▲AI PRISM* Customized Economic Briefing
*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 items by reader type.
[Key Issue Briefing]
■ AI Data Centers: Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, announced that he will build AI data centers capable of sharply lowering the cost of AI tokens (the minimum basic unit of text used by AI models). He reemphasized his plan to make the United States an R&D hub and to expand cooperation and investment with local AI startups, signaling that SK's entry into the US AI ecosystem is accelerating.
■ China's AX Offensive: Imports of Chinese-made molds have swelled 2.6-fold in five years, pushing domestic root industry companies into management difficulties. As the offensive from China's manufacturing sector, armed with AX (AI transformation), intensifies, some domestic root industry firms have even come to the point of receiving acquisition offers from Chinese companies.
■ Samsung HBM Hiring: Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) has begun recruiting experienced personnel across all areas, from HBM (high-bandwidth memory) design to packaging, reliability evaluation, and customer technical support. Following mass production of HBM4 and running customer verification of HBM4E in parallel, the company is moving up its generational transition cycle, with development of next-generation HBM5 also gaining speed.
[News of Interest to Corporate CEOs]
1. Chey Tae-won: "We Will Build AI Data Centers to Lower Token Costs... Use US as R&D Hub"
- Key Summary: In an interview with the US tech-focused platform 'The Six Five,' Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, announced that he will build AI data centers capable of lowering AI token costs much further. Chey presented as concrete measures the construction of new AI data centers that generate tokens more efficiently and the expansion of the plant in Indiana, US, which handles HBM (high-bandwidth memory) packaging. He also explained that SK, which has already invested more than $35 billion in the United States, will use the US as an R&D hub going forward, cooperating with numerous AI startups and pursuing investments. Meanwhile, Chey said, "If sufficient funds are not put into the AI ecosystem, we could lose the enormous momentum we have now," citing this as his greatest concern over the next five years.
2. China's All-Out Offensive Powered by AX... Struggling Korean Firms Become M&A Prey
- Key Summary: According to the Korea Die & Mold Industry Cooperative, imports of Chinese-made molds surged 162.7% in five years, from $97.92 million in 2020 to $257.24 million last year. Through its "Opinion on Implementing Special Actions for AI+ Manufacturing," the Chinese government plans to develop three to five large AI models applicable across manufacturing and to nurture 1,000 benchmark companies by 2027. By contrast, R&D investment by domestic root industry companies fell 8.9% to 3.2146 trillion won, and R&D investment as a share of revenue stands at just 1.2%. Amid this, some casting companies unable to withstand management difficulties have received acquisition offers from Chinese firms, with cases even emerging of MOUs (memoranda of understanding) being signed.
3. Samsung Recruits Experienced HBM Staff in Force... Racing to Secure Talent Targeting HBM5
- Key Summary: From the 13th to the 27th of this month, Samsung Electronics is recruiting experienced personnel for six job functions, including HBM (high-bandwidth memory) core die design, base die design, reliability evaluation, package development, and application engineering. After shipping the industry's first HBM4 (6th-generation) mass-production product in February this year, the company supplied HBM4E (7th-generation) samples to customers in May, pursuing a strategy of moving up its generational transition cycle. In particular, from HBM4 onward, the role of the base die has expanded from simple signal relaying to data management and computation support, making customer-tailored design capabilities suited to each AI accelerator maker's demands more important, analysts said. At Computex 2026 last month, the company unveiled an HBM5 (8th-generation) model along with HPB (Heat Path Block), a new thermal management technology, making next-generation development increasingly visible.
[Reference News for Corporate CEOs]
4. Bloomberg: "Samsung Electronics Reviewing US ADR Listing"
- Key Summary: Bloomberg reported, citing multiple sources, that Samsung Electronics recently held preliminary discussions with investment banks on a US ADR (American Depositary Receipt) listing. SK hynix (000660.KS) raising $26.5 billion (about 39 trillion won) through a US market listing—the largest ever for a foreign company—was cited as the background for the review. However, some in the industry assess that a US listing offers insufficient practical benefit for Samsung Electronics, as its market capitalization has surpassed $1 trillion, it holds ample cash assets, and a diversified portfolio can complement the semiconductor cycle. Bloomberg said "the discussions are still at a very early stage," and Samsung Electronics declined to comment officially.
- Key Summary: Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced a mega investment of 25 trillion won at home and abroad through 2040. The plan calls for injecting 23 trillion won into its Busan and Sejong sites and about $1.2 billion (about 1.8 trillion won) into its Thai Nguyen site in Vietnam to boost production capacity for MLCCs (multilayer ceramic capacitors) and FC-BGAs (flip-chip ball grid arrays). The financial investment industry projects that with capex (capital expenditure) reaching up to 12 trillion won over the next three years, the current net-cash financial structure will shift to about 1 trillion won of net debt next year. The key to overcoming the investment burden is profitability, and the industry expects Samsung Electro-Mechanics' operating margin to rise from 13% this year to 22% next year, with an expanded share of high-value-added products and long-term supply contracts with Big Tech supporting improved cash flow.
- Key Summary: On the 14th, the government sharply raised its economic growth forecast for this year to 3.0%, against the backdrop of a semiconductor super-cycle driven by expanding AI demand. Semiconductor exports in the first half of this year reached $192.4 billion, already surpassing last year's full-year figure ($173.4 billion), and with the unit price of semiconductor exports rising 163.3% from a year earlier, the nominal growth rate is expected to reach 12.3%, the highest in 30 years since the IMF foreign exchange crisis. President Lee Jae-myung presented an "Economic Growth 3·4·5 Vision" of achieving a 3% potential growth rate and ranking among the world's top four exporters, through three mega projects: semiconductors, AI data centers, and physical AI. Accordingly, construction of a global hub of AI data centers with a total capacity of 8.4 gigawatts (GW) is set to begin in 2028, while the "triple-high" of high prices, high exchange rates, and high interest rates, along with an employment slowdown that has trimmed the projected increase in employed persons from an initial 160,000 to 150,000, have emerged as the economic team's greatest challenges.
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