AI · SEMICONDUCTOR · FACT CHECK
SKD WIREKorean AI·hardware news, verified where it matters.
September semiconductor exports reached $60.3 billion (about 83.3 trillion won), an all-time high, with roughly four-fifths of the increase in exports attributable to chips. Chips accounted for 49.9% of total exports, drawing both warnings of overdependence risk and optimism about long-term AI demand.
Ruling and opposition parties clashed this week over the process of attracting an AI data center to Gangneung. The People Power Party questioned the veracity of a May announcement by Gangwon Governor Woo Sang-ho, while the Democratic Party denounced the move as political obstruction of investment.
Yongin Mayor Lee Sang-il visited ASML's headquarters in the Netherlands on October 28 for about one hour and 45 minutes to discuss expanding semiconductor industry cooperation. ASML COO Schneider-Monouri attended the visit and joined a commemorative photo.
The US Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis reported a 3.4% annualized real GDP growth for Q3 2026, the highest in a year, according to the October 29 advance estimate. AI infrastructure investment and consumption anchored the growth, while net exports subtracted 3 percentage points.
KT launched dedicated AI data transmission lines on October 14, raising maximum bandwidth from the previous 100Gbps to up to 800Gbps. The company aims to ease bottlenecks in moving AI training data with up to eight times the transmission capacity of existing lines.
Kakao officially announced its AI agent service Kanana Space in October, featuring a gesture that summons the AI assistant with a two-finger downward swipe. Search is available in beta, while shopping and booking features remain in the planning stage, with a private beta for general users set for December.
Three of LG's AI data center cooling units, the 600kW, 1MW and 2.6MW CDU models, received NVIDIA DSX Ready certification. The certification applies at the product level, and the company is exploring a supply opportunity with Microsoft.
ServiceNow shares fell 26.7% to 27% on October 29 following its Q3 earnings release, the worst single day since listing. Revenue matched consensus with 20.5% year-on-year growth, but the EPS miss and expectations of slowing Q4 guidance triggered heavy selling.
Seoul National University's College of Engineering said on October 28 that Professor Chung Kyomin's team in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering had 44 papers accepted at leading global AI conferences over the past two years. The output was called an unusual concentration of achievement for a domestic lab in machine learning and natural language processing.
The Advanced Strategic Industry Fund under the Korea Growth Fund decided to invest 100 billion won in the construction of the country's largest solar power plant in Haenam, South Jeolla Province. The government approved the plan at a fund management committee meeting on October 29 to help semiconductor companies meet renewable energy demand.