Journalist

Joseph Kwak
  • S. Korean AI firm Upstage acquires web portal Daum to bolster sovereign AI race
    S. Korean AI firm Upstage acquires web portal Daum to bolster sovereign AI race SEOUL, May 07 (AJP) - In a bid to build South Korea's sovereign AI foundation model, Upstage, one of the country's artificial intelligence powerhouses, has finalized the acquisition of web service portal Daum for an undisclosed amount, the AI company said Thursday. Daum is South Korea's iconic web service that was launched in 1995 as an arts and entertainment service portal. The service gradually upgraded to add other services such as web search, email, online magazine, and news to garner more than one million registered users in 1998. The web service's operator Daum Communication, later merged with messenger app giant Kakao to become Daum Kakao in 2015, and Daum's operating division was separated by Kakao in December 2025 into a subsidiary named AXG. According to Upstage, the acquisition deal was signed as a share swap, with the AI company acquiring the entire 100 percent stake in AXZ held by Kakao, while Kakao received newly issued shares in Upstage in return. The acquisition was made about three months after Upstage and Kakao signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in January this year. Through the acquisition of the web service portal, Upstage plans to combine its Solar large language model (LLM) with Daum's web search engine and context data to build "Context AI," a service designed to understand user intent and context rather than just matching keywords. Upstage said that the acquisition will eventually lead the company to develop a next-generation AI portal built on South Korean technology and data. "The combination of Upstage's technology and a 30-year-old national portal will mark a symbolic turning point for the AI industry, opening a new era of AI portals," Upstage CEO Kim Sung-hoon said in a statement. One of the central questions surrounding the deal concerned Daum's workforce. Upstage said Daum will continue to operate as an independent legal entity with no personnel changes. The company also pushed back against speculation that Daum's user data would be funneled into Solar's training pipeline. Bae Sung-beom, technical communications lead at Upstage, told AJP in a written response that the term 'training' in the LLM context refers specifically to the pre-learning and post-learning of foundation models and does not mean user data will be used for the machine learning of AI systems. "This kind of data is absolutely not used," Bae said. "It is impossible without the consent and cooperation of users, who are the data subjects. And even with consent, it must comply with relevant laws, including the Personal Information Protection Act." For Upstage, the acquisition lands at a pivotal moment. The 2020-founded company became South Korea's first generative AI unicorn last year after an 180-billion-won ($130 million) Series C round and has signaled plans for a KOSPI listing this year. Its Solar Pro 2, released last summer, became the first Korean-developed LLM ranked as a global frontier model. The current model, Solar Pro 3, was released in March. Upstage is also leading one of four consortia in South Korea's national "sovereign AI" project. For Kakao, this deal allows it to monetize a long-stagnant asset while preserving indirect exposure through its new equity stake in Upstage, a common pattern as the conglomerate retreats from non-core businesses amid regulatory pressure. 2026-05-07 17:13:58
  • ​​​​​​​HOT STOCK: Hyosung Heavy takes breather after 50% near-nonstop rally
    ​​​​​​​HOT STOCK: Hyosung Heavy takes breather after 50% near-nonstop rally SEOUL, May 07 (AJP) - Hyosung Heavy Industries, a Seoul-based transformer and switchgear maker, has emerged as one of the KOSPI’s standout AI infrastructure plays outside chip behemoths, with its shares soaring more than eightfold from a year earlier. The stock rose as high as 4,742,000 won ($3,267) on Thursday before easing to 4,558,000 won as of 2 p.m. Hyosung Heavy has gained nearly 50 percent in just two weeks from 2,990,000 won on April 16, and more than eightfold from 516,000 won a year ago. Its market capitalization has swelled to 42.49 trillion won, ranking No. 11 on the KOSPI. The rally has been driven largely by expectations for surging power demand from artificial intelligence. Training and operating large language models require data centers that consume far more electricity than conventional facilities, adding pressure to aging grids and prompting utilities to place massive orders for high-voltage transformers, circuit breakers and substation equipment — Hyosung Heavy’s core products. The shortage is most acute in North America, where waiting times for large transformers now range from 2.3 to 2.5 years, according to Wood Mackenzie’s second-quarter 2025 survey. Hyosung Heavy has become one of the clearest beneficiaries of the bottleneck. The company posted record annual results last year, with sales of 5.97 trillion won and operating profit of 747 billion won. North American revenue alone surpassed 1 trillion won, while its order backlog jumped 34 percent on-year to 11.9 trillion won, giving analysts confidence that earnings momentum can extend into next year. But the speed of the rally has raised valuation questions. The stock trades at roughly 80 times trailing earnings and 53 times forward earnings, well above the average for most global power-equipment peers. Brokerages remain broadly constructive on the long-term outlook. Naver Finance’s consensus 12-month target price stands at 4,620,000 won with a “buy” rating, implying analysts still see room for further upside. Trading volume reached more than 39,000 shares by mid-morning, heavy for a stock at this price level, with turnover topping 176.5 billion won. For now, the bull case remains intact — as long as hyperscalers keep pouring capital into AI data centers and U.S. utilities continue ordering transformers. 2026-05-07 14:58:09