South Korean tech news, quarterly
December 2023 | November 2023 | October 2023
Across 2023’s 4th quarter, South Korea saw technology developments and issues including coverage of items such as: Korea-Netherlands partnerships on semiconductor manufacturing, and on nuclear energy; South Korea’s first military satellite launch; Pangyo Tech Valley’s many technology initiatives; and many more.
Other editions: Asia’s tech news, daily (via LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter/X); and Indo-Pacific technology newsletters, weekly.
Also available:
Critical technologies news across Q4 2023
Critical technologies, quarterly: Q4 2023 news summary
December 2023
- South Korea: Bank of Korea announces 100,000 citizens will be able to make real-world CBDC transactions using ‘digital won’ in 2024 trial of digital currency
- South Korea has launched its first military satellite, via SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, gaining independent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities
- South Korea and the Netherlands to boost cooperation in tech spanning semiconductors, artificial intelligence and quantum research, alongside feasibility of Korean-built nuclear energy stations >>>
“Nuclear energy helps us on our way to a CO2-free energy system,” Dutch Climate and Energy Minister Rob Jetten said in a statement. “That is why we are preparing for the construction of two new nuclear power stations. The three parties that are eligible for this new construction will carry out technical feasibility studies in the coming year.”
The Netherlands and South Korea also agreed to increase cooperation in digital technologies including artificial intelligence, mobile communications and quantum research, Economic Affairs and Climate Minister Micky Adriaansens said in a statement.
- China’s CICC Capital enter South Korea with launch of a private equity fund, targeting investments in promising firms in fields including semiconductors, biotech and new materials
- South Korea: Samsung and the Netherland’s ASML partner for $760M investment in Korean advanced chip plant, with SK Hynix chip giant collaborating
“ASML is the world’s only maker of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines that are required to manufacture the most advanced chips such as those in the latest Apple iPhones which are manufactured by Taiwan’s TSMC.”
“The technological innovation led by ASML is becoming a powerful driving force of the Fourth Industrial Revolution around the world, and Dutch semiconductor companies such as ASML and ASM are building new facilities for production, R&D, and talent training in Korea,” South Korea’s presidential office said Tuesday.
- South Korea: The inaugural US-ROK Next Generation Critical & Emerging Technologies Dialogue took place in Seoul, an upgrade on bilateral tech cooperation
- South Korea: A deep dive into Samsung’s challenges with cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing
- South Korea: An interview-driven look at the nation’s evolving cybersecurity policy and actions in response to North Korean cyberattacks
‘The US Department of the Treasury has sanctioned the Sinbad cryptocurrency mixing service for its use as a money-laundering tool by the North Korean Lazarus hacking group‘
- North Korean cybercrime group, BlueNorOff, found to be using a new, fairly simple yet very functional malware that aids attackers commit financial crimes targeting Apple’s MacOS
- Available to download: ‘Crypto Country – North Korea’s Targeting of Cryptocurrency’ from Recorded Future’s Insikt Group
- North Korea believed to now have a second nuclear reactor online, raising new concerns over weapons development
- South Korea’s NomadHer makes gains in India with solo-female travel app, building on selection for the K-Startup Centre India 2023 accelerator
CSET: Assessing South Korea’s AI Ecosystem
November 2023
- South Korea: TelePIX space-tech firm partners Poland’s SatRev to supply satellite imagery data from proprietary satellite, focusing on greenhouse gases
- South Korea’s TelePIX inks MOU with Thrusters Unlimited, Mexican geo-info firm, building on Lat-Am and Caribbean-focus following partnership with Mexico’s Space Zero Gravity space-tech
South Korea’s Naver Pay expands on-site payments across Southeast Asia, adding Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines to September addition of China and Japan
“Users can make on-site QR payments via Naver Pay at UnionPay merchants in these countries and regions. Furthermore, the point benefits for on-site payments, previously available only domestically, are also provided for overseas payments.”
- South Korea: An overview of the forthcoming ComeUp 2023 Global Startup Festival, set for November 8-10 in Seoul
- MangoBoost, a Seoul-Seattle startup developing data processing unit chips for data centers, secured $55M Series A, aiming to boost efficiency in existing server equipment
“So what’s happening in data centers is that they run out of CPUs, so they have to buy more servers just to get the CPU. Then they can accelerate AI or other big data applications, but your CPUs become busy again, then they buy another server,” explains Kim. “So that’s how the number of servers is increasing and then the data center cost becomes too high.”
“Basically everybody’s nightmare is CPU now. So we are trying to reduce the CPU bandwidth so that Intel’s and AMD’s CPUs can focus on the more important things,” says Kim. “By taking all the important CPU software from CPU to DPU, the CPU becomes free.” In one configuration, MangoBoost’s DPU can reduce CPU usage by up to 95%, he says.
- South Korea: A look at Hyundai Motor’s Future Mobility School project, delivering education to ASEAN countries focused on student awareness of opportunities in mobility and associated tech
- South Korea: Seongnam City unveils ‘Pangyo Contents Street’ project for Pangyo Techno Valley, aiming to provide culture-and-content zones dedicated to play, festivals, and relaxation
- South Korea: Police break international crypto fraud ring, freezing $12M and arresting 49, in activities built on ‘1.62 million pieces of illegally acquired personal information’
- South Korea to launch its first locally-built surveillance satellite by month-end to better monitor North Korea, with SpaceX as carrier and sights on 4 more launches by 2025
- South Korea: Nara Space successfully launched and placed Observer-1A satellite in orbit via SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, completing 2-way communication with Antarctica ground station
“The microsatellite, 20 centimeters in width and 40cm in height, focuses on monitoring activities such as ship and car movements, as well as changes in forest areas.”
“The company said it aims to deploy Observer-1B, an identical satellite to Observer-1A, on a Falcon 9 in the first half of next year and envisions the mass production of microsatellites, with a goal to operate more than 100 units and provide real-time monitoring services for major cities worldwide by 2028.”
- South Korea’s Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy & Innovation inks MOU with Uganda’s Hive Colab, aiming to boost startup exchanges and collaborations in both countries
- South Korea: An introductory look at Pangyo Techno Valley’s moves to establish itself as a global biotechnologies hub
- South Korea: Sapeon AI chip-maker unveils X330 NPU, targeting H1 2024 production and claiming X330 has ‘roughly twice the computational performance and 1.3 times better power efficiency’ than competitors
- South Korea’s Bering Lab legal-tech startup takes grand prize of 2023 Huawei Cloud Startup Ignite Competition with artificial intelligence-driven legal document translation
ASPI: Derisking authoritarian artificial intelligence
- South Korea: Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism plans to invest $766.5M over 5 years in ‘K-Content’, focusing on boosting global competitiveness of Korea’s online video industries
- South Korea: An intro to 4 firms based in Pangyo Tech Valley, working on semiconductors, artificial intelligence and broad nanotechnology-driven solutions
- South Korea: An intro to 10 of the country’s tech startup accelerators
- Samsung subsidiary, Harman, acquires highly-regarded Roon music streaming platform in strategic move into high-quality digital music sector
- North Korea claims successful delivery of military spy satellite into space, sparking concerns over future weapons capabilities
Crypto Country: North Korea’s Targeting of Cryptocurrency
- Vietnam and Republic of Korea ink 5 agreements on cooperation in artificial intelligence use in medical, healthcare, smart city, and automation technologies centered on Da Nang city
- Canada’s Telesat sets sights on Taiwan and South Korea with Lightspeed Constellation low Earth orbit satellite project
South Korea, Japan & hydrogen:
“…the two leaders talked about ways their countries can cooperate in the hydrogen sector, given South Korea’s wide use of hydrogen cars and Japan’s large number of hydrogen-related patents”
- Japan and South Korea to collaborate on quantum technologies, with national research institutes set to sign MOU
- Taiwan’s CyberLink targeted by North Korean hackers, modifying legitimate installer file to include malicious code for delivery to CyberLink customers in ‘supply chain’ hack
October 2023: Semiconductors, critical minerals, space tech & satellites
October 2023
- South Korea: AlphaOmega unveils portable EV charging solution capable of providing 124 miles of range in 40 minutes
- South Korea: Busan unveils plan for digital assets exchange to tokenize assets including raw materials, precious metals, carbon and emissions certificates and IP rights
- Samsung contract chip manufacturing arm gains Canada’s Tenstorrent as artificial intelligence chip customer; Tenstorrent in part uses RISC-V chips built on open-source architecture
- South Korea: Gov’t forms task force on online manipulation of public opinion following Asian Games soccer match support mimicking Korean users in support of opposing team
- South Korea: Wrtn artificial intelligence firm partners Microsoft, gaining Azure OpenAI services, applications and support
- South Korea: Doosan Robotics near doubles value on trading debut, raising $312M in South Korea’s largest IPO this year with human labour-augmenting robotic ‘arms’
BryceTech: Small Satellites in 2023
- South Korea: An overview of Pangyo Techno Valley’s moves to become a global leader in the semiconductor industry
- South Korea: rebellions, an AI-driven fabless semiconductor firm, to co-develop next-gen semiconductor for super-large language models with Samsung Electronics at 4-nm scale
- South Korea’s Posco Holdings conglomerate leads investment in EnergyX lithium tech firm, looking for more efficient ways to produce the battery metal for green energy transition use
- South Korea: Seoul city gov’t launches $3.7BN ‘Seoul Vision 2030 Fund’ to build and boost the country’s startups and scale-ups
- South Korea: Twelve Labs generative AI startup raises pre-A round with participants including NVIDIA with hyperscaleable AI models that focus on understanding video content
- South Korea: LG Electronics to establish new business entity focusing on new growth pillars including digital healthcare, clean-tech and AI, partnering with an as-yet unnamed startup
Mastercard: Blockchain in retail
- Singapore’s Velocity Ventures inks MOU with Korea Tourism Organization to grow early/growth stage tech firms across five travel-tourism verticals – services, transport, accommodation, F&B and experiences
- Korean Investment Partners Southeast Asia hits first fund close of $60M fund, looking at seed-stage to Series B startups
- South Korea: Gyeonggi gov’t announces Pangyo Tech Valley-centered growth, sights on 660K square meters of business space in more than 20 regions, and support for 3K startups by 2026
- Indonesia’s East Ventures VC and Korea’s SV Investment join for new $100M fund looking to bridge wider SE Asia and South Korea
PwC: 2024 Global Digital Trust Insights findings
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