▲AI PRISM* Customized Economic Briefing
*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an "AI-based personalized news recommendation and summarization service" developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news items by reader type.
[Key Issue Briefing]
■ Regional Dispersal of Chip Plants: Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS) are set to announce plans to invest more than 300 trillion won in building an advanced semiconductor cluster in the Gwangju and South Jeolla region at a regional balanced development meeting to be held at the Cheong Wa Dae guesthouse on the 29th. As the capital region's power grid reaches saturation and the political circle's demand for balanced regional development converges, the two companies decided to expand their fabs (semiconductor plants) to Gwangju and South Jeolla, where renewable energy infrastructure is abundant and securing large-scale sites is easier. The combined operating profit the two companies are expected to generate by 2028 reaches approximately 2,320 trillion won.
■ HBM4 Technology Competition: Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee visited the back-end packaging production line for HBM (high-bandwidth memory) at the company's Cheonan plant in South Chungcheong Province on the 23rd, his first visit in three years and four months, to inspect technological competitiveness. While revenue from HBM4, which Samsung Electronics developed for the first time in the world this April, surpassed $1 billion (about 1.5371 trillion won) in four months, Korea's HBM exports that same month soared 186.6% year-on-year to $8.15 billion (about 12.5371 trillion won).
■ Rare Earth Supply Chain Crisis: According to the Korea Mine Rehabilitation and Mineral Resources Corporation, China's share of Korea's graphite imports from January to May this year reached 90.34%, with dependence rising a further 6.02 percentage points over five years. As the Strait of Hormuz was blockaded due to the U.S.-Iran war, lithium prices surged from $11 to $21.72 per kilogram, making instability in the critical mineral supply chain a reality. Experts urged that, beyond expanding stockpiles and diversifying import sources, the public sector should directly take part in resource development.
[News of Interest to Corporate CEOs]
- Key Summary: Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are set to attend a regional balanced development meeting presided over by President Lee Jae-myung at the Cheong Wa Dae guesthouse on the 29th, where they will unveil plans to invest more than 300 trillion won in building an advanced semiconductor cluster in the Gwangju and South Jeolla region. This results from the power grid in the Pyeongtaek and Yongin areas — the capital region's semiconductor hubs — having effectively reached saturation, combined with a "local production for local consumption" power policy that consumes electricity directly at the production site and the government's demand for balanced regional development. The two companies also plan to announce plans next month to build AI data centers (DCs) in the Chungcheong region and Gangwon Province, and balanced regional investment is expected to continue across advanced industries beyond fabs. However, practical challenges such as top research talent's reluctance to work in regional areas, the construction of large-scale transmission towers, and securing industrial water are cited as major variables that will determine the project's success or failure.
- Key Summary: Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee visited the C1 and C2 HBM packaging (back-end) production lines at the company's Cheonan plant in South Chungcheong Province on the 23rd, his first visit in three years and four months, to directly inspect the status of production and quality competitiveness and future business expansion strategy. Samsung Electronics ceded the lead to SK hynix in HBM3 and HBM3E, but it regained technological leadership starting with HBM4, which it developed for the first time in the world this April, and last month it also succeeded in shipping samples of seventh-generation HBM4E. HBM4 is set to be installed in the high-performance lineup of Nvidia's AI accelerator "Vera Rubin," to be released in the second half of this year, and Korea's HBM exports surged 186.6% year-on-year to $8.15 billion (about 12.5371 trillion won) in April. The industry forecasts that HBM4 and HBM4E products are highly likely to form the mainstream through 2030, allowing Samsung Electronics to secure the lead in the global HBM market.
3. Tightening Rare Earths Could Even Shake Power Supply… "Must Open a Second Supply Line"
- Key Summary: From January to May this year, Korea's dependence on China for its total graphite imports stood at 90.34%, up 6.02 percentage points from 2021, and the structure of depending more than 80% on specific countries for critical minerals such as nickel (more than 80% from New Caledonia), magnesium, niobium, and indium has become entrenched. As the Strait of Hormuz was blockaded due to the U.S.-Iran war, prices of critical minerals such as sulfuric acid, lithium, and copper surged, and China carried out export restrictions on rare earths to Japan in April 2025, with the trend of weaponizing resources becoming clear. Experts pointed out that there are limits to simply expanding stockpiles and diversifying import sources, and proposed a method in which the public sector invests funds at the early exploration stage and cooperates with the private sector at the development stage. At the same time, voices are growing that Korea should also accelerate the development of the East Sea gas field, which regained momentum after the Korea National Oil Corporation selected global oil major BP as a preferred negotiating partner.
[Reference News for Corporate CEOs]
4. Future Industry Technologies Step Out of AI… H·E·R·O Is Coming
- Key Summary: The top 10 promising technologies for 2026 selected by the World Economic Forum (WEF) placed weight on foundational technologies that expand AI into real-world industries such as power grids, healthcare, and materials, rather than on AI itself, with "personalization" and "decentralization" emerging as key keywords. They are classified into four categories: energy transition and power infrastructure (everything-to-grid, passive radiative cooling), securing critical resources and the environment (direct lithium extraction technology, PFAS decomposition technology), bio-production and precision medicine (precision fermentation, exosome-based drug delivery, personalized mRNA cancer vaccines), and foundational technologies for the AI and quantum era (quantum simulation, world models, lattice-based cryptography). Lee Sang-yup, distinguished professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at KAIST, analyzed that "this year's top 10 technologies show the importance of foundational technologies that will stably keep AI and the electrification, bio, and quantum eras running within actual industries and social systems." The suggestion is that Korea, too, urgently needs to secure irreplaceable original technologies and lead global standards, beyond simply adopting technology.
5. Borrowing 31 Trillion Won Right After Listing… SpaceX Busy With Refinancing
- Key Summary: SpaceX announced its first corporate bond issuance of at least $20 billion (about 31 trillion won) with maturities of 5 to 30 years, just 10 days after conducting an initial public offering (IPO) worth 130 trillion won ($85.7 billion). The purpose is refinancing to repay a short-term bridge loan (about $20 billion) raised this March to repay the debt of its subsidiaries X (formerly Twitter) and xAI, and global investment bank Oppenheimer expects SpaceX to accumulate $400 billion in net debt by 2031. As the large volume of corporate bonds was supplied to the bond market, the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries again broke through the psychological ceiling of 4.5% to 4.51%, and SpaceX's stock price plunged 16.43% in a single day, wiping out $400 billion (about 615 trillion won) in market capitalization. Major credit rating agencies such as Moody's, Fitch, and S&P assigned "investment grade" ratings on the day of the IPO, but the latest corporate bond issuance appears to be reigniting controversy over financial soundness.
- Key Summary: LG Chem announced that it will invest 15 trillion won in research and development (R&D) by 2035 to begin its full transformation into an AI-based high-value-added materials company. It selected semiconductor, mobility, and robot materials and anticancer drugs as future core businesses, concentrating 70% of its R&D investment resources on them — an increase of more than 40% from its existing annual average investment (about 1.067 trillion won). To accelerate this, it established a new business development organization directly under the CEO this month, and mergers and acquisitions (M&
