NC AI unveils upgraded Varco 3D model with sharper shape fidelity SEOUL, June 24 (AJP) - NC AI, the artificial intelligence arm of South Korean game maker NC, announced it had completed development of Varco 3D 2.0, the latest version of its 3D asset-generation service. The new model builds on user feedback and in-house research gathered since the original Varco 3D launched last year, sharply boosting performance over its predecessor, the company said. NC AI said Wednesday the upgrade tackles distortion of original shapes, long regarded as the b June 24, 2026

Cart before the horse: Seoul is moving SOX SEOUL, June 24 (AJP) - The cart has come before the horse. Tuesday's 12 percent crash in Korean chip bellwethers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix reverberated across the Pacific, dragging the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) down more than 7 percent and pushing the Nasdaq more than 2 percent lower. It was a reversal of the traditional order in which Wall Street dictated sentiment in Seoul. This time, Seoul exported volatility to New York. The shift reflects how de June 24, 2026

KOTRA forms task force to seize Middle East rebuilding, export openings SEOUL, June 23 (AJP) - South Korea's state trade promotion agency is mobilizing to help domestic firms recover exports and stake out early positions in Middle East reconstruction markets, betting that a fragile US-Iran ceasefire will reopen commercial doors across the region. The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, known as KOTRA, said it convened an emergency review meeting on Tuesday chaired by president Kang Kyung-sung to map its response to the truce between Washington June 23, 2026

Team Korea throws gas project to sweeten sub pitch to Canada SEOUL, June 23 (AJP) - The Canadian submarine contest is getting bigger and bigger as decision day nears, with Team Korea led by Hanwha Ocean throwing in a $16 billion floating liquefied natural gas project and pitching a broader economic partnership that could help Ottawa reduce its dependence on the United States as an energy market to counter Germany's NATO leverage. The Korean team is targeting a strategic vulnerability. Canada is the world's fifth-largest natural gas June 23, 2026

Homeplus pays April, May wages as Express sale proceeds SEOUL, June 23 (AJP) - Homeplus, the South Korean hypermarket chain mired in court-led rehabilitation, paid its long-overdue April and May wages, drawing on funds widely believed to have come from the sale of its supermarket unit. Industry reports say the cash-strapped retailer disbursed the unpaid 75 percent of April salaries along with full May wages and shutdown allowances to all employees on Tuesday morning. The company declined to identify the source of the funds, though pro June 23, 2026

Samsung, SK hynix to unveil new facility investment in southern Korea SEOUL, June 23 (AJP) - South Korea's memory giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, both based in the capital region, are moving south to build new fabs as their semiconductor campuses in Gyeonggi Province have little room left for expansion to meet explosive demand in the AI era. The southward pivot by the Korean chipmakers coincides with the government's push to ease concentration around Seoul and cultivate the southern coast, rich in renewable energy resources, into a June 23, 2026

Korea touts edge in Canada submarine bid despite NATO concerns SEOUL, June 23 (AJP) - South Korean Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said Tuesday that Seoul remained hopeful about its bid for Canada’s next-generation submarine program. “We are hopeful as we await the result,” Kim told reporters after returning from visits to Kazakhstan, Europe and the Middle East. South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean is competing with Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, or TKMS, for Canada’s plan to acquire up to 12 conventionally June 23, 2026

LG Chem to invest $9.7 billion in R&D for AI-driven materials shift SEOUL, June 23 (AJP) - LG Chem will pour 15 trillion won ($9.75 billion) into research and development through 2035 as South Korea's largest chemical maker pivots toward high-value, AI-driven materials. Chief executive Kim Dong-chun told a town hall meeting on Monday that the company would cultivate semiconductor, mobility and robotics materials, along with cancer drugs, as its core future businesses, sharpening a portfolio long anchored in commodity chemicals. The strategy c June 23, 2026

Samsung develops industry's fastest UFS 5.0 storage chip for on-device AI SEOUL, June 23 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics has engineered the industry's fastest UFS 5.0 memory chip designed to power next-generation on-device artificial intelligence applications, the company said on Tuesday. As generative AI rapidly shifts from the cloud to local devices, the new memory chip is designed to significantly reduce latency and accelerate response times when running large language models (LLMs) in on-device AI environments. Built on Samsung's ninth-genera June 23, 2026

Samsung Elec HBM4 chip sales surpass $1 bln in first four months SEOUL, June 23 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics, vying to leapfrog in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) race, has shipped out $1 billion worth of the sixth-generation HBM4 over the last four months since mass production, according to sources close to the matter. The news come as the long-standing No.1 stock surrendered its place to SK hynix, the frontrunner in HBM essential to power AI accelerators of Nvidia and other major chip designers as well as hyperscale datacenters. SK hynix on June 23, 2026