▲ AI PRISM* Personalized Economic Briefing
* Editor's note: AI PRISM (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an artificial intelligence-based personalized news recommendation and summary service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six news items tailored to each reader type.
[Key Issue Briefing]
■ SK Semiconductor Rebalancing: SK Group has begun consolidating its semiconductor materials, gases, equipment and infrastructure businesses, which had been scattered across affiliates, to boost synergy. At the same time, the group is aggressively selling off low-growth businesses to secure funds for future investment, accelerating a reorganization centered on semiconductors.
■ Fed Rate Increase: The U.S. Federal Reserve abruptly raised its benchmark rate for the first time in three years and two months, unable to withstand rising international oil prices and inflationary pressure. With the Bank of Japan also more likely to follow the Bank of Korea with an additional increase, the global tightening clock has quickened further.
■ Huawei Speeds Up AI Chip: China's Huawei has moved up the launch of its next-generation artificial intelligence chip, adding momentum to its AI computing business in China. Huawei, which has named Nvidia as its target, is also developing interconnect technology that ties multiple chips together into what functions as a single massive computing system, throwing its weight behind building its own platform.
[Featured News for Corporate CEOs]
- Key points: SK Group's business realignment is gaining speed with semiconductors at its center. SKC carried out a 1.1671 trillion won rights offering this year in a decisive bet on its semiconductor materials business, and will channel about 590 billion won — half of the proceeds — into its glass substrate business over the next three years. Glass substrates are seen as a next-generation substrate suited to large-area, highly integrated semiconductor packages, with a lower coefficient of thermal expansion and better flatness than conventional plastic-based organic substrates. SK Ecoplant, meanwhile, is transforming into a comprehensive semiconductor solutions company, having brought SK Trichem and SK Resonac into the fold in succession after Essencore and SK Air Plus. Holding company SK Inc. agreed to sell its 70.6% stake in SK Siltron to Doosan (000150) for 2.3 trillion won, booking a gain of more than 1.5 trillion won.
2. Fed Raises Rates for First Time in Three Years, Ushering In Tougher Tightening
- Key points: The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by 0.25 percentage point at its Federal Open Market Committee meeting on the 16th, with all 12 members voting in favor. It was the first increase in three years and two months, since July 2023, lifting the U.S. benchmark rate to 3.75-4.00% — 1.00 percentage point above Korea's 3.00% at the upper end. In its dot plot, the Fed put the median rate at 4.125% for the end of this year, signaling it could raise rates once more at the October and December meetings, and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation had been too high for too long. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note jumped to 5.027% immediately after the meeting before falling back into the 4% range, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1.21% to a three-month low, and the won closed daytime trading at 1,382.2 to the dollar, up 13.6 won.
3. "Nvidia Is the Target": Huawei Moves Up AI Chip
- Key points: Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei said it would launch its next-generation artificial intelligence chip in 2027, earlier than planned. Wang Tao, Huawei's rotating chairman, said at the 2026 Huawei Connect conference in Shanghai that the Ascend 960 chip had been readied ahead of schedule and delivered twice the performance of existing products, with the 960DT for training due in the first quarter of next year and the 960PR for inference in the third quarter. Huawei has also developed 11 types of semiconductors based on its UnifiedBus technology, which links multiple AI chips so they operate as a larger computing system. Wang said more than 1,000 sets of the Atlas SuperPod supernode system had been deployed and that customers numbered about 370. Separately, Guo Ping, chairman of Huawei's supervisory board, has laid out a plan to have a range of large language models run on Huawei's platform, much as they do on Nvidia's CUDA platform.
[Reference News for Corporate CEOs]
- Key points: The combined market value of Hyundai Motor Group's three listed affiliates has evaporated by more than 100 trillion won in three months. According to the Korea Exchange, the combined market capitalization of Hyundai Motor, Kia (000270) and Hyundai Mobis (012330) fell to 155.7496 trillion won on the 17th from 255.9413 trillion won on June 15, a drop of 100.1917 trillion won, or 39.1%. Hyundai Motor fell 43.9%, while Hyundai Mobis and Kia declined 40.5% and 27.8%. As expectations for robotics and physical AI faded, Hyundai Motor's 12-month forward price-earnings ratio slipped to about 9-10 times from 18 times in early June, weighed down by accumulated losses, investment burdens and concerns over a delayed initial public offering, along with a stronger won and slowing global auto demand. Analysts are meanwhile watching the dollar-yen rate, which briefly fell to the 152 level this month, saying a stronger yen could erode the pricing advantage of Japanese automakers and improve the relative price competitiveness of Hyundai Motor and Kia.
- Key points: Life Asset Management sent a shareholder letter to Hanmi Pharmaceutical's board and audit committee requesting a special audit of transactions between Beijing Hanmi and Runmeikang and of Beijing Hanmi's governance structure. Beijing Hanmi handles drug production and supply while Runmeikang handles distribution, putting the two on opposite sides as seller and buyer, yet Lim Jong-yoon, chairman of Beijing Hanmi, also serves as the beneficial owner of Hong Kong Kory, Runmeikang's controlling company — a structure that Life Asset Management judges makes it difficult for internal controls to function properly. The asset manager also flagged asymmetric terms under which Beijing Hanmi must first offer any new distribution conditions to Runmeikang and cannot terminate the contract, as well as Runmeikang receivables that grew to 125.4 billion won at the end of 2025 from 35.1 billion won at the end of 2023. Kang Dae-kwon, chief executive of Life Asset Management, stressed that the heart of the problem was not bad debt but the absence of oversight, which is ultimately a governance issue.
6. Concerns Grow Over Rising Delinquency in Real Estate Project Financing, the "Weak Link"
- Key points: With a prolonged slump in Korea's construction industry compounded by rate increases in major economies, concerns are mounting that delinquency rates on real estate project financing could rise sharply. According to financial industry sources, the delinquency rate on real estate PF loans stood at 4.65% at the end of March this year, the highest in about a decade since the end of September 2016 (4.95%), and up sharply from 3.88% at the end of last year. The PF delinquency rate at mutual finance institutions in particular surged 5.34 percentage points to 5.51% at the end of March from 0.17% at the end of last year, while PF exposure classified as of concern or at risk of impairment rose 1.7 trillion won to 16.4 trillion won from 14.7 trillion won. Delinquent loans tied to PF, construction and real estate at the country's 79 savings banks totaled about 2.6943 trillion won at the end of June, a 15.6% jump in six months — the result of a drawn-out property downturn delaying normalization even as second-tier lenders pushed to sell off troubled project sites.
▶Read the article:Life Asset Management Asks Hanmi Pharmaceutical Audit Committee for Special Audit of Beijing Hanmi
▶Read the article: Koreans Turn Cash-Positive at 28, Peak in Income at 45 and Fall Back Into Deficit at 61
