AI-Powered Fortune-Telling Apps Surge, Reaching 1 Billion Won in Monthly Sales

* 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.

1. "My Saju as a Webtoon?"…AI-Powered Divination Content Sends Dopamine Soaring

- Key Summary: Fortune-telling services combining AI technology with content are spreading as a strategy to secure both new users and revenue. According to IGAWorks' Mobile Index, six of the top 10 fortune-telling apps by monthly active users (MAU) last month featured AI-related functions, and the combined MAU of five apps — Jeomsin, Forceteller, Hellobot, Cosmic Cat Bora and Oz's Tarot — totaled 1.24 million. Cybernetics, the developer of "Tight Saju," which combines fortune readings with webtoons, started the business in 2024 with monthly sales in the range of 10 million won and raised monthly sales to around 1 billion won last year. Code Crayon released the beta version of its AI fortune-telling app "Souly" last month and appears to be preparing to enter the intellectual property (IP) business using avatar characters.

2. Kurly Posts 27.4 Billion Won Q2 Operating Profit, a 20-Fold Jump From a Year Earlier

- Key Summary: Kurly posted record quarterly results in the second quarter of this year, with revenue of 734.8 billion won and operating profit of 27.4 billion won on a consolidated basis. Revenue rose 27% from a year earlier, operating profit increased more than 20-fold, and net profit swung to a surplus of 25.4 billion won. As the share of commission-based revenue, including third-party (3P) seller deliveries, grew, the gross profit margin rose 1.5 percentage points to 35.3%, and gross merchandise volume (GMV) rose 25.1% to 1.0786 trillion won. As a result, first-half operating profit reached 51.6 billion won, about 16.6 times the 3.1 billion won posted in the first half of last year. In a third-party allotment paid-in capital increase worth 33 billion won targeting Naver in May, the company was recognized at a corporate value of 2.8 trillion won, adding momentum to its IPO preparations.

3. GI Innovation (358570), Advances to "XPRIZE Healthspan" Finals

- Key Summary: GI Innovation announced on the 12th that it, together with affiliate GI Longevity, has been selected as a finalist in "XPRIZE Healthspan," an international competition in the healthy-lifespan field. The competition, with total prize money of $101 million (about 140 billion won), runs over seven years and aims to restore muscle, cognitive and immune function in adults aged 50 to 90 to levels of at least 10 years and up to 20 years earlier through treatment within one year. GI Innovation administers its immuno-oncology candidate "GI-102" at ultra-low doses to restore the number and function of natural killer (NK) cells, and combines it with GI Longevity's probiotic "GIB-7" to induce improvements in gut health and muscle function. More than 600 teams from 58 countries worldwide entered the competition, with 20 teams reaching the finals.

4. [Exclusive] "New-Security Innovation Company Special Act" Fast-Tracked…Enforcement as Early as First Half of Next Year

- Key Summary: The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is carrying out preparatory work aiming to enact the "Special Act on Fostering Future New-Security Innovation Companies" within this year. The special act will include a whole-of-government support system for discovering and nurturing innovation companies in the new-security field, as well as grounds for investment and research and development (R&D) support. The targets are five categories of dual-use technologies: drones and robots; defense AI and semiconductors; sensors and future materials; space and aviation; and cybersecurity and quantum communications. Taking defense software firm Palantir and unmanned defense firm Anduril as fostering models, the government has set a goal of nurturing five companies worth more than 1 trillion won and 50 companies with revenue exceeding 100 billion won by 2030. It also plans to finalize within this year a plan to establish a "Korean In-Q-Tel," modeled on In-Q-Tel, the venture investment institution set up by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

5. Solving AI's Power Crunch While Securing Quantum, Space and Bio…Government Also Invests to "Share the Risk"

- Key Summary: To solve the power problem that is the biggest variable in the expansion of the AI industry, the government has decided to intensively foster small modular reactors (SMRs), nuclear fusion and renewable energy. The "Seven SEED Projects" announced on the 12th are made up of three clean-energy fields, three frontier-technology fields and one supply-chain field. According to the 11th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand, domestic peak power demand will rise 31.0 gigawatts from 98.3 gigawatts in 2023 to 129.3 gigawatts in 2038, of which data-center demand alone is expected to reach 6.2 gigawatts. The government also presented quantum, aerospace and advanced bio as frontier seeds. In addition, it is introducing "investment-type R&D," in which public-private jointly funded special purpose companies (SPCs) are set up in the SMR, nuclear fusion, quantum and advanced bio fields to acquire equity stakes in companies, thereby sharing early-stage risk.

6. Once "25% of AI Support" Was Pinned Down, Nvidia Credit Jitters Eased

- Key Summary: The market has positively assessed Nvidia's strategy to invest $500 billion (about 709.1 trillion won) in AI data centers in partnership with Wall Street. On the 11th local time, the yield on Nvidia's 5.625% bonds maturing in 2056 fell 2 basis points to about 113 basis points over comparable government bonds, and the price of five-year credit default swaps (CDS) narrowed by up to 5 basis points to 72.11 basis points a year. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang calmed the unease by stating that support could reach up to 25% of the investment amount depending on the case, and that it is meant to complement independent loan reviews. Meanwhile, CoreWeave's second-quarter revenue surged 112% to $2.58 billion and Super Micro Computer's fourth-quarter revenue rose 93% to $11.12 billion, with the two companies' shares jumping as much as 15.53% and 8.7%, respectively, in after-hours trading.