The quarterly roundup of South Korean technology news from across April, May and June of 2024, covering technologies, startups and venture capital funding.
In June 2024 | In May 2024 | In April 2024
KPMG: AI in financial reporting and audit
June 2024 Tech news: South Korea
- South Korea: Gov’t to offer $12.2 billion in loans for semiconductor chipmakers from July, alongside tax breaks for other ‘national strategic technologies’ / full item
- South Korea’s Innospace secures contracts for $1.5M from Italy’s CShark and Thailand’s EOS ORBIT to place satellites into orbit / full item
- South Korea: SK Telecom and 6 partners including Nokia unveil X Quantum alliance, aiming to grow the quantum ecosystem via joint marketing and opportunity exploration / full item
- South Korea: Ministry of Science & ICT and Korea Internet & Security Agency to invest $14.5M in 6 public sector blockchain projects, including CBDC platform with Bank of Korea / full item
- KoreaTechDesk’s next Virtual Demo Day is set for June 24th, showcasing 3 Korean tech startups / full item
- South Korea: Survey finds Open AI ChatGPT app has over 3 million monthly users in South Korea, fully 6% of the country’s smartphone users / full item
- South Korea: Virtual Asset User Protection Act comes into force in July, meaning regulators may consider ending transaction support for 600 or so altcoins on virtual asset exchanges / full item
- South Korea: Major retailers including Lotte and Hyundai announce closure of all NFT operations / full item
- South Korea: Sapeon and Rebellions artificial intelligence chipmakers to complete merger by Q4 to boost foothold in the global AI chips market / full item
- South Korea: A quick overview of Gangnam-gu district’s Start Track, a 560-meter stretch dedicated to startups / full item
- South Korea: A quick intro to 3 tech startups from May’s KoreaTechDesk Virtual Demo Day, working in e-commerce admin, robotics and AI content / full item
- Here’s a brief outline of how Seoul, South Korea, can work as a Southeast Asia expansion HQ for your tech startup / full item
- South Korea: Wrtn Technologies raised $18.3M with aggregated AI services drawing on OpenAI ChatGPT4, Stable Diffusion 3 and Anthropic’s Claude 3 and others / full item
- South Korea: First sub-fund of $1.4 billion Startup Korea Fund project launches, aiming to raise $588M in H2 of this year / full item
- LG Energy Solution opens applications for Battery Challenge 2024, seeking innovations and startups in all aspects of battery tech and energy storage / full item
- South Korea: A brief interview intro to Autocrypt, provider of automotive cybersecurity and mobility solutions, building on partnerships with BMW, Hitachi, Vingroup and others / full item
- South Korea proposes Mars landing by 2045, with $72 billion spend projected until then on space exploration and preparations / full item
- “Apparently, North Korean IT workers are pretending to be Americans, interviewing for remote US tech jobs, landing as many jobs simultaneously as they can, and funneling the salaries back…” / full item
- Philippines: South Korea’s Kakao and Japan’s LINE partner for Kaia blockchain platform in the Philippines, focusing on Web3 gaming and associated opportunities / full item
- Seoul Metro Gov’t foreign investment agency to host ‘Seoul Forward, Your Next Business Destination’ conference in Hong Kong on June 11th, looking to draw HK firms and startups to Korea / full item
Asia Blockchain Summit 2024 / Taiwan, August 6-8
May 2024 tech news: South Korea
- South Korea: $7.3 billion support program unveiled to boost semiconductor-related facility investment and R&D / read it here
- South Korea: An overview of the Artificial Intelligence Industry Cluster Agency, a key part of the country’s bid for global AI innovation hub status / read it here
- South Korea: Financial Services Commission unveils comprehensive $11.36BN plan to boost support for early-stage companies / read it here
- A brief look at the recent Korea-Japan Venture & Startup Investment Summit 2024, and the new joint venture fund in which the two governments participate / read it here
- South Korea: Gov’t unveils $7.3BN program aimed at boosting facility investment and R&D across all semiconductor-related fields, including packaging / read it here
- South Korea: NextRise 2024 Seoul tech and startup event is set for June, this year including Japan as inaugural ‘guest country’ with company and startup showcase / read it here
- ICYMI: In February, Korea Int’l Trade Assoc’n inaugurates Special Committee on ROK-Japan Cooperation to boost economic and trade collaboration between the two in the private sector / read it here
- Seoul Metro Gov’t and Dubai Future Foundation ink collaboration agreements, looking at mutual tech and startup exchange benefits / read it here
- China’s Alibaba to invest $1.1BN in South Korea with $200M for logistics centre, $100M for SME onboarding – and $75M to address antitrust concerns / read it here
- K-Startup Grand Challenge 2024 applications are now open, seeking tech startups looking for a base in South Korea to explore the wider SEA region / read it here
- South Korea: Ministry of SMEs & Startups unveils strategy and initiatives to foster 3K companies, targeting exports of $1M each by 2027 / read it here
- South Korea’s Perigee Aerospace, a small space launch vehicles startup, partners Swedish Space Corporation to expand operations in Europe / read it here
- South Korea: Seoul’s Gangnam-gu district rolls out 2 startup initiatives, one to boost entrepreneurship, the other targeting global expansion / read it here
- South Korea’s KB Kookmin Card credit card issuer partnered by Int’l Finance Corp to boost financial access for Indonesia’s small businesses, and to lift digital inclusion in Thailand / read it here
- South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group inks MoU with China’s Baidu Group for collaboration in smart car connected vehicle services in China / read it here
- South Korea: Government’s Youth StartUp Association and Korea CreataChain Ass’n ink MoU to grow blockchain-based startups, and to boost youth entrepreneurship / read it here
- North Korea & social media: “The world has long feared he [Kim Jong Un] would strike with nuclear missiles — but his latest launch is a catchy pop song.” / read it here
- South Korea’s COMEUP 2024 tech and startup conference is set for December, aiming to attract new participants, global corporations, and SMEs / read it here
- South Korea and AUKUS grouping recently discussed the country’s possible participation in technologies-focused Pillar 2 activities / read it here
- An overview of the issues surrounding the Line messaging app data leak, given its 50-50 ownership by Japanese and South Korean firms / read it here
- Samsung to boost annual Vietnam investments to $1BN to increase the number of Vietnamese firms in the Samsung Electronics supply chain / read it here
- South Korea’s K-Startup Center opens in Tokyo to help Korean firms expand via partnerships with Japanese firms, adding to KSC presence in Singapore, Vietnam, France and the US / read it here
- Vietnam: SKC, chemicals arm of South Korean SK Group conglomerate, breaks ground on biodegradable plastics plant in Vietnam, expected to be the largest in the world / read it here
Q2 2024 DDoS Cyber Attacks in Asia Pacific in Q2 2024
Korean tech news: April 2024
- European Union and Republic of Korea to collaborate on research and innovation in semiconductors, with projects set for selection in June for commencement by year-end / read it here
- South Korea’s DCamp startup ecosystem builder and Uzbekistan’s IT Park discuss collaboration, investment opportunities and more / read it here
- South Korea: Hyundai Motor Group to invest $51BN in EVs to year-end 2026, hiring 80K employees and boosting R&D on software-defined vehicles and battery technologies / read it here
- South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries inks MOU with Fortinet cybersecurity firm for wide-ranging collaboration on maritime industry cybersecurity / read it here
- South Korea and Japan to collaborate on development and operation of satellite navigation systems in East Asia, looking to better enable the two systems to coexist and interoperate / read it here
- South Korea, AI & elections: “To counter misinformation and uphold democratic fairness, the National Assembly has prohibited AI-generated deepfake content in political campaigning within 90 days of an election…” / read it here
- South Korea faces challenge in balancing US and China relations in supply of semiconductor-related technologies and equipment / read it here
- North Korea: Ministry of Information Industry mobile carrier, Kangsong, rolls out 4G service, reportedly built using second-hand equipment from China’s Huawei / read it here
- South Korea’s Quantum Intelligence Corp partners Classiq quantum computing software firm to speed drug development using quantum computing in pharmacology / read it here
- KoreaTechDesk launches Demo Day, a monthly pitch event aiming to connect Korean startups with the global startup ecosystem – applications are open now for Korean firms / read it here
- South Korea’s Rebellions AI semiconductors firm partners Arteris on system-on-chip integration to boost chip energy and efficiency and performance / read it here
- South Korea to chair UN Security Council meeting focusing on cybersecurity, looking at issues including North Korea’s cyberspace activities / read it here
- ‘South Korea has successfully launched its second military reconnaissance satellite, days after North Korea reiterated its intention to launch multiple spy satellites this year.’ / read it here
- South Korea to invest near $7BN in AI by 2027 in bid to retain global position in global semiconductor industry / read it here
- A brief overview of the emerging competition in the wearable ‘smart rings’ market, with offerings from South Korea, China and India / read it here
- South Korea: Korea AeroSpace Administration, the country’s NASA equivalent, preps for formal May launch with recruiting drive to secure the strongest talent pool / read it here
- Samsung Texas arm to gain $6.4Bn Chips Act funding to create full ecosystem for development and production of US-based chips / read it here
- South Korea: Central bank to speed up CBDC project, aiming to pilot the ‘digital won’ with a group of 100,000 citizens later in 2024 / read it here
- South Korea: Busan city’s digital assets exchange plans delayed as consortium establishment payment is missed, preventing platform build, and staff hiring and training / read it here
- South Korea: Ju Jae-Young AI Co unveils magnet-based wall-climbing robot for metal structure inspections, integrating AI-driven image processing / read it here
- South Korea: SEMIFIVE and MetisX partner for 4nm-process memory accelerator chips, seeing opportunities in data center operations / read it here
- A brief overview of trends in North Korea’s illegal cyber activities, drawn from the Chainalysis Crypto Crime Report 2024 / read it here
- A misconfigured North Korean Internet cloud server provides a glimpse of animation outsourcing work, and of how foreign companies may unknowingly hire North Korean firms on IT projects / read it here
- South Korea’s GLN expands QR payments to the Philippines in partnership with Asia United Bank, enabling the QRPh cross-border payment service for visitors to the Philippines / read it here
- Vietnam: South Korea’s smart farm firm, Avalve, inks MOUs to bring AI-optimized agriculture to Vietnam / read it here
- ICYMI: Bank for International Settlements and 7 central banks, including Japan and Korea, partner for Project Agorá, exploring tokenization of bank deposits via ‘unified ledger’ / read it here
- Thailand’s National Innovation Agency inks MOU with Korea Tourism Organisation around travel-tech, aiming to boost startups in sector and shared ecosystems / read it here
- South Korea, New Zealand and Canada now also considered for possible participation in advanced capability projects of AUKUS security partnership, building on consideration of Japan for inclusion / read it here
- A little more on the recent collaboration MOU between the Korean Positioning System and Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite system, aiming for autonomous positioning services / read it here
- China-South Korea researchers publish on potential semiconductor breakthrough, with tellurium-based approach to materials / read it here
- Vietnam: South Korea’s Woori Financial Group opens DINNOlab – Digital Innovation Lab – Vietnam Center in Hanoi, part of Woori startup discovery and development program / read it here
Critical technologies, globally, in Q2 2024 – space, semiconductors, cyber…
Asia & Indo-Pacific technology news
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