SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on Wednesday departed for the United States, raising expectations about his visit to SK Innovation’s battery plant in Georgia, and a possible pledge for additional investments. Chey boarded a plane bound for a US city, with a handful of group officials. SK Group declined to reveal the destination of Chey’s flight. He is among the several Korean business leaders who are visiting the US in time for the first summit meeting between Presidents Moon

Technology May 19, 2021

SK hynix is considering a complete takeover of domestic foundry company Key Foundry, of which it holds a 49.8 percent stake in, industry sources said Tuesday. Key Foundry was separated from Magnachip last year, and become an independent 8-inch wafer foundry firm operating in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. SK hynix currently controls 49.8 percent of the company via a private equity fund set up by Magnus PEF. The rest – a 50 percent stake plus one share-- is held by the fund&rsquo

Technology May 18, 2021

The race to outpace competitors with massive capacity expansions is intensifying among global chip manufacturers and the time for Samsung Electronics to announce its own investment plans is approaching. While South Korea is pinning its hopes on Samsung, the world’s No. 1 memory player, to announce massive investments as early as this week, the market is paying close attention to the size of its spending commitment and whether it will be enough for the Korean chipmaker to maintain its p

Technology May 17, 2021

South Korea on Thursday announced a sweeping set of new government policies aimed at safeguarding and further expanding the country’s prowess in chips, which include the most generous tax credits ever given to chipmakers -- up to 50 percent. The chip manufacturers, led by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, responded to the support package by committing investments of over 510 trillion won ($458.1 billion) in total over the next 10 years. Samsung unveiled plans to spend 171 trillion won on

Technology May 13, 2021

Samsung Electronics will start rolling out Bespoke home appliances in the United States, Europe and Southeast Asian countries, aiming to duplicate the success of the colorful and customizable brand overseas. The South Korean tech giant unveiled flagship packages of its Bespoke refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, clothes care systems and wireless vacuum cleaners, differently created for each market, considering specific needs of customers in each region. Bespoke comes in over 20 orig

Technology May 12, 2021

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday unveiled the industry’s first DRAM module which supports the new Compute Express Link (CXL) interconnect standard, a new technology that can enhance the performance of data centers or cloud servers. Samsung has integrated its double data rate 5 (DDR5) technology with the CXL-based module, enabling server systems to significantly scale memory capacity and bandwidth. The CXL is a new interface that can efficiently connect different types of devices that use a

Technology May 11, 2021

SK hynix, the world’s second-biggest memory provider, vowed Monday to make more efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The pledge was made alongside the chipmaker’s announcement of its social value figures for 2020. Since 2019, major affiliates of SK Group have been quantifying the values they created in three areas of “indirect contribution to the economy,” “social performance,” and “social contribution.” SK hynix put its indirect con

Technology May 10, 2021

Naver, South Korea’s largest portal site, said Monday that the company will create a joint research arm with Seoul National University to delve into the field of artificial intelligence. The two sides held an online signing ceremony, agreeing on the need for research on Korean-based AI and the establishment of the SNU-Naver Hyperscale AI center. Around 100 AI researchers from Naver and the university will take part in the project for the next three years. The cooperation aims to de

Technology May 10, 2021

In a subtle but noteworthy change of tone, President Moon Jae-in on Monday spoke of the mounting challenges facing South Korean chipmakers when asked about the fate of the jailed Samsung Electronics chief Lee Jae-yong. “It is a clear fact that we need to further enhance the competitiveness of our semiconductor industry, with global competition on chips intensifying,” Moon told reporters in a nationally televised press conference. He then added that he also has to consider the

Technology May 10, 2021

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews with executives of South Korea’s leading corporations on their response to environmental, social and corporate governance, or ESG, issues, which have become central factors globally in measuring the sustainability of an investment or business decision. -- Ed. To truly embrace the ESG trends in business management, it is important to look at things from an investor’s point of view, says Lee Bang-sil, vice president of South Ko

Technology May 9, 2021

With government measures to help cement South Korea’s leadership in the global semiconductor market to be announced this week, industry watchers are paying keen attention to how much Samsung Electronics and SK hynix could benefit from the measures that would largely pivot on tax breaks. As early as Thursday, Seoul is expected to unveil what it calls the “K-Semiconductor Belt Strategy,” which could include drastic increases in tax benefits for chipmakers’ R&D projec

Technology May 9, 2021

Amid the heightening competition in the global chip foundry market, Samsung Electronics unveiled a new packaging technology Thursday that would help differentiate its foundry service.  Samsung said it has completed the development of the next-generation 2.5D packaging technology named Interposer-Cube4, or I-Cube4, which is immediately available for customers. Samsung’s I-Cube is a heterogeneous integration technology that horizontally places one or more logic dies, such as a CPU or

Technology May 6, 2021

Education has always been slow to adopt new technologies. But with the COVID-19 pandemic and schools forced to move online over infection risks, the time has finally come for it to embrace the artificial intelligence. “COVID-19 is making AI inevitable,” said David Yi, an executive from Riiid, a Seoul-based AI education startup said in an interview with The Korea Herald. “In the US, students are all off campus, students are disengaged and are falling behind. How do we help thi

Technology May 5, 2021

Samsung Electronics and Seoul National University Hospital agreed on Monday to launch an official team to coordinate a 300 billion won ($267 million) donation from the bereaved family of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee for children with cancer and rare diseases. On behalf of the Lees, Samsung Electronics Presidents Sung In-hee and Rhee In-yong, in charge of social contributions and corporate relations, attended the ceremony with Seoul National University Hospital President Kim Yon-su and

Industry May 3, 2021

Lee Jae-yong, the eldest son of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, officially became the leader of the Samsung empire by inheriting 50 percent of his father’s stake in Samsung Life Insurance, the company’s regulatory filing showed Friday. Lee received more than 20 million shares of the life insurer, owning a 10.44 percent stake in the affiliate, according to the filing. Samsung C&T, the construction arm and de facto holding company of Samsung Group, remains the largest sh

Industry April 30, 2021