Jensen Huang Visits Korea as AI Alliance Takes Shape

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

1. Channel Talk Goes Beyond Messenger to AI Assistant, Declares Platform Evolution

- Key Summary: Channel Corporation officially declared its transition to an AI agent platform at 'Channel Con Japan 2026' held in Tokyo, Japan on Wednesday. The new feature 'CoS (Chief of Staff)' supports decision-making by connecting workflows from data collection to analysis and execution across the entire enterprise—including sales, operations, and marketing—not just customer consultation data. Channel Corporation plans to launch CoS in beta in the Japanese, Korean, and global markets this month. Real-time data analysis through natural language input alone dramatically shortens the survey process that previously took several months. Currently, more than 200,000 companies in 22 countries worldwide use Channel Talk, with more than 20% of total revenue coming from the Japanese market.

2. "Credit Guarantee Fund Should Be a Starting Pitcher, Not a Relief Pitcher; We Need to Create More Unicorns Like Toss"

- Key Summary: Yoon Dae-hee, former chairman of the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, said in an interview with Seoul Economic Daily on Wednesday that the fund should shift its role to proactively discovering innovative startups in an era of "polycrisis"—continuous, cumulative, and complex crises—including the U.S.-China hegemony war and supply chain fragmentation. Lee Seung-gun, CEO of Toss, received 630 million won in credit guarantees from the fund in the early days of his startup to cross the "death valley," and nine unicorn companies including Yanolja, Ohou, and Musinsa have grown through Credit Guarantee Fund support. "We must give priority funding to promising companies through reviews centered on future value rather than past performance," Yoon said, advocating for a strengthened stage-by-stage customized support system. Meanwhile, the Credit Guarantee Fund is the world's largest credit guarantee institution, providing a total of 100 trillion won in financing, including 66 trillion won in credit guarantees as of the end of last year.

3. Enterprise AI Assistant: Meta Throws Down the Gauntlet

- Key Summary: Meta launched 'Meta Business Agent,' an enterprise AI agent that runs on social networking services (SNS) and messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Instagram. Meta said, "The agent can be installed in minutes and integrated directly into corporate infrastructure to improve productivity by 10 times or even 100 times," and more than 1 million companies are already running early versions. The strategy aims to break away from a business structure that relies on advertising for 98% of revenue and diversify revenue sources centered on small and medium-sized enterprise customers, and it is also included in 'Meta One,' a subscription service for businesses and creators unveiled last week. As a result, with Meta joining OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft (MS), competition in the enterprise AI market has become even more intense.

4. "This Time It's a Farm": The 'Vegetable Universe' Created by Gentle Monster

- Key Summary: Gentle Monster, the eyewear brand operated by IICOMBINED, launched 10 items in its 'Veggie Collection' and simultaneously opened pop-up stores in six cities worldwide including Seoul's Seongsu, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Bangkok, and New York. This collection is a folding eyewear line that reinterprets the 'Farm Girl Core' trend, and its flagship product 'Lady 02' was worn by aespa's Karina in the campaign and quickly sold out immediately after pre-orders opened. The pop-up spaces, centered on large vegetable character objects with a fluffy wool texture, are a prime example of Gentle Monster's signature 'experimental retail' strategy. The brand consistently continues its worldview marketing combining space and experience, gifting product buyers a dedicated pouch for folding eyewear and Veggiemon key chains on a first-come, first-served basis.

5. Jensen Huang Eyes AI Factory 'Quantum Jump' with Korean Manufacturing Data

- Key Summary: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will visit Korea on Friday to meet with chiefs of major conglomerates including SK Group Chairman Tae-won Choi, LG Group Chairman Kwang-mo Koo, and Naver Global Investment Officer (GIO) Lee Hae-jin. Nvidia is expanding its AI factory business with its digital twin platform 'Omniverse,' which recreates the real world in virtual space, and the manufacturing data accumulated by Korean companies in semiconductors, automobiles, batteries, and shipbuilding has emerged as a core asset. Huang is scheduled to visit the LG Twin Towers, Hyundai Motor's (005380) Yangjae office, and Naver's second headquarters '1784' in succession on Monday. Cooperation on AI data centers and factories with LG, on robotics, autonomous driving, and smart factories with Hyundai Motor, and on AI infrastructure, cloud, and robot services with Naver is expected to be on the agenda. The industry views this visit as a starting point for Nvidia and Korean industry to flesh out an AI infrastructure alliance.

6. L&F (066970) Plus to Receive 220 Billion Won in National Growth Fund Support

- Key Summary: L&F Plus, a subsidiary of secondary battery materials specialist L&F (066970), was finally selected as a recipient of 220 billion won in long-term, low-interest loan support from the National Growth Fund. This support is for building Korea's first and largest dedicated LFP (lithium iron phosphate) cathode material plant, with funds including 170 billion won from the Advanced Strategic Industry Fund supplied on 12-year maturity terms. L&F Plus completed a dedicated LFP cathode material plant of approximately 100,000 square meters in Dalseong-gun, Daegu Metropolitan City, in May this year, just nine months after breaking ground. It plans to begin annual mass production of 30,000 tons at the end of the third quarter this year and establish a 60,000-ton annual system by the first half of 2027. LFP cathode materials have excellent thermal stability and cost competitiveness, and demand is rapidly expanding in the energy storage system (ESS) and entry-level electric vehicle (EV) markets. However, no company in Korea has yet mass-produced them at a commercial scale.