SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won called Monday for a market system that financially rewards companies for the social value they create, asserting that measuring impact will not draw enough capital to tackle mounting social challenges. “Relying on altruism alone cannot generate the scale needed to address growing social problems,” Chey said at the opening session of the Social Enterprise World Forum’s inaugural Ecosystem Leadership Exchange in Seoul. “A sophisticated, performance-based incentive sy

Samsung SDS has agreed to acquire South Korean air cargo consolidator Woojung Air Consolidation, seeking to strengthen its freight forwarding operations through Incheon Airport. The IT services and logistics company signed a share purchase agreement Monday to acquire a 100 percent stake in Woojung Air, with the transaction expected to close by year-end, according to industry sources. Founded in 1999, Woojung Air specializes in consolidating smaller shipments into larger loads and securing cargo

Samsung affiliates plan to invest a combined 12.26 trillion won ($9.15 billion) in chip operations, directing nearly 8 trillion won to Vietnam while expanding high-end production capacity in South Korea. Samsung Electronics plans to invest 105.79 trillion Vietnamese dong ($4.09 billion) in memory chip testing facilities at Yen Binh Industrial Park in Thai Nguyen, northern Vietnam, according to an investment plan submitted to local authorities. The first production line is scheduled to start oper

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said Friday the group may build semiconductor plants in Gwangju alongside its Yongin chip cluster to keep pace with surging demand. "Once the conditions are right, we'll build as much as we can, as fast as we can," Chey said during his first visit to the planned semiconductor cluster site at the Gwangju military air base in Jeonnam-Gwangju. Chey said semiconductor demand was rising so quickly that production capacity needed to expand faster to keep up. While the gr

Nvidia's Vera Rubin AI platform is expected to rely largely on 12-layer high-bandwidth memory chips, easing demand concerns for SK hynix and Samsung Electronics as the two Korean chipmakers advance 16-layer technology amid growing challenges in advanced packaging. Market researcher Counterpoint Research said Friday that most Rubin-based products will likely use 12-layer HBM4, the sixth generation of high-bandwidth memory, rather than the eight-layer configuration that had been rumored in the ind

Samsung Electronics will pay a new special performance bonus to employees of its semiconductor division in late March or early April 2027, after the plan is put to a vote at the company’s annual shareholders meeting in March, according to an internal notice issued Wednesday. The Device Solutions division, which oversees Samsung’s semiconductors business, informed employees Wednesday afternoon of the payout schedule, eligibility rules and payment terms. The bonus will be treated as income for the

South Korea’s Nuri rocket delivered five primary satellites into orbit Wednesday, completing its most complex deployment yet and taking another step toward commercial launch services. The fifth flight marked Nuri’s fourth consecutive success and its first mission to release five primary satellites in sequence. Nine of its 10 secondary CubeSat payloads also separated successfully, while one remained aboard. Korea AeroSpace Administration Administrator Oh Tae-seog confirmed the result at a 2 p.m.

South Korea’s homegrown Nuri rocket lifted off Wednesday on its fifth mission, carrying 15 satellites toward a sun-synchronous orbit about 575 kilometers above Earth. The three-stage rocket, also known as KSLV-II, blasted off at 12:25 p.m. from the second launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. On its way to the target orbit, Nuri is to separate its first stage, payload fairing and second stage in sequence before deploying the satellites. The rocket is carrying fiv

LG will send five components made by three affiliates into orbit aboard South Korea’s homegrown Nuri rocket Wednesday, marking the conglomerate’s first groupwide test of its technologies in space. LG Sciencepark, LG Group’s research and innovation hub, said Tuesday that the components have been installed on a CubeSat prepared with Unmanned Exploration Laboratory, a Korean startup specializing in lunar exploration rovers. CubeSats are compact, standardized satellites commonly used for Earth obser

LG Electronics said Monday that it has secured a long-term agreement to supply chillers for more than 5 gigawatts of AI data center capacity in North America, expanding its cooling business as demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure grows. The agreement with AIR Control Concepts covers a multiyear supply program for data centers in the US and Canada. Its financial value and detailed delivery schedule were not disclosed. AIR, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, operates a network of hea

South Korea plans to split its homegrown artificial intelligence development program into two tracks next year: a frontier model project backed by 4.7 trillion won ($3.49 billion) in proposed government investment and a separate effort to deploy Korean models across industries. The overhaul will open a new competition for frontier AI funding rather than automatically extending the existing support program for the two teams that survive the current selection process. Second Vice Minister of Scien

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won plans to sell 944 billion won ($701 million) worth of shares in the holding company SK Inc., an amount matching the property division ordered by a court in his divorce case with former wife Roh Soh-yeong. SK Inc. said in a regulatory filing Friday that Chey, its largest shareholder, will sell 1,653,924 shares, representing a 2.3 percent stake in the company. Of the total, 544 billion won worth of shares will be sold to a strategic investor, while another 400 billio

The Korea Herald tested the gold Oura Ring 5 for 46 days to see whether its sleep insights and everyday comfort justified its premium price. One night brought its appeal into focus. After barely sleeping on Aug. 25, this reporter opened the app to find a sleep score of 36: 2 hours and 7 minutes of sleep, 69 percent efficiency and just 17 minutes of REM. The numbers told little that was not already evident. But they made the problem harder to dismiss. From Aug. 18 through Friday, the ring stayed

SK hynix said Thursday that no decision had been made on the future operation or financing of its US NAND subsidiary Solidigm, seeking to reassure investors amid concerns that a separate listing could undermine shareholder value. Speculation over Solidigm has grown as the chipmaker considers how to fund further investment in the subsidiary. Some investors have raised concerns that taking the subsidiary public while SK hynix remains listed could dilute the value of existing shareholders’ holdings

LG Electronics said Thursday it will invest 150 billion won ($110 million) to build a chiller plant in Virginia and expand production in Korea, as demand for cooling systems rises with the growth of AI data centers. The company plans to start production at the new plant in Windsor, Virginia, in the first half of 2027. The facility will span 32,000 square meters on a 170,000-square-meter site and produce air-cooled chillers mainly for AI data centers. LG said the US plant will place production cl