Public Agencies Pick Nvidia GPUs Despite Korea's Homegrown NPU Push

*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an AI-based customized news recommendation and summary service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news items by reader type.

1. Hangzhou Nurtures AI Giants from Alibaba to DeepSeek

- Key Summary: Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, China, has emerged as a next-generation science and technology hub following Shenzhen, successively producing "Six AI Dragons" including Alibaba, DeepSeek, humanoid startup Spirit AI, quadruped robot company Unitree, and brain-computer interface startup BrainCo. Liang Wenfeng of DeepSeek, Zhu Qiuguo of DeepRobotics, and Huang Xiaohuang of Manycore graduated from Zhejiang University, the top institution in Zhejiang Province, while Wang Xingxing of Unitree is homegrown talent who graduated from Zhejiang Sci-Tech University. Hangzhou has built a talent retention structure in which 80% of top-tier talent cultivated locally does not leave for overseas or for Beijing, Shanghai, or Shenzhen. The Zhejiang provincial government will host the 2026 World Digital Education Conference, showcasing its achievements in AI education and talent development.

2. Mars Auto Expands Autonomous Trucking Business in U.S.

- Key Summary: Autonomous trucking startup Mars Auto will pursue 2 billion won in research and development over the next two years with support from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and expand its autonomous trucking business in the U.S. Through participation in a national AI project, the company secured an AI training infrastructure based on Nvidia Blackwell and has accumulated more than 15 million kilometers of driving data through the operation of eight regular routes to date. In the U.S., based on a "Team Korea" framework formed with domestic manufacturers and logistics firms, the company performed autonomous transport on an approximately 3,379-kilometer fixed route connecting California's Port of Long Beach to Alabama and Georgia. "This is an important milestone in expanding the results of paid transport based on domestic regulatory special exceptions to the global market," Mars Auto CEO Park Il-soo said.

3. Google's 'AI Full-Stack' Shakes Nvidia's Throne

- Key Summary: The market capitalization of Alphabet, Google's parent company, has surged to $4.83 trillion (approximately 7,107 trillion won), narrowing the gap with Nvidia (approximately $5.23 trillion) to half its size in just six months. Alphabet shares jumped 34% in April alone, marking the best monthly performance since 2004, with a 43% gain over the past six months, far outpacing Nvidia's 6.3% rise over the same period. The turnaround stems from the market's reassessment of Alphabet's "AI full-stack" competitiveness encompassing hardware to services, including its AI model Gemini and AI chip Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) in addition to search and cloud. However, Alphabet's additional upside based on Wall Street's average target price is only 5.4%, and Nvidia's $40 billion (approximately 58 trillion won) investment in AI infrastructure this year alone is cited as a variable.

4. Public Agencies Shun Domestic NPUs Despite 'K-Nvidia' Push

- Key Summary: Public institutions including Korea South-East Power, Korea Expressway Corporation, and Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology are successively adopting Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) instead of domestic neural processing units (NPUs) in their AI infrastructure projects. Korea South-East Power specified eight units of Nvidia's Blackwell-series GPU "B300" in its 1.227 billion won AI infrastructure expansion budget, while Korea Expressway Corporation is also pushing to introduce six or more Nvidia H200 units for a traffic survey system. Even Korea Venture Investment, which has indirectly invested in domestic AI semiconductor startups Rebellions and FuriosaAI, was revealed to have issued a purchase announcement for Nvidia H200-based GPU servers, highlighting inconsistency with policy direction. "From the standpoint of public institutions, choosing Nvidia's general-purpose products for stability was probably inevitable," said Lee Sung-yeop, professor at Korea University Graduate School of Technology Management, adding, "But pilot adoption efforts and educational programs to enhance understanding of domestic NPUs are needed."

5. "Combining AI and Quantum to Identify Disease Causes for Ultra-Precision Medicine"

- Key Summary: Han Nam-sik, professor at Yonsei University's Department of Quantum Information and head of the AI Research Center at the Milner Therapeutics Institute at the University of Cambridge, said that combining AI and quantum computers can enable the development of customized treatments optimized for individual patients. Quantum computers possess ultra-large-scale computing capabilities that can analyze information on approximately 3.2 billion base pairs of DNA in a single person across millions of individuals, handling vast genomic data that conventional supercomputers find difficult to process. Yonsei University has introduced IBM's quantum computer "Quantum System One," building research infrastructure at the level of approximately 127 qubits (the computing unit of quantum computers), a rare level globally. "The new drug industry has a 'first-in-class' structure centered on innovative products, and strategic support through selection and concentration is needed to stay ahead in early-stage technology competition," Han said.

6. AeKyung Industrial (018250) Swings to Q1 Operating Loss of 1.6 Billion Won..."Due to One-Off Costs From Taekwang (023160) Group Integration"

- Key Summary: AeKyung Industrial (018250) disclosed that it recorded a consolidated operating loss of 1.6 billion won in the first quarter of this year, swinging to a deficit from a 6 billion won profit in the same period last year. The result reflects one-off costs including special performance bonuses paid to employees during the process of being acquired by Taekwang Group in March this year; operating profit excluding these costs was 5.7 billion won. Meanwhile, cosmetics business revenue reached 51.9 billion won, up 13% year-on-year, driven by a global diversification strategy including the entry of skincare brand "Signic" into Amazon and TikTok Shop in the U.S. and the expansion of makeup brands "AGE20'S" and "Luna" into Poland and the U.K. In the household goods business, the company newly entered major global distribution channels including Walmart in the U.S., Rossmann in Poland, and Matsumotokiyoshi in Japan, showing strong sales in key strategic countries. AeKyung Industrial plans to raise the cosmetics revenue share to more than 50% by 2028 and develop major personal care brands such as Kerasys, Showermate, and Lovecent into global mega brands.