U.S. 10-Year Treasury Yield Tops 4.7% as Foreign Demand Slumps

* 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 tailored news items for each reader type.

1. U.S. Treasury Issuance Yield Also Highest Since Financial Crisis

- Summary: The auction yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries, the benchmark for the global bond market, hit its highest level since the 2007 global financial crisis. The U.S. Treasury Department announced on the 12th local time that its $42 billion auction of 10-year notes drew a yield of 4.683%, up 0.103 percentage points from 4.580% the previous month. The indirect bid rate, a gauge of overseas investment demand, fell to 76.7%, down 4.8 percentage points from the previous month and the lowest since May this year. The 10-year yield in the secondary market also closed at 4.701%, up 0.05 percentage points from the previous day. Gregory Faranello, head of U.S. rates strategy at AmeriVet Securities, noted that it is difficult for Treasury yields to fall in a period marked by an excessive fiscal deficit, solid economic growth, war and inflation above the Fed's target.

2. Anthropic May Rival SpaceX, With Valuation Seen Above $2 Trillion

- Summary: Some investors expect U.S. AI startup Anthropic to command a valuation of more than $2 trillion (about 2,814 trillion won) in its IPO this October. The Financial Times (FT) reported on the 13th that six Anthropic investors expect a valuation more than double the current level, citing rapidly growing revenue. They see annualized revenue at Anthropic, the maker of Claude, reaching $100 billion to $120 billion (about 142 trillion to 170 trillion won) by year-end, more than 10 times the level at the start of the year. Risks are also being highlighted, however, including continued conflict with the administration led by U.S. President Donald Trump, a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense, and usage costs more than 2.5 times higher than OpenAI's flagship model.

3. One New Model a Week: Chinese AI Overtakes Big Tech

- Summary: A counterattack by Chinese AI models, long viewed as low-cost, value-for-money options, is shaking the global market. Over roughly 70 days since June this year, nine major Chinese AI companies have released 10 new models and major updates, and DeepSeek unveiled the official version of V4 Pro on the 13th. In Artificial Analysis's Intelligence Index v4.1.1, DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 scored 53 on the AI intelligence index, trailing Claude Opus 5 (63) and GPT-5.6 Sol (61), but its average cost per task was $0.06, just 1/39th that of Claude Opus 5 ($2.34). Kwon Young-hwan, principal researcher at the Software Policy & Research Institute, assessed that Chinese companies' influence is spreading rapidly across an open-source AI ecosystem where lock-in effects take hold.

4. Korean Won Gains 9.4%, Largest Appreciation Among Major Currencies

- Summary: The Korean won appreciated 9.4% against the U.S. dollar from the 1st of last month through the 11th of this month, the largest gain among major currencies. According to the Bank of Korea's report on international finance and foreign exchange market trends since July, released on the 13th, the won-dollar exchange rate fell from 1,549.4 won at the end of June to 1,424.0 won at the end of July and to 1,416.0 won on the 11th of this month. The Bank of Korea said the dollar weakened amid easing uncertainty in the Middle East and weaker expectations of U.S. rate hikes, while inflows from SK hynix (000660.KS) converting proceeds from its American Depositary Receipt (ADR) issuance improved supply and demand. Meanwhile, the average daily fluctuation rate of the won-dollar exchange rate in July widened to 0.53%, the second-highest after the Russian ruble (0.55%).

5. Amid Memory Supercycle, Samsung and SK hynix Cash Surges 117 Trillion Won This Year

- Summary: As an AI-driven memory supercycle continues, the cash and cash-equivalent holdings of Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS) have surged by about 117 trillion won this year. The two companies' second-quarter cash equivalents and short-term financial instruments stood at 189.999 trillion won and 87.96 trillion won, up 50.97% and 151.75% from the end of last year, respectively. First-quarter cash equivalents at 138 listed semiconductor companies also rose 26.7% from the end of last year to 103.46 trillion won, far outpacing the 2.4% increase for all listed companies. Kim Jae-seung, an analyst at Hyundai Motor Securities, forecast that a second upswing could emerge if the domestic semiconductor industry's operating margin peaks in the second half of this year and long-term agreements (LTAs) reduce margin volatility.

6. Ranked No. 3 in AI Model Development, Korea Lacks a Testing Ground

- Summary: Korea has risen to around the world's third-ranked AI model development capability, but critics say it lacks a testing ground to grow those capabilities in actual services and industries. As of the end of 2025, the number of globally notable AI models stood at 59 for the United States, 35 for China and 8 for Korea. In the second half of last year, Korea's domestic AI adoption rate was 30.7%, ranking 18th among 147 countries surveyed. By contrast, monthly users of domestic AI chatbot apps in July this year concentrated on ChatGPT with 23.67 million and Google Gemini with 9.47 million, while homegrown services A. drew 1.15 million and Wrtn 610,000. Kang Jun-young, a professor at the Graduate School of International and Area Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, stressed that rather than building the entire AI process independently, it is important to pursue a strategy of dominating a critical bottleneck, or choke point, that cannot be left out of the ecosystem, as with memory semiconductors.