Government Bets Big on Asan as AI, Semiconductor Hub

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

1. Global CAIOs: "Give AI Oversight Roles Instead of Cutting Entry-Level Hires"

- Key Summary: As the era of artificial intelligence (AI) agents begins in earnest, the Chief AI Officer (CAIO), who spreads AI across companies, is emerging. Toby Walsh, chief scientist at the AI Institute of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia, described the CAIO as a role that "connects and translates between technical experts and business departments," while Conor Grennan, CEO of AI Mindset, stressed that "AI adoption is a matter of mindset about how we work," emphasizing that rewiring the way an entire organization works is the key. In a survey of CEOs at 40 companies by IBM Korea, all respondents (100%) said the CAIO's role is important, and 65% of domestic companies already have a CAIO. Meanwhile, in a survey by global consulting firm Oliver Wyman, the share of CEOs planning to reduce entry-level hiring within one to two years more than doubled from 17% last year to 43% this year, and Grennan urged that entry-level roles be redesigned from the start around AI oversight and coordination.

2. Startup Valley Next to Chip Fabs: 'Korean Hsinchu Science Park' to Be Built in Asan

- Key Summary: The Ministry of SMEs and Startups selected Asan in South Chungcheong as the site of the first Global Startup Campus (GSC) outside the Seoul metropolitan area, launching an effort to build a foreign startup ecosystem in the middle of a semiconductor manufacturing cluster. Samsung Electronics is building an advanced semiconductor packaging production base centered on Cheonan and Asan, while SK hynix broke ground in April this year on 'P&T7,' an advanced packaging plant in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, with a 19 trillion won investment. In addition, Asan's foreign population of about 40,000 accounts for around 10% of its total population, earning high marks for its conditions for foreign residents to settle. The government plans to refer to the global startup model of Fukuoka, Japan, which over about a decade has attracted a cumulative 585 resident companies and more than 36.5 billion yen in investment.

3. Sales Triple, Investment Hits 143.6 Billion Won: Busan Fintech Hub Becomes Financial Base

- Key Summary: Sales of companies based at the Busan Fintech Hub tripled from a year earlier to 147.6 billion won last year, with cumulative sales reaching 357.4 billion won. Cumulative investment and loans attracted surged from around 4 billion won in the hub's early days to 143.6 billion won as of June this year, an increase of about 150% from the previous year. Accordingly, 56 companies are currently based there, and as of April this year, 432 permanent jobs and a cumulative 2,931 jobs have been created. The Busan city government is pushing ahead with the 'B-Fintech 20' project, which intensively nurtures promising companies, and plans to provide selected companies with 10 million won in commercialization funds, close expert consulting, and additional points in screening for extended hub residency.

4. "If AI Is Well Built, Remote Work Means Young People Won't Have to Leave the Regions"

- Key Summary: Lee Ha-neul, CEO of SoftSquared, which operates 'Gritge,' a platform for matching, developing, and managing IT talent, stressed that the problem of regional talent outflow can be solved if local talent can work remotely at companies equipped with AI environments. SoftSquared has expanded its business with 'Gritge Observer,' an AI management service (MSP) that oversees an environment where AI agents and developers work together, providing companies with AI agents, field deployment engineers (FDEs), and specialized freelancers together. The company also relocated its headquarters to Busan in 2024 and, in cooperation with the Busan city government, is piloting the nation's first 'settlement-type remote project jobs,' in which local talent resides in Busan while carrying out domestic and overseas projects. Recently, it also created a global remote work case connecting Busan talent with Japanese virtual office company oVice.

5. Path Opens to Recycle Discarded Human Fat for Medical Use

- Key Summary: With the National Assembly passing an amendment to the Waste Management Act at a plenary session that excludes human-derived fat from the targets of recycling prohibitions and restrictions, a new fat-based medical and beauty market is expected to open. The bill takes effect one year after promulgation, and commercialization is expected to accelerate among domestic companies that hold extracellular matrix (ECM) skin booster production technology. Accordingly, in the United States, MTF Biologics has launched fat ECM, with estimated annual product sales reaching 100 billion won. The industry expects fat ECM to grow into a global market worth hundreds of billions of won, as it can fundamentally suppress skin sagging and fine wrinkles.

6. Amazon: "Fully Commercial Quantum Computer Within Five Years"

- Key Summary: As Peter DeSantis, Amazon's Chief AI Officer (senior vice president), said a small commercial quantum computer will emerge within the next five to seven years, the global quantum computing race is intensifying. A quantum computer is a next-generation computing technology that uses 'qubits' (the basic unit of quantum information) to solve, through parallel computation, problems that conventional computers cannot handle. Microsoft (MS) is targeting practical application by 2029, and Google said practical use is possible within five years. Meanwhile, China has entered the technological hegemony competition with the United States, led by state-driven superconducting quantum computers in the 'Zuchongzhi' series and the 'Wukong' system from its leading startup Origin Quantum.