LG Launches K-EXAONE 2.0, South Korea's Largest Open AI Model
LG AI Research released K-EXAONE 2.0, a 750-billion-parameter open-weight model under the Apache 2.0 license, aiming to rival Chinese and US frontier AI labs.
Read more →South Korea
South Korea is one of the world’s leading hubs for AI hardware and applied research, home to giants like Samsung and SK Hynix alongside a fast-growing AI startup scene. This hub tracks the country’s AI policy, chip industry, and the companies and models coming out of Korea, with an eye on what’s relevant beyond its borders.
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Nvidia to Invest $1 Billion in Naver, Expand Korean AI Hub
Nvidia will buy a 4.5% stake in South Korea's Naver for about $1 billion, funding a data center expansion that will roughly quadruple AI computing capacity at its Sejong facility by 2028.
Read more →Samsung, Broadcom Sign $200 Billion AI Chip Pact Through 2030
Samsung Electronics and Broadcom signed a memorandum of understanding worth more than $200 billion covering memory, chip manufacturing and packaging for AI accelerators through 2030.
Read more →Nvidia and SK Group Ink $500B AI Infrastructure Deal
Nvidia and South Korea's SK Group signed letters of intent for a $500 billion-plus AI infrastructure and memory-chip partnership, including a new 2-gigawatt AI factory.
Read more →NVIDIA and KAIST Launch $300 Million Joint AI Lab in Seoul
NVIDIA and South Korea's KAIST are building a $300 million joint research lab in Seoul to develop agentic AI models tailored to the Korean language, backed by yearly compute grants and researcher funding.
Read more →SK Hynix Raises $26.5 Billion in Record Nasdaq Debut
SK Hynix, the top maker of AI memory chips, began trading on Nasdaq on July 10 in the largest-ever US listing by a foreign company, with shares jumping 13%.
Read more →Samsung's Q2 Profit Surges 19-Fold to $58 Billion on AI Memory Boom
Samsung Electronics said preliminary operating profit for the second quarter jumped roughly 19-fold as AI-driven demand pushed DRAM and NAND memory prices sharply higher.
Read more →South Korea Bets $880 Billion on AI and Semiconductor Dominance
President Lee Jae Myung unveiled a sweeping national strategy on June 29, committing at least $880 billion from Samsung, SK Hynix, and major Korean conglomerates to semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and data centers through 2035.
Read more →Samsung Commits $648 Billion to AI Chips Over the Next Decade
Samsung Group pledged 1,000 trillion won ($648 billion) at a South Korean government briefing on June 28, with over 350 trillion won targeting AI data centers and semiconductor factories across the country over ten years.
Read more →SK Hynix Plans $29 Billion Nasdaq Listing to Expand AI Memory
South Korea's leading chipmaker SK Hynix plans to raise $29.4 billion via a Nasdaq ADR offering — which would be the largest in history — to fund new AI memory production capacity.
Read more →SK Hynix Files for $29B Nasdaq Listing to Expand AI Memory Supply
The South Korean chipmaker behind more than half the world's HBM memory—the critical component inside AI accelerators—is seeking $29.4 billion on Nasdaq to fund four new semiconductor plants.
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