Jensen Huang Meets All Major Korean Conglomerates in One Day: "Perfect Environment"

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

1. SK on Infrastructure, Robot One-Team with Hyundai Motor and LG... Targeting Europe and Middle East Beyond Asia

- Key Summary: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang held a series of meetings Monday with the heads of domestic conglomerates including SK, LG, Hyundai Motor, and Naver, formalizing cooperation across four areas. SK hynix will supply AI memory such as HBM for next-generation accelerators, LG Electronics (066570) will handle server liquid cooling solutions (CDU), and SK Telecom (017670) and Naver will lead AI factory cloud operations. Hyundai Motor Group attracted Nvidia as a co-investor in the approximately 9 trillion won Saemangeum project and proposed plans to build large-scale AI data centers and robot manufacturing plants. Naver unveiled a blueprint to begin operations in Sejong (55㎿) in the first half of 2027, expand to 200㎿ in 2028, and ultimately expand a 1GW-class AI factory beyond the Asia-Pacific region to Europe and the Middle East.

2. 3-Year Treasury Bond Auction Yield Hits 4% After 42 Months

- Key Summary: In the 2.8 trillion won 3-year treasury bond competitive auction held Monday, the auction yield reached 4%, rising into the 4% range for the first time in 3 years and 6 months since December 2022 (4.25%). The bid yield range was 3.995–4.055%, and the bid-to-cover ratio was 2.66 to 1, below the previous month (2.88 to 1) and last year's annual average (2.77 to 1). The 3-year treasury bond serves as the benchmark for bank bonds and fixed and hybrid mortgage rates, and among bond experts the analysis is that market concerns over Korea's inflation and fiscal deficit will translate into pressure for further rate increases. At last month's Monetary Policy Board meeting, the Bank of Korea Governor made clear a rate-hike stance, saying, "Whether looking at growth and prices or at the exchange rate and real estate, the path ahead is relatively clear."

3. Citi: "Bank of Korea Could Hold June Emergency Monetary Policy Meeting to Raise Rates"

- Key Summary: Citi economist Kim Jin-wook raised the possibility of a faster-than-expected rate hike by the Bank of Korea, citing expanding foreign capital outflow pressure and limits on dollar selling by exporters. While maintaining its base scenario that the terminal rate will reach 3.5% through 0.25 percentage point hikes in July and October and in January and April next year, Citi separately left open the possibility of an early hike through an unscheduled June Monetary Policy Board meeting. The Korea Capital Market Institute analyzed that the recent surge in the exchange rate was the result of a combination of supply-demand problems and unstable market sentiment, explaining that anxiety has expanded to the point where strong measures such as an emergency Monetary Policy Board meeting or a big step are being discussed in the market. However, the prevailing assessment is that the possibility of the BOK drastically changing its monetary policy path solely on the grounds of the exchange rate is limited.

4. 220,000 Flock to 'Huawei Olympics'... China Accelerates Talent Absorption from Middle East and Africa

- Key Summary: More than 220,000 people from over 2,000 higher education institutions in some 100 countries participated in the 10th Huawei ICT Competition held in Shenzhen, China, with talent participation from the Global South particularly overwhelming, including the Middle East and Central Asia (25,000) and South Africa (12,000). Competition winners have open pathways to receive extra points for graduate admission at China's prestigious universities or to proceed directly into full-time positions at Huawei, functioning as a talent pipeline. Huawei has provided ICT curricula to some 3,000 universities and institutions, producing more than 1.3 million students, and the Chinese government has also newly established a K-visa targeting STEM talent, lowering the threshold to allow entry into China even without an employer invitation. At the same time, China is employing a dual strategy of increasingly strictly blocking the departure of its own talent, including imposing exit restrictions on engineers at private companies such as Alibaba and DeepSeek.

5. The Dotcom Bubble, Resembling the AI Rally, Also Surged to New Highs After Corrections

- Key Summary: According to a Seoul Economic Daily analysis, in the one year just before the dotcom bubble (March 1999 to March 2000), the Nasdaq rose 109.83% over 254 trading days, but 105 of those days (41.3%) closed lower, with as many as 28 days of sharp declines of 2% or more. Over the past year, the KOSPI has soared 166.14%, with 17 days of plunges of 3% or more—exceeding the Nasdaq at the time (10 days)—while the index rose 1.5 times faster. In the securities industry, the interpretation is that the current plunge driven by rate and inflation concerns mirrors the autumn 1999 market, and that plunges within a rising market are not a bubble collapse but a natural pain of shaking off overheating. However, with the simultaneous expiration of futures and options on the 11th and the SpaceX IPO on the 12th awaiting, warnings have also been raised that the possibility of a further index decline due to supply-demand outflows must be left open.

6. Power Fund Coffers Emptied by Solar Investment... 4.6 Trillion Won 'on Credit' Over Two Years

- Key Summary: In this year's evaluation, the Fund Management Evaluation Team assessed that the Electric Power Industry Foundation Fund's mid-term available assets stood at 1.0494 trillion won, far short of the appropriate scale (4.1288 trillion to 6.086 trillion won), and the government decided to borrow a total of 4.6 trillion won from the Public Capital Management Fund over two years from 2027 to 2028 to invest in expanding renewable energy infrastructure. The background to the financial pressure is the simultaneous progression of reduced income and expanded spending: the power fund levy rate fell from 3.2% in July 2024 and 3.7% in July 2025 to 2.7%, while the renewable energy financial support budget nearly doubled from 326.3 billion won last year to 648 billion won this year. The evaluation team recommended finding new revenue sources such as raising the levy rate, but the prevailing analysis is that an immediate rate increase is difficult given concerns over backlash from electricity users in light of KEPCO's financial burden, including 206 trillion won in debt and 128 trillion won in borrowings. The Public Capital Management Fund borrowing structure does not immediately increase general account spending but requires the power fund to repay principal and interest in the future, with some pointing out that this amounts to passing the cost of the energy transition on to future generations.