the division at Nexon Games. "We hope this collaboration becomes an occasion to experience the IP in richer ways." 2026-06-29 09:42:28
CJ CheilJedang launches gim snacks in push for premium health-food market SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - CJ CheilJedang, South Korea's largest food maker, announced Monday it has rolled out three new bibigo gim bugak snacks, betting on rising appetite for traditional seaweed treats at home and abroad. The crispy snacks, made from dried laver coated in glutinous rice paste and fried, revive a labor-intensive handcrafting method the company said captures the deep aroma and richness of the seaweed. The lineup comes in original, spicy and shrimp flavors. The launch rides a powerful export wave. South Korea's dried seaweed shipments surpassed the $1 billion mark for the first time in 2025, up 13.2 percent on-year, with the United States the top destination at $220 million. The country supplies more than 70 percent of the global seaweed market, and gim has crossed cultural boundaries to feature in dishes from gimbap to pizza. CJ's own seaweed business has tracked that boom, climbing at an average annual rate of about 30 percent over the past three years to reach 120 billion won ($78.1 million) in domestic revenue last year, the company said. CJ plans to broaden its snack portfolio beyond traditional rice-side dishes and carry gim bugak overseas, starting with the United States later this year, as foreign shoppers increasingly hunt for Korean seaweed as a must-buy item. "Spearheaded by bibigo gim bugak, we will win over Korean palates and spread the charm of traditional Korean snacks abroad, establishing ourselves as a leading K-snack player," said a CJ CheilJedang spokesperson. 2026-06-29 09:10:25
Kakao union holds this month's second "log-out" day SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) -Messaging at Kakao, whose chat platform is used by most South Koreans, is expected to remain unaffected by a one-day collective union action to log off from work on Monday. Kakao said it has activated a real-time response system to ensure stable operation of KakaoTalk and other key services and minimize inconvenience to users as unionized workers stage what they call a "Logout Day." The action comes after labor and management failed to narrow differences over the company's performance-based bonus system. It is the union's second industrial action this month, following a four-hour partial strike on June 10. Union members at five Kakao affiliates — Kakao, Kakao Pay, Kakao Enterprise, DK Techin and XL Games — are taking part by using full-day annual leave or scheduled time off and logging out of internal work systems. Kakao's main union has about 2,500 members, while industry officials estimate participation could reach up to 3,000 including affiliates. The final number will be tallied after the action ends. The union does not plan to hold an offline rally or issue a separate statement on Monday. Negotiations over the bonus system broke down in May and have remained stalled for nearly two months. The union has demanded performance bonuses worth about 10 million won per person, equivalent to roughly 13 to 14 percent of operating profit, while management says the demand would place an excessive burden on the company. The first round of action drew about 1,000 participants at Kakao headquarters and about 1,500 across the five affiliates, but caused no service disruption. Much of Kakao's service operation is automated, limiting user impact. Still, the latest action is being watched more closely because it lasts a full day and the union has signaled broader participation. Kakao said it will continue talks with the union while maintaining emergency response measures for its major services. 2026-06-29 09:02:06
Kakao union to halt work for a day as wage talks stall SEOUL, June 26 (AJP) - Kakao's labor union will press ahead with a one-day "log-off day" on June 29, halting work across the South Korean tech giant's affiliates after negotiations with management failed to yield a wage and collective bargaining agreement. Members at five entities — Kakao, Kakao Pay, Kakao Enterprise, DK Techin and XL Games — will use annual leave or paid days off to step away from their duties for the day and log out of company work systems, the union said. Talks are continuing but have yet to reach a level acceptable to the union. The action follows the company's first-ever strike on June 10, when about 1,000 workers at Kakao's headquarters and roughly 1,500 across all affiliates joined a four-hour partial walkout. The union has signaled that further industrial action could follow, though it has not settled on whether to mount a full-day or general strike. At the heart of the dispute is performance-based pay. The union has accused management of awarding executives tens of billions of won in bonuses on the back of last year's strong earnings while offering employees an opaque, far smaller package, and is also demanding job security and the resignation of senior leaders. "Kakao's real reform must be made by the crew, not the executives," union chapter chief Seo Seung-wook told a rally on June 10, using the company's term for its staff. 2026-06-26 16:25:59
South Korea to launch CIA-style fund for security startups SEOUL, June 26 (AJP) - South Korea will set up a government-backed venture fund modelled on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's In-Q-Tel (IQT) to nurture companies in emerging security technologies, pledging 50 billion won ($32.3 million) by next year. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups unveiled the plan on Friday, dubbed a "Korean IQT," at a strategy meeting on fostering future security innovators held at the presidential office. The vehicle will invest directly in promising firms working in fields such as artificial intelligence and drones. IQT, the independent nonprofit the CIA chartered in 1999 to close the technology gap between Washington and Silicon Valley, has bankrolled now-prominent players including data-analytics giant Palantir. Seoul intends to replicate that template at home. The Korean fund will be established as a subsidiary of Korea Venture Investment Corp., with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and other agencies co-investing. The ministry and the defense procurement agency will each commit 25 billion won to reach the initial 50 billion won, then secure fresh capital annually over the following four years. Given the sensitivity of the sector, the government will draft legal grounds to keep investor and fund details confidential, impose confidentiality obligations on staff, and restrict the appointment of foreign nationals and dual citizens. Returns on government money will be ploughed entirely back into reinvestment, the ministry said. The emphasis on secrecy lands at an awkward moment for the ministry, which last week disclosed that the personal data and business ideas of about 5,000 first-round winners of its "Startup for All" program had leaked through an unauthorized channel. Police have since opened a preliminary probe, and the data was found to have escaped not through a direct hack of government systems but through a partner firm supporting the program. The episode has dogged Prime Minister-nominee Han Seong-sook, who championed the program as SMEs minister. Han apologized over the leak of personal information and start-up ideas belonging to thousands of participants, telling reporters she felt the weight of her responsibility as the minister in charge. 2026-06-26 15:33:37
Government rolls out record agricultural discounts to tame summer food prices SEOUL, June 26 (AJP) - South Korea will pour 350 billion won ($226 million) into an unprecedented discount campaign covering every eligible agricultural, livestock and fisheries product this summer, in its most aggressive bid yet to ease a stubborn cost-of-living squeeze. The measures, unveiled at a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy Koo Yun-cheol on Friday, form part of a wider 1 trillion won package aimed at keeping second-half inflation below 3 percent. They follow a directive from President Lee Jae Myung for swift, decisive action against mounting price pressures. "We will mobilize every available means and do our utmost to keep second-half consumer inflation within 3 percent," Koo said, pledging fiscal firepower for discounts, essential living-cost relief and support for small businesses hit by high fuel prices. For the first time, the discount drive will span all eligible products rather than the 22 items previously targeted, including rice, onions, eggs, pork and mackerel. Per-person support will rise to a maximum of 30,000 won from 10,000 won, while the rice discount climbs to 6,000 won per 20 kilograms from 5,000 won. To rein in egg prices, the government will expand fresh-egg imports more than sixfold, bringing in an additional 200 million units and supplying bakeries and other small merchants alongside retailers. A special delegation will be dispatched next month to secure extra mackerel, with the UK and the Faroe Islands eyed as new suppliers beyond Norway. Traditional-market discount vouchers, once issued mainly around holidays, will now be released monthly at up to double their previous scale. Relief will also extend beyond the dinner table to fuel, transport and energy bills, with an extra 147,000 won earmarked for 220,000 vulnerable households that rely on kerosene and LPG. 2026-06-26 11:11:35
World-OKTA signs MOU with Guangdong trade bodies ahead of October expo SEOUL, June 26 (AJP) - The World Federation of Overseas Korean Traders Associations (World-OKTA) signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade's Guangdong committee and other global economic groups, laying the groundwork for a Korea-China trade expo set for Shenzhen in October. The agreement was sealed on the sidelines of the 2026 Invest Guangdong Promotion Conference, held Monday in Beijing. Through the pact, World-OKTA plans to weave together Guangdong's industrial infrastructure, the CCPIT committee's economic network and its own worldwide web of Korean business leaders to widen exchanges between the two countries' firms and open doors for Korean companies in the Chinese market. "Shenzhen is an important bridgehead for Korean companies entering the Chinese market and a key gateway to the global market," said Park Jong-bum, chairman of World-OKTA., pledging to build the expo into a private-sector platform that could also spur joint ventures into third-country markets. 2026-06-26 10:34:22
SK Telecom to invest 738 billion won in SK hynix's US AI arm SEOUL, June 26 (AJP) - SK Telecom said it will commit about 738.4 billion won ($77.3 million) to SK hynix's new US-based artificial intelligence investment company, deepening the broader SK Group's push to build a foothold across the AI value chain. In a regulatory filing submitted to South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service on Thursday, the country's largest wireless carrier said its board had approved a subscription agreement to acquire new shares in SK hynix NAND Product Solutions, the Silicon Valley entity widely known as Solidigm. The 738.4 billion won outlay equals 5.70 percent of the company's equity. SK Telecom will pick up 1,198 new shares for a 0.9 percent stake, with the final payment due by June 25, 2030. The funds will be drawn on a capital-call basis, allowing the money to be deployed as the recipient requests over the four-year term. The target is the vehicle SK hynix carved out of Solidigm, its California enterprise solid-state drive subsidiary, in January to anchor a US AI strategy backed by a $10 billion commitment. Operations were spun into a separate firm under the Solidigm name, while the parent pivoted to AI-focused investment. SK Telecom is the latest affiliate to join. SK Inc. and SK Innovation poured in about $250 million and $380 million, respectively, in March, as Chairman Chey Tae-won steers the conglomerate toward becoming what he calls a comprehensive AI solutions provider. The bet rides on memory demand that shows few signs of cooling. SK hynix is the primary supplier of high-bandwidth memory for Nvidia's AI accelerators, and the two firms sealed a multi-year co-development pact during Jensen Huang's Korea visit this month to lock in supply through the end of the decade. 2026-06-26 09:09:52