Amid intensifying competition for chip supremacy, Korean lawmakers are pushing to lift the national cap on working hours to give chipmakers more flexibility. The ruling party's proposal, however, has sparked mixed reactions, with critics labeling it "regressive." In South Korea, home to the world's top memory chip makers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, employees are prohibited from working more than 52 hours per week -- consisting of 40 regular hours and up to 12 hours of o

Industry Nov. 19, 2024

Korean tech giants Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics were recognized with a slew of prizes at the CES 2025 Innovation Awards for their newest products, ahead of the world’s largest tech trade show set to be held in Las Vegas in January. In this year’s program, Samsung won 29 awards, including four best of innovation products, while LG received 24 awards with three top innovation winners. The Consumer Technology Association organizes the annual competition honoring outstanding de

Industry Nov. 15, 2024

South Korean chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix will showcase their latest chips for artificial intelligence applications and supercomputing at Supercomputing 24, the largest international conference on high-performance computing, next week. The annual event which first kicked off in 1988 and is organized by Association for Computing Machinery and the IEEE Computer Society, will take place at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, from Sunday to Nov. 22. The Korean chipmakers wil

Industry Nov. 14, 2024

Solidigm, an SK hynix-affiliated NAND flash memory solutions provider, said Wednesday it is launching a new enterprise solid-state drive boasting the industry's largest capacity of 122 terabytes for AI data centers. According to the memory chip maker, the new eSSD solution D5-P5336 has been developed based on its quadruple-level cell technology, storing four times more data than conventional eSSDs. "We were the first chip firm to commercialize the QLC-based high-capacity SSDs, supplyin

Industry Nov. 13, 2024

Samsung Electronics, the tech giant known for its independence as a manufacturer, made a surprise announcement last month hinting it may outsource a key component of its cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips to its Taiwanese rival TSMC. Experts say this comes as the world's largest memory chip maker faces mounting pressure from its global competitors in the increasingly crucial AI chip sector, a headwind that has directly contributed to Samsung's earnings slowdown. “We are c

Industry Nov. 13, 2024

Japan’s JSR Corporation, the world's top photoresist manufacturer, kicked off construction of its first semiconductor photoresist factory in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, on Tuesday. The new plant, being built under its Korean unit JSR Micro Korea, is set to become operational in 2026 and start supplying its advanced photoresist metal oxide resist (MOR) to Korean chipmakers, including Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. MOR has been rising as a cutting-edge alternative to low-qu

Industry Nov. 12, 2024

Korean specialty chemicals and materials maker Hansol Chemical said Monday it has filed a complaint with the local antitrust authorities against Chinese TV maker TCL for the misleading advertising of its latest TV sets. The Korean firm accused TCL, China’s largest TV manufacturer, of falsely branding its liquid crystal display TVs as “QD TVs” even though they actually contain no QD or quantum-dot materials that help enhance image quality. Higher-priced QD-incorporated LCD TVs,

Industry Nov. 11, 2024

South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate SK Group announced Monday its commitment to further enhance its governance structure by expanding the board's role beyond decision-making to setting directions and evaluating performance, intent to better navigate the era of artificial intelligence. At SK Directors’ Summit 2024 in Seoul on Thursday, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and chief executives of the group’s affiliates, including Choi Chang-won, the head of the group’s

Industry Nov. 11, 2024

South Korean display maker LG Display announced Sunday it succeeded in developing the world’s first stretchable display capable of expanding up to 50 percent, the highest elongation rate within the industry. The latest breakthrough, the outcome of five years of research, was unveiled during an industrial gathering at LG Science Park in Seoul on Friday. LG's new prototype features a 12-inch screen that stretches up to 18 inches while delivering a high resolution of 100 pixels per inch

Industry Nov. 10, 2024

Donald Trump's second presidency is unsettling the chip industry globally, after the outspoken leader had publicly threatened during his campaign to cut subsidies for chipmakers and raise tariffs on foreign firms. South Korea, home to the world’s top two memory chip-makers, is no exception. Experts suggest that Korea should leverage its strengths in artificial intelligence chips and further bolster ties with the new US administration. One of the imminent concerns is the possibility of

Industry Nov. 7, 2024

LG Electronics received the top recognition from the country’s patent agency for its advanced vehicle augmented reality technology used to guide drivers on complex and unfamiliar roads on Wednesday. At this year’s Patent Technology Awards hosted by the Korean Intellectual Property Office, LG Electronics has been chosen as the winner of the grand prize, the King Sejong Award, for its patent on vehicle AR-based navigation. “We expect our AR solutions will innovate driving experie

Industry Nov. 6, 2024

Global scholars and artificial intelligence experts discussed the future of AI, semiconductors, and the use of the technology in everyday life at this year's Samsung AI Forum that kicked off Monday. During the two-day event, renowned academics including Turing Award winners Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun, and AMD Chief Technology Officer Joseph Macri, shared their research advancements in AI and computer engineering. “AI is changing our lives at a surprising speed, and as it gets strong

Industry Nov. 5, 2024

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won renewed his commitment to building a robust artificial intelligence ecosystem and vowed to overcome bottlenecks in the process with AI pioneers and key partners Nvidia and TSMC. Speaking at SK AI Summit 2024, held in Seoul on Monday, Chey listed a number of difficulties the burgeoning AI industry faces and reaffirmed his ties with tech leaders, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. In prerecorded videos, the CEOs deli

Industry Nov. 4, 2024

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it will focus on producing high-value chips and is ready to supply the cutting-edge AI chips high in demand after announcing disappointing quarterly earnings. The company also hinted it is making strides to supply its cutting-edge HBM3E chips to Nvidia, which controls some 80 percent of the world's AI chips, and said it aims to mass produce the next HBM4 in the second half of next year. “There was a delay in commercializing HBM3E chips, but we have ma

Industry Oct. 31, 2024

Mobile carriers are strengthening their severance packages to encourage early retirement amid efforts to renew their business portfolio and restructure stagnant workforce. Kicking off voluntary redundancy, KT Corp., the country's second-largest telecommunication company, recently raised the maximum severance pay for voluntary redundancy, from 330 million won ($238,000) to 430 million won. Earlier this month, the mobile carrier decided to establish two new affiliates, KT OSP and KT P&M,

Industry Oct. 30, 2024