Memory Buying Frenzy Triggers IBM Shock, AI Software Stocks Tumble

*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 by reader type.

1. "Misjudged Customer Spending Priorities"...IBM's AI Infrastructure Also Failed to Sell

- Key Summary: When IBM issued an earnings alert with preliminary second-quarter revenue of just $17.2 billion, falling below Wall Street's forecast ($17.8 billion), its shares plummeted 25.21% in a single day, wiping out $67 billion in market capitalization. As customers shifted capital expenditure to secure servers, storage, and memory ahead of further price increases in June, sales of the z17 AI accelerator and related software took a direct hit. IBM Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna admitted in a letter to investors that the impact of capital expenditure reprioritization exceeded expected levels, saying, "We witnessed customers shifting capital expenditure to server, storage, and memory purchases to secure supply-constrained infrastructure." Accordingly, enterprise software stocks also fell in tandem, including ServiceNow (5.76%), Adobe (4.26%), Workday (3.49%), and Salesforce (2.14%).

2. From Offshore Wind Turbines to Defense Chips...10 Trillion Won to Secure Technological Sovereignty

- Key Summary: The Financial Services Commission announced a plan to establish Korea Strategic Technology Partners (KSTP), a specialized management firm dedicated to long-term, large-scale investment, supplying up to 10 trillion won in patient capital at 1 trillion to 2 trillion won annually. Major investment targets include frontier source technologies such as quantum supercomputing, ultra-reliable communication networks, and bio digital twins, along with core technologies of key industries dependent on competitor nations, including defense RF semiconductors (United States), ultra-large offshore wind turbines (Denmark), rare-earth magnet refining technology (China), and LNG (liquefied natural gas) cold-energy power generation (Germany). Led by the Korea Development Bank and Korea Growth Investment Corp., private participants including the five major financial holding companies and comprehensive financial investment firms will complete preparations for its establishment in the second half of this year and begin full operations next year. Meanwhile, an ultra-long-term technology investment fund worth 880 billion won, targeting next-generation semiconductors and new bio drug development that require at least 10 years to recover investment, is also set to be launched.

3. Subcontractor Unions Also Demand '30% of Operating Profit'...Hyundai Motor Faces Additional Strike 'Pressure'

- Key Summary: With the Hyundai Motor union staging a partial strike for a third day, demanding a bonus equal to 30% of last year's net profit (10.3648 trillion won) and a monthly base pay increase of 149,600 won, summer labor struggle risk is rapidly spreading across the automotive, shipbuilding, and steel sectors. The "N% bonus" model launched by the semiconductor industry has emerged as the biggest issue in industry-wide wage and collective bargaining, while subcontractor unions that secured bargaining rights following the enforcement of the Yellow Envelope Law are also demanding unification of treatment with prime contractors, complicating the conflict structure. The HD Hyundai Heavy Industries union is demanding about 1.17 trillion won—equivalent to 30% of this year's operating profit consensus (forecast) of 3.8914 trillion won—as bonus funds, while POSCO faces the risk of breaking its dispute-free tradition maintained since its founding in 1968. Industry officials said concerns are spreading that this year's summer struggle will be prolonged compared to previous years as prime and subcontractor negotiations flood in simultaneously.

4. As AI Agents Grow Smarter, 'Jailbreak Risk' Grows Too

- Key Summary: AI jailbreaking, which bypasses AI models' preset safeguards, is rapidly emerging as a corporate security threat amid the spread of AI agents and physical AI. As AI agents link with work systems through MCP (Model Context Protocol) and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to perform tasks including reading files, executing code, and sending emails, the scale of risk caused by jailbreaking has expanded significantly. According to Nature Communications, when attacked with up to 10 conversations, GPT-4o's jailbreak success rate reached 61%, Gemini 2.5 Flash 71%, and DeepSeek-V3 90%, with the success rate of the "multi-turn technique"—in which AI models lose context over dozens of conversations—rising recently. Experts stress that since it is technically impossible to block AI jailbreaking 100%, the focus should be on increasing the time and cost attackers must spend to break through guardrails (AI safeguards).

5. Homeplus's 'Rehabilitation Spark' Revived...Meritz's 200 Billion Won Support, Michael ByungJu Kim's Guarantee

- Key Summary: To save Homeplus, which stood on the brink of bankruptcy, largest creditor Meritz Financial Group and largest shareholder MBK Partners dramatically agreed to provide 200 billion won in DIP financing (emergency operating funds). As MBK Partners Chairman Michael ByungJu Kim decided to provide a joint guarantee for the entire 200 billion won loan, the three Meritz Financial Group companies plan to hold board meetings on the morning of the 16th and proceed with loan execution procedures. The Seoul Bankruptcy Court, in deciding to terminate rehabilitation proceedings on the 3rd of this month, granted a "reconsideration" opportunity to cancel the decision if 200 billion won is raised within 14 days, and the agreement was reached four days before the 20th, effectively the bankruptcy deadline. However, the IB industry points out that even if immediate bankruptcy is avoided through DIP financing execution, the key issue will be improving the high-cost structure and restoring the competitiveness of the core supermarket business, which has lagged behind changing consumption trends.

6. Export Boom Dimmed by Domestic Slump...China's Q2 Growth Rate Lowest in Three Years

- Key Summary: China's second-quarter GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate slowed to 4.3% year-on-year, the lowest level since 2022, when the aftereffects of COVID-19 lockdowns lingered. It fell below all market forecasts, including Reuters and Bloomberg (4.5%) and Nihon Keizai Shimbun (4.6%), and also missed the lower bound of the government's growth target for this year (4.5–5.0%). Shrinking investment, which accounts for about 40% of total GDP, was cited as the main culprit for the slump, with June fixed-asset investment falling 5.7% year-on-year and real estate development investment dropping 18.0%, the largest decline since 1992. Meanwhile, exports rose 27.0% year-on-year last month amid synergy between the AI boom and advanced manufacturing competitiveness, setting a new all-time monthly high, while lithium battery and electric vehicle exports surged 37.6% and 68.7%, respectively, in the first half.