LG Display to boost capex as OLED sales top 60%

LG Display plans to raise capital expenditure this year to the mid- to upper-2 trillion won range, more than 1 trillion won above the 1.4 trillion won ($947.1 million) it spent in 2025, as the South Korean panel-maker steps up OLED-focused investment. In its 2025 annual report filed Wednesday, LG Display said it spent 1.4 trillion won on facilities to expand production capacity for differentiated products, including organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, panels. For 2026, it said spending will i

March 12, 2026

Line Plus enters AI agent race with ActEngine AI

Line Plus, the Korean subsidiary of Line Corporation, on Thursday unveiled ActEngine AI, an artificial intelligence platform designed to automate customer support and sales operations, marking its push into the fast-growing enterprise AI market across Asia. Unlike conventional query-based chatbots, ActEngine AI uses execution-based AI agents capable of performing tasks such as customer service, complaint handling and sales proposals. The platform allows companies to manage and deploy AI agents t

March 12, 2026

Why Korean memory giants aren't rushing to expand DRAM supply

The world suddenly cannot get enough memory chips. Artificial intelligence data centers are consuming unprecedented volumes of DRAM, pushing prices higher and squeezing supply for everything from smartphones to laptops. The two companies at the center of that boom, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, earned more than 72.1 trillion won ($48.7 billion) in operating profit last year. And yet the shortage continues. The question seems obvious. If demand is booming and profits are soaring, why not simp

March 12, 2026

Huons wins IND approval for Phase 2 dry eye drug trial

Huons, a South Korean pharmaceutical company specializing in ophthalmic and injectable medicines, said Thursday it has received Investigational New Drug approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to begin a Phase 2 clinical trial of its dry eye treatment candidate. HUC1-394 is a peptide-based ophthalmic solution licensed from Novacell Technology. The drug selectively binds to Formyl Peptide Receptor 2 (FPR2) — a receptor involved in the body’s natural resolution of inflammation — activat

March 12, 2026

Samsung Electro-Mechanics brings 200MP continuous zoom to Xiaomi flagship

Samsung Electro-Mechanics has begun mass production of a 200-megapixel continuous optical zoom camera module, with the technology debuting in Xiaomi’s latest flagship smartphone, according to the company’s 2025 business report released Tuesday. The Korean electronic components manufacturer said the module supports continuous optical zoom from 3.2x to 4.3x. The design allows a smartphone camera to maintain true optical image quality while zooming across a range rather than switching between fixed

March 11, 2026

Samsung Electronics spends W37.7tr won in R&D in 2025

Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday it spent a record 37.7 trillion won ($25.6 billion) on research and development in 2025 as part of its push to gain an early lead in the global race for next-generation artificial intelligence chips. The amount represented a 7.8 percent increase from the previous year's 35 trillion won, the company said in an annual business report. Samsung Electronics said the massive investment was part of the company's strategy to preemptively cope with booming demand for

March 10, 2026

Korea has five years to act on AI gap with China: KAIST professor

As China accelerates its advance in foundation models, South Korea is not far behind in frontier model performance, according to Shin Jin-woo, ICT endowed chair professor at the Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI at KAIST. But performance is not the real issue. “The technology gap is often exaggerated,” Shin said in a recent interview with The Korea Herald in Seoul. “Based on the time required to absorb and reproduce publicly released technologies, the difference is closer to half a year.” Becaus

March 10, 2026

After DeepSeek: China shifts from breakthrough to AI scale

One year after DeepSeek unsettled the global AI landscape and signaled that China had narrowed the gap with the US in generative artificial intelligence, the question is no longer whether China can compete. It is whether China is beginning to define the architecture of the next AI order. “The difference between adopting AI and defining its architecture is huge,” said Ahn Jun-mo, a professor of public administration at Korea University. “Countries that set the standards have the power to shape ec

March 10, 2026

Korean AI chip startups ramp up hiring as new processors near launch

South Korea’s leading AI chip startups are sharply expanding their workforces as the sector enters a critical phase: commercializing next-generation processors designed to run artificial intelligence services. Industry sources and data from Korean startup investment database TheVC show that four prominent Korean AI fabless firms — Rebellions, DeepX, Mobilint and FuriosaAI — have significantly increased headcount over the past year as their latest chips move toward initial mass production or cust

March 10, 2026

SK hynix unveils world’s first 1c-based LPDDR6 chip

SK hynix said Tuesday it has developed a next-generation 16-gigabit LPDDR6 DRAM built on its 10-nanometer-class sixth-generation 1c process, designed to support on-device artificial intelligence in mobile devices. LPDDR, or low-power double data rate memory, is widely used in smartphones and tablets because it operates at a lower voltage to reduce power consumption. The company recently completed what it said was the world’s first certification for a 1c-based LPDDR6 product after unveiling the c

March 10, 2026

LG CNS takes stake in Silicon Valley robot startup Dexmate

LG CNS has taken a stake in Silicon Valley robotics startup Dexmate as the Korean technology services company moves to deploy humanoid robots in industrial workplaces such as warehouses and factories. The investment, announced Tuesday, was made through LG Technology Ventures, the venture capital arm of LG Group. Financial terms were not disclosed. Dexmate, based in Santa Clara, California, develops mobile humanoid robots designed for logistics and manufacturing environments. According to LG CNS,

March 10, 2026

Innometry to unveil next-generation inspection solutions at InterBattery

Innometry said Tuesday it will participate in InterBattery 2026, set to be held at Coex in Seoul this week, where it will showcase next-generation nondestructive inspection technologies for secondary batteries and other advanced industries. At the exhibition, the company will operate a booth highlighting its core technologies based on X-ray and 3D CT solutions. Innometry will divide its showcase into two sectors — secondary batteries and advanced industries — presenting inspection technologies t

March 10, 2026

Lee Se-dol returns to build with AI, not battle it

Ten years after his historic game against Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo transformed global perceptions of artificial intelligence, Go legend Lee Se-dol returned to the same venue. This time, the encounter was not a contest between human and machine but a demonstration of how the two might work together. The event held at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul in central Seoul was organized by Korean AI startup Enhans, which showcased a system designed to coordinate multiple AI “agents” to carry out complex ta

March 9, 2026

Google reportedly in Korea data center talks after map data approval

Google is reportedly in discussions with South Korean telecom operator LG Uplus over a data center partnership, according to industry sources cited by Korean media Thursday, as the company works to comply with conditions attached to Seoul's landmark approval of high-precision map data exports last week. LG Uplus told The Korea Herald that there was nothing it could officially confirm. Google Korea did not respond to inquiries, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it had no

March 7, 2026

Samsung pushes Exynos 2700 to cut Qualcomm reliance

Samsung Electronics is moving quickly on its next flagship smartphone chip, preparing production-ready samples of the Exynos 2700 by midyear as the company seeks to expand the use of its own processors in future Galaxy devices and reduce reliance on Qualcomm. Industry sources said this week that Samsung aims to complete production-ready samples of the Exynos 2700 between May and June. The chip is widely expected to power a significant portion of the Galaxy S27 lineup scheduled for release early

March 7, 2026