Kakao Pay abandons SSG Pay acquisition, pivots to AI investment SEOUL, July 18 (AJP) - Kakao Pay has scrapped its planned acquisition of SSG Pay and Smile Pay, two mobile payment services owned by Shinsegae Group, as its parent company Kakao Group pivots sharply toward artificial intelligence-focused investments, according to industry sources on Friday. The decision marks a significant shift in Kakao Group’s broader strategic direction, which has seen the tech firm prioritize funding for its growing AI ambitions over expanding its fintech footprint. Kakao Pay, a leading mobile payment platform in South Korea, had been in talks with Shinsegae Group since early this year in a bid to better compete with rival Naver Pay. The two sides had finalized key terms, including pricing and corporate valuation, but the deal fell apart as Kakao Group reallocated capital toward its AI initiatives. The move comes just weeks after Kakao Group sold approximately 430 billion won ($310 million) worth of shares in SK Square, a move widely viewed as an effort to raise funds for large-scale AI investments. The now-abandoned acquisition was seen as part of Kakao Pay’s efforts to consolidate its position in South Korea’s highly competitive digital payments market. Shinsegae’s SSG Pay and Smile Pay are embedded within the group’s robust retail ecosystem, including Shinsegae Department Store and e-commerce platform SSG.com. Shinsegae Group said it remains committed to strengthening its payments business independently, pledging to enhance service stability and boost competitiveness across its digital commerce operations. 2025-07-18 16:05:53

[[K-Tech]] Hanwha Q Cells joins US petition to curb solar panel imports from Chinese-controlled firms SEOUL, July 18 (AJP) - A coalition of solar manufacturers, including Hanwha Q Cells and First Solar, petitioned the U.S. Commerce Department on Friday to impose tariffs on solar panels imported from Indonesia, India and Laos, accusing Chinese-owned firms of circumventing existing trade restrictions by routing products through third countries. The petition, filed by the American Solar Manufacturing and Trade Coalition, alleges that Chinese manufacturers are exploiting lower-cost production facilities in the three countries to flood the U.S. market with underpriced solar panels, undermining domestic producers. The move comes just a year after a similar petition led to new tariffs on solar imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Following that decision, imports from Indonesia and Laos surged, filling the gap left by the newly restricted countries. The case underscores the ongoing volatility in the global solar supply chain and the intensifying trade tensions between the United States and China. While the companies at the center of the complaint are based in Indonesia, India and Laos, the petition claims they are ultimately owned or controlled by Chinese parent firms, which are seeking to evade existing U.S. tariffs. “The domestic industry continues to be harmed by dumped and subsidized solar products entering through alternative channels,” the coalition said in a statement. “These measures are necessary to level the playing field.” If the Commerce Department agrees to initiate an investigation, it could result in new anti-dumping and countervailing duties on solar products from the three nations, potentially reshaping sourcing strategies for U.S. solar developers and installers. 2025-07-18 16:00:34

Goldman Sachs downgrades SK hynix, citing risks of HBM price decline SEOUL, July 17 (AJP) - Goldman Sachs downgraded its investment rating on SK hynix to "neutral" from "buy" on Thursday, warning that intensifying competition in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market could trigger the first price decline in the segment next year. In a research note, the U.S. investment bank cautioned that pricing power is gradually shifting to major customers — such as Nvidia — potentially undermining the profitability of HBM suppliers. Although SK hynix has benefited from strong share price gains this year, Goldman said the firm’s current valuation leaves little room for further upside amid growing downside risks in 2026. “We are becoming increasingly cautious on the stock,” according to the note. “The shares continue to significantly outperform, but headwinds from pricing pressure and heightened competition warrant a more balanced stance.” The bank added that it would need to see further upward revisions in medium-term demand and pricing for both HBM and conventional DRAM to justify a more bullish outlook. SK hynix shares fell sharply following the downgrade, dropping more than 8 percent in intraday trading to the 270,000 won range. The stock had closed at 300,000 won on July 14, its highest level in 12 years since joining the SK Group. The downgrade comes amid a growing chorus of concern over the outlook for HBM pricing. Daishin Securities recently revised its 2026 forecast for HBM average selling prices, projecting a 6 percent decline — down from a previous estimate of a 7 percent increase. Still, some analysts maintain a more positive view of the company’s strategic positioning. SK hynix remains the leading supplier of HBM chips to Nvidia, which accounts for roughly 70 percent of global demand. In March, the company became the first to deliver samples of sixth-generation HBM4. Hana Securities noted that while SK hynix may face some erosion in market share due to Micron Technology’s entry into the HBM3E space, the firm retains competitive advantages in early product deployment and profitability management. “As long as SK hynix can maintain its early-mover advantage and supply to Nvidia, its leadership in AI memory chips should remain intact,” Hana wrote. 2025-07-17 16:12:29

Samsung chairman escapes legal peril as Supreme Court upholds acquittal SEOUL, July 17 (AJP) - South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the acquittal of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong on charges stemming from the controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates and related accounting practices — concluding a nearly five-year legal battle that once threatened to upend the leadership of the country’s largest conglomerate. The court, presided over by Chief Justice Oh Seok-jun, affirmed lower court rulings that cleared Lee of all criminal charges, including market manipulation, breach of trust, and violations of capital market and accounting laws. The decision effectively ends one of South Korea’s most high-profile corporate trials. At the heart of the case were allegations that Lee and his aides engineered the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries to consolidate his control over the Samsung empire at minimal cost, ahead of a planned leadership succession. Prosecutors alleged that Lee’s team manipulated stock prices, engaged in accounting fraud, and used Samsung’s powerful but now-disbanded Future Strategy Office to drive the deal through. Thirteen other defendants, including former Future Strategy Office chief Choi Ji-sung, strategy head Kim Jong-jung, and deputy chief Jang Choong-ki, were also acquitted. The Supreme Court found that the lower courts had correctly assessed the evidence and followed legal standards governing capital market violations and digital evidence procedures. One key point in the ruling was the exclusion of prosecution evidence obtained from Samsung’s digital servers and mobile devices. The appellate courts found that authorities had failed to follow lawful procedures during the collection of 18 terabytes of data from Samsung Biologics and Samsung Bioepis servers, including private messages from former executives. The courts ruled the search and seizure process did not meet legal standards for digital forensics or adequately protect defendants’ rights. Prosecutors had also argued that Samsung Biologics improperly altered its accounting treatment of call options held by U.S. biotech partner Biogen in order to avoid capital erosion during the 2015 merger. However, the courts ruled that the company’s financial disclosures reflected reasonable business judgment and that changes in Bioepis’s valuation — spurred by regulatory approval of biosimilar products in Europe — supported the accounting decisions. In a statement following the ruling, Lee’s legal team said the court’s decision “clearly confirmed the legality of the Samsung C&T merger and the accounting treatment applied by Samsung Biologics.” The case began in September 2020 when prosecutors indicted Lee on 19 counts. After a lengthy trial, he was acquitted on all charges in February 2024. That verdict was upheld by an appellate court in February 2025, which expanded the scope to 23 charges, including new allegations. Thursday’s Supreme Court decision affirms both judgments, allowing Lee to move forward without legal constraints as he continues to lead Samsung Group. 2025-07-17 13:43:05

[[K-Tech]] LG challenges OpenAI, Alibaba with new hybrid AI model, EXAONE 4.0 SEOUL, July 16 (AJP) - LG AI Research on Wednesday unveiled what it calls South Korea’s first hybrid artificial intelligence model, EXAONE 4.0, a system that fuses large language processing with advanced reasoning capabilities. The release marks LG’s fourth major AI launch in as many months, as the company escalates efforts to compete with global players like OpenAI, Anthropic, Alibaba, and Google. EXAONE 4.0 integrates two distinct AI functions — a large language model for fast, knowledge-based responses and a reasoning engine for complex problem-solving — within a single architecture. LG claims the hybrid system addresses a fundamental shortcoming in current AI models: language models excel at fluency and speed but struggle with logic and reasoning, while reasoning-focused systems often lack versatility and responsiveness. “By bridging the gap between language fluency and cognitive reasoning, EXAONE 4.0 marks a new chapter in Korea’s AI capabilities,” said an LG spokesperson. To demonstrate its performance, LG reported that EXAONE 4.0 passed written exams for six Korean national professional licenses, including those for medical doctors, dentists and traditional Korean medicine practitioners. The company released two configurations of the model: a 32-billion-parameter expert version designed for specialized tasks, and a lighter 1.2-billion-parameter on-device model aimed at high-efficiency use cases. According to LG, the compact version surpasses OpenAI’s GPT-4o mini in mathematics, coding, and science benchmarks, while operating with half the parameters of its predecessor, EXAONE 3.5. In a move toward openness and collaboration, LG released the model with open weights on the Hugging Face platform, enabling academic and research use. With this step, LG joins a growing group of global tech firms — including Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Alibaba — embracing transparency in AI development. The company plans to embed EXAONE 4.0 across its product ecosystem, from home appliances and smartphones to automotive systems and robotics. LG will present additional details and future plans at its upcoming “LG AI Talk Concert 2025,” scheduled for July 22 at LG Science Park in Magok, Seoul. 2025-07-16 14:28:59

The Shilla Seoul picked Korea's top hotel in global La Liste ranking SEOUL, July 15 (AJP) - The Shilla Seoul has been named Korea’s top hotel and ranked among the world’s 200 best in the 2025 edition of La Liste Top 1000 Hotels, an international ranking published by the French National Tourism Board. The annual list evaluates hotels around the globe based on aggregated scores from international guidebooks, professional media, industry journals, and online reviews. The Shilla Seoul stood out for its highly personalized service and culinary excellence, distinguishing itself in the fiercely competitive luxury hospitality market. Reviewers praised the hotel’s meticulous attention to guest preferences, from customized room preparation to seamless service from arrival to departure. The evaluation highlighted what it described as the hotel’s “authentic approach to hospitality,” noting its consistently high standards and detail-oriented service. The Shilla Seoul’s diverse fine dining offerings were also central to its ranking. All four of its restaurants were included in La Liste 2025, with the Korean fine dining restaurant La Yeon earning 96 points — the highest score among Korean restaurants — and maintaining its place in the global Top 200 for a sixth consecutive year. French restaurant Continental and Japanese restaurant Ariake were each recognized for the sixth straight year, while Chinese restaurant Palsun made the list for a third year running. La Liste, first published in 2015, ranks the world’s top 1,000 hotels and restaurants using a composite scoring system that incorporates data from review platforms such as TripAdvisor and Yelp, as well as assessments from the Michelin Guide, The New York Times, and surveys of culinary professionals worldwide. 2025-07-15 17:19:23

Biopharmaceuticals account for growing share of new drug launches SEOUL, July 15 (AJP) - Biopharmaceuticals made up 42 percent of new drug launches worldwide between 2020 and 2024, reflecting their growing influence in the pharmaceutical landscape, according to new data released Tuesday by market research firm IQVIA. The share of biological medicines among newly approved active substances has steadily increased over the past two decades — from 28 percent between 2005 and 2009, to 30 percent in the following five years, and to 39 percent between 2015 and 2019. The latest figures confirm a continued upward trend. New active substances, or NASs, are defined as compounds with previously unapproved chemical structures or mechanisms of action. They often represent significant innovations in drug development, forming the basis of pharmaceutical pipelines across the globe. Regional disparities in biopharmaceutical adoption remain notable. In the 2020–2024 period, biologics accounted for 33 percent of NAS launches in China, compared to 44 percent in the United States, and 45 percent in both Japan and a group of four major European Union countries plus the United Kingdom. IQVIA attributed these variations in part to differences in regulatory environments and market accessibility, emphasizing that a country’s level of access to biopharmaceuticals directly influences its overall healthcare spending. While China’s adoption rate still trails that of more developed markets, the gap has narrowed in recent years, the firm said. The five-year period also saw a notable acceleration in overall drug development, with 394 NASs launched globally — representing nearly 40 percent of all new active substances introduced since 2005. The United States led with 273 NASs during the period, a 22 percent increase from 2015 to 2019, further solidifying its position as a hub for biopharmaceutical innovation. 2025-07-15 15:19:45

Industry minister nominee backs US-style tax credits for chips, batteries SEOUL, July 15 (AJP) - South Korea’s nominee for industry minister, Kim Jung-gwan, is pushing for the introduction of production tax credits for semiconductors and battery materials, according to parliamentary documents released Tuesday ahead of his confirmation hearing. Kim, a former senior economic official and most recently an executive at power equipment firm Doosan Enerbility, said the government must adopt “strategic and proactive industrial policies with competitive incentives” to reduce trade risks and bolster key sectors. He identified production tax credits — subsidies tied to output rather than investment — as a priority for advanced industries, starting with semiconductors and battery materials. “Securing global leadership in semiconductors requires swift, strong support in the face of intensifying global uncertainty,” Kim wrote in the parliamentary document. He called for fiscal and tax incentives to enhance domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity, echoing the production-linked support seen in recent U.S. industrial policy. In the battery sector, Kim warned that a slowing electric vehicle market and China’s dominance in the supply chain pose “urgent threats” to South Korea’s competitiveness. He pledged focused support for the production of critical battery components such as cathodes, anodes, electrolytes, and separators to reduce dependence on Chinese suppliers and strengthen the so-called “K-battery” ecosystem. Production tax credits function as direct tax reductions tied to companies’ actual output. The United States introduced similar measures under the Inflation Reduction Act, offering incentives for domestic production of batteries, solar components, and clean energy fuels. South Korea currently offers one-time investment tax credits of up to 20 percent for large firms in high-tech industries like semiconductors, but has yet to tie such support to production volumes. President Lee Jae Myung had pledged during his campaign to introduce a 10 percent production tax credit for domestically produced and sold semiconductors. Industry estimates suggest that Samsung Electronics and SK hynix could each benefit from annual tax reductions of up to 5 trillion won (approximately $3.6 billion) under such a scheme. Kim’s emphasis on battery materials marks a more granular approach than the broader support pledged by the president during the campaign. Industry insiders welcomed the proposal, noting that extending tax credits to material manufacturers could improve Korea’s supply chain independence in a sector heavily reliant on China. “If production tax credits are applied to key materials, Korea’s battery industry will be much more globally competitive,” a battery industry official said. The nominee's confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday. 2025-07-15 14:10:53

LG targets global markets for StandbyME 2 portable screen after domestic success SEOUL, July 14 (AJP) - LG Electronics will begin the global rollout of its StandbyME 2 portable screen this week. The company plans a phased international launch, starting with Hong Kong and Turkey this week. Additional markets, including the United States, Canada, Vietnam, and Singapore, will follow in July, with the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Spain scheduled for August. The StandbyME 2, a second-generation upgrade of LG’s portable screen lineup, recorded strong sales momentum after its Korean debut in February. During its first live broadcast event, more than 1,000 units sold out in just 38 minutes. Over the following five months, sales volume reached nearly four times that of the original StandbyME, signaling growing consumer appetite for portable and flexible screen solutions. The device features a 27-inch QHD touchscreen with a resolution of 2,560 by 1,440 pixels and offers up to four hours of wireless use on a single charge. LG says the new model incorporates customer feedback gathered since the original StandbyME’s launch, introducing a simplified design that allows users to detach the screen from its stand at the press of a button — eliminating the need for tools or screws. That upgrade enables the screen to function as a tabletop display or wall-mounted frame, part of what LG describes as a broader push to accommodate modern viewing habits and mobile lifestyles. The company has framed its second-generation release as a direct response to customer demand, emphasizing flexibility, convenience, and portability. “We will further strengthen our leadership in the global portable screen market by leveraging the completely renewed lifestyle screen, the LG StandbyME 2, which reflects the voices of our customers,” said Lee Choong-hwan, head of LG’s TV business unit. 2025-07-14 15:02:00

Samsung supplies advanced image sensor to Xiaomi, challenging Sony in global market SEOUL, July 14 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics has begun external shipments of its newest image sensor, the Isocell JNP, to Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, marking a key step in the firm's effort to challenge Sony’s long-standing dominance in the global image sensor market. The Isocell JNP, which features Samsung’s industry-first nanoprismatic technology, has been integrated into Xiaomi’s new CIVI 5 PRO smartphone, the company’s latest flagship equipped with its most advanced camera system to date. According to industry sources, Monday, Samsung’s System LSI division completed development and began mass production of the sensor in the second quarter, roughly a year after debuting its previous high-end Isocell JN5 series in June 2024. Image sensors are a critical component of smartphone cameras and other digital imaging devices, converting light into electrical signals to form high-quality images. The Isocell JNP sensor offers a 50-megapixel resolution, 0.64-micrometer pixel size, and a 1/2.8-inch optical format — conventional specifications — but its defining feature is its innovative nanoprismatic structure. Unlike traditional sensors, where each pixel captures only a single color, Samsung’s new design allows pixels to share and refract light through nano-scale microlenses, enabling the simultaneous capture of multiple colors. The result is a 25 percent increase in light sensitivity compared with the previous model, allowing for significantly improved performance in low-light environments. The technological breakthrough comes as smartphone manufacturers increasingly demand thinner devices — a trend that traditionally compromises image quality due to the need for smaller camera modules. Samsung's nanoprismatic solution addresses this challenge by maximizing light efficiency within the shrinking physical confines of modern smartphones. The move signals Samsung’s renewed ambition in the global CMOS image sensor market, which is projected to grow from $20.8 billion this year to $26.5 billion by 2029, fueled by rising demand from industries such as autonomous vehicles, robotics, and surveillance. Samsung currently holds a 15.4 percent share of the image sensor market, trailing far behind Sony’s commanding 51.6 percent. Chinese rival OmniVision is gaining ground, increasing its market share from 10.9 percent in 2023 to 11.9 percent in 2024. To close the gap, Samsung is eyeing expansion beyond its in-house Galaxy smartphones and Chinese partners. The company plans to supply sensors to North American tech firms beginning next year and is actively developing automotive-grade sensors, aiming to diversify its customer base and broaden its portfolio. 2025-07-14 11:06:28