Samsung Tops Automotive Memory Market for First Time, Seizing 40% Share as Micron Slips to No. 2
Samsung Electronics has captured 40 percent of the global automotive memory chip market in 2025 — up from 35 percent a year earlier — overtaking Micron Technology for the first time, according to S&P Global Mobility.
Korea Earns Record $85B Trade Surplus But Can't Lift the Won as $65B Capital Flight Drains the AI Chip Windfall
South Korea's Q1 current account surplus hit a record $85 billion — yet the won has hovered above 1,500 per dollar for 19 trading days in 2026, touching a 17-year real effective low, as $65.4 billion in net capital outflows nearly erase the AI chip trade windfall.
KOSPI Nears 8,500 But Record Margin Loans and $74B Foreign Exit Cast Shadow Over June
Korea's benchmark index closed within 24 points of 8,500 on its best weekly gain of 2026, even as margin debt hit a record ₩37.07 trillion and foreign investors marked a 16th consecutive net-selling session.
Samsung and SK Hynix Back Anthropic's $65B Round as Claude Maker Eclipses OpenAI at $965B
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix joined Micron in Anthropic's $65 billion Series H, pushing the Claude developer's valuation to $965 billion and opening a potential foundry lane for Samsung.
SK hynix Closes to 93% of Samsung's Market Cap, Reviving Bubble Debate as Gap Hits Historic Low
SK hynix year-to-date surge of 258.4% cut its market-cap gap with Samsung Electronics to a record-low ₩119.6 trillion on Friday, lifting the ratio to 93.2% — from just 46.5% a year ago — as HBM dominance and pure-play chip exposure fuel a revaluation that has analysts divided over whether the convergence signals a bull-market peak or genuine fundamental repricing.
Samsung, SK Hynix Executives Sitting on ₩101B as Chip Boom Delivers Up to 400% Returns on Self-Held Shares
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix senior executives are sitting on a combined ₩101.2 billion in unrealized stock gains, with return rates reaching 400%-plus for SK Hynix President Cha Sun-yong and 241% for CEO Kwak Noh-jung, as the AI-driven chip supercycle pushes Korean tech valuations to record levels.
Samsung Ships World-First HBM4E Samples; Stock Hits 2026 High as Market Cap Crosses KRW 2,000 Trillion
Samsung Electronics became the first company in the world to ship samples of HBM4E, its seventh-generation high-bandwidth memory, sending shares up 5.84% to a 2018-split high and pushing its market cap above KRW 2,015 trillion for the first time.
Hanwha's KSS-III Docks in Canada as Korea-Germany Showdown Over $42B Submarine Contract Enters Final Stretch
The Dosan Ahn Chang-ho, South Korea's most advanced submarine, arrived at CFB Esquimalt in Victoria, BC on May 23 — the first Korean-built vessel to cross the Pacific — and successfully tested NATO C4I interoperability. The visit anchors Hanwha Ocean's pitch for Canada's $42B Patrol Submarine Project, which pits the KSS-III against Germany's Type 212CD in a contest expected to be decided in late June 2026.
Nvidia N1X Arm Chip Heads to Computex With SK Hynix LPDDR5X Inside, Sealing Korea's Role in the Windows AI PC Era
Nvidia's N1X Arm laptop chip — packing a Blackwell GPU and SK Hynix LPDDR5X memory — will debut at Computex next week, with Microsoft Surface and Dell among first OEMs, opening a lucrative new memory front for Korean suppliers.
Korea's ₩600B AI Growth Fund Sells Out in Four Days as Retail Bets Pile Into Chip Supercycle
Retail investors snapped up South Korea's ₩600 billion ($400 million) National Growth Fund tranche in just four days, signaling surging confidence in the government's 150-trillion-won, five-year push to dominate AI chips, semiconductors, and sovereign technology.
SK Hynix Workers Open 2026 Wage Talks Demanding ₩500M Housing Loans, Mirroring Samsung's Strike-Averting Package
SK hynix union negotiators entering 2026 annual wage talks are demanding ₩500 million housing loans, matching the benefit Samsung Electronics used to avert an 18-day strike. The request adds a new front to the company's annual bargaining season, even as its profit-sharing model is set to deliver an average ₩700 million per worker this year — and as similar demands ripple through Hyundai, Samsung Biologics, Kakao and beyond.
Hyundai Motor to Deploy 25,000 Atlas Robots in Its Own Factories as Boston Dynamics IPO Buzz Builds
Hyundai Motor Group unveiled its most detailed robotics roadmap at the JP Morgan conference in Boston, pledging to deploy 25,000+ Boston Dynamics Atlas robots in its own U.S. factories from 2028, making itself the single largest customer of a subsidiary it is simultaneously scaling toward mass production. KB Securities raises price target to ₩1.2 million.