Chey Tae-won Races to Build AI Alliance, Meeting Foxconn Chief

*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an 'artificial intelligence (AI)-based personalized 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. SK Chairman Chey Tae-won's Broad Moves in Taiwan... Even Met Foxconn Chairman

- Key Summary: SK Chairman Chey Tae-won visited Taiwan to attend Computex 2026 and held successive closed-door talks with Foxconn Chairman Young Liu and TSMC Chairman C.C. Wei. The two leaders agreed to expand the scope of cooperation beyond AI semiconductors and servers to future new businesses such as robotics, energy storage systems (ESS), and batteries. As demand for AI data center construction surges, Foxconn's market capitalization has jumped 88% over the past year to reach 199 trillion won. Chairman Chey directly stressed the strategic necessity of the Taiwan partnership, saying, "SK wants to build more AI factories, but we cannot do it alone."

2. Linking Production, Charging and Mobility... Korea Makes Hydrogen Ecosystem Bet

- Key Summary: In Canada's 60 trillion won submarine procurement competition (CPSP), Korea has presented hydrogen cargo truck production and charging infrastructure construction as a strategic card instead of an automobile assembly plant, and is in final competition with Germany's TKMS. A special delegation involving Hanwha Ocean, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (329180), and Hyundai Motor (005380) sought to differentiate itself with an 'economic and security package' that combines defense orders with hydrogen and energy, as well as space launch vehicle technology support. KPMG estimated that if the project proposed by Hanwha Ocean is pursued, it would create 430,000 jobs and $96.3 billion in GDP value added in Canada from 2026 to 2044, and the local MOUs signed by Hanwha alone reach 75. An industry official explained that CPSP has the character of selecting an economic and security cooperation partner rather than simply choosing a contractor, and that building a strategic relationship will determine the final outcome.

3. Jensen Huang Aims for AI Factory 'Quantum Jump' with Korean Manufacturing Data

- Key Summary: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited Korea on the 5th to meet with major group leaders including SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, LG (003550) Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, and Naver GIO Lee Hae-jin, materializing an AI infrastructure alliance. Nvidia judges that the manufacturing data Korean companies have accumulated in semiconductor, automobile, battery, and shipbuilding processes is essential for upgrading its digital twin platform 'Omniverse.' Huang plans to sequentially visit LG Twin Towers, Hyundai Motor's Yangjae headquarters, and Naver's '1784,' discussing AI data centers and factories, robotics and smart factories, and AI infrastructure and cloud cooperation, respectively. A senior industry official said the biggest bottleneck in the global AI industry has now shifted beyond GPU shortages to data center cooling systems, noting that strengthening cooperation on LG's thermal management solutions is cited as a key agenda of this visit.

4. Three Months Since Yellow Envelope Law Took Effect... Only 6 Actual Negotiations Despite 1,121 Requests

- Key Summary: After the amended Trade Union Act (Yellow Envelope Law) took effect, from March 10 to May 22, 424 prime contractors received 1,121 bargaining requests, but only 51 prime contractors issued bargaining notices and only 6 led to actual negotiations. Citing the ambiguity of legal standards, prime contractors are following multi-stage appeal procedures running from Regional Labor Relations Commissions to the National Labor Relations Commission to courts, structuring delays in negotiation procedures. A Collective Bargaining Judgment Support Committee separately established by the Ministry of Employment and Labor has issued only non-binding decisions, leaving the standoff to continue, and there are also criticisms that the law was rushed into adoption without supplementing problems anticipated before implementation. A business community official stated that since the standards are ambiguous, it is difficult to accept Regional Labor Relations Commission decisions alone, and said they would seek various legal judgments.

5. First U.S. SMR Built with Korean Technology... "Construction Even in Snow"

- Key Summary: TerraPower, founded by Bill Gates, has begun building the first fourth-generation small modular reactor (SMR) in the United States in Kemmerer, Wyoming, with SK Innovation (096770) participating as the second-largest shareholder after investing $250 million in 2022. The Kemmerer SMR targets operation in 2031 and will produce 345 MWe of output, enough power to simultaneously run three large data centers. TerraPower's CEO signed an agreement to supply up to eight SMRs to Meta and said that by the 2031 operation date, 12 SMRs will be under construction simultaneously across the United States. SK Innovation has secured exclusive rights to utilize the Asian market and, in line with surging AI power demand in Southeast Asia including Vietnam, is moving to preempt global energy leadership with a goal of commercialization in Korea by 2035.

6. HD Construction Equipment (267270) Breaks into Polish Military... Supplies 50 Bulldozers

- Key Summary: HD Construction Equipment signed a contract to supply 50 units of the 15-ton class DEVELON 'DD130' worth 27 billion won in the Polish military's bulldozer procurement project, landing its first large order in the European military procurement market. The achievement, coming just two years after its European launch, is assessed as having been driven by securing trust through meeting Polish military requirements such as body height adjustment, increased travel speed, and military painting, and by presenting a supply system delivering the entire quantity by November. The trend of European countries strengthening security capabilities and expanding investment in modernizing military infrastructure is cited as the background to this order, and supply volumes may be added in the future depending on options. HD Construction Equipment recently also signed a 20 billion won contract to supply articulated dump trucks with 'Rental Group,' Northern Europe's largest construction equipment rental company in Norway, rapidly expanding its presence in Europe's public and military procurement markets.