Asia’s top tech startups move beyond software towards physical AI

The Business Times - Sep 30, 2026

This includes deploying artificial intelligence across wind farms, warehouses and operating theatres

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Samsung Electronics 1st Korean firm to top $80 bil. in quarterly operating profit

Oct 8, 2026

Samsung Electronics 1st Korean firm to top $80 bil. in quarterly operating profit

Samsung Electronics on Thursday estimated 107.4 trillion won ($80.28 billion) in operating profit for the third quarter, becoming the first Korean company to surpass 100 trillion won in quarterly operating profit. In a regulatory filing, the company said its third-quarter operating profit and revenue are each estimated at 107.4 trillion won and 195 trillion won, respectively. If the figures are finalized when the company announces its full earnings results on Oct. 29, they would represent year-on-year increases of 782.5 percent in operating profit and 126.6 percent in sales. Beside Samsung, no other company in the world expect for Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company Aramco has posted a quarterly operating profit exceeding that amount. Aramco reported $86.5 billion in operating profit in the second quarter of 2022. The operating profit surpassed brokerages’ consensus estimate of 106.64 trillion won, though sales fell slightly short of the 200.64 trillion won forecast. The earnings are particularly significant as they exceeded expectations despite concerns that the Korean won's sharp

Hyosung Heavy Industries builds test facility for 2-gigawatt HVDC controller

Oct 8, 2026

Hyosung Heavy Industries builds test facility for 2-gigawatt HVDC controller

Hyosung Heavy Industries, the power equipment and grid infrastructure unit of Korean conglomerate Hyosung Group, has built a facility to test the performance of its 2-gigawatt high-voltage direct current (HVDC) controller, marking a first for Korea using homegrown technology, the company said Thursday. The hardware-in-the-loop simulation system, recently installed at the company's research center in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, links an actual HVDC controller to a simulated 2-gigawatt converter valve and power grid. This lets engineers check how the controller responds under conditions close to those of a real grid, the company said. HVDC technology converts alternating current into direct current to carry large amounts of electricity over long distances with less power loss. A 2-gigawatt system requires two to three times as many test scenarios, such as grid faults and emergencies, as a 200-megawatt one, according to the company. The simulator can reproduce hazardous situations that are difficult to test on a live grid and run them repeatedly over long periods, it said. Hyosung said it d

Hancom partners with AWS to bring Nomadian AI workforce platform to US

Oct 8, 2026

Hancom partners with AWS to bring Nomadian AI workforce platform to US

Korea's leading office software developer, Hancom, is taking its Nomadian artificial intelligence (AI) workforce platform to the U.S. market, teaming with Amazon Web Services to shape everything from product design and pricing to marketing and distribution. Hancom said Thursday that it will work with AWS on a 10-week program called Hancom x AWS CoLab as it prepares to launch Nomadian in the U.S. The program will cover product development and market strategy, with AWS supporting development in its cloud environment while both companies examine market size, customer willingness to pay, pricing and revenue models. Hancom will lead product vision and key decisions, while CoLab will use Amazon’s Working Backwards approach to map out its initial customers, market-entry strategy and launch road map. Hancom and AWS held a kickoff meeting Sept. 21, attended by business development and sales representatives from Hancom and AWS technology. Nomadian is designed for solo entrepreneurs, allowing users to assemble teams of AI agents for roles including data analysis and content marketing and assign wo

Korea has no plans to follow US push to replace term AI with 'super intelligence'

Oct 8, 2026

Korea has no plans to follow US push to replace term AI with 'super intelligence'

Korea is not considering to replace the term artificial intelligence (AI) with “super intelligence,” or SI, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT, distancing itself from a terminology push underway in the United States. An official from the ministry told The Korea Times that the government has no plans of replacing AI with SI. “There has been no consideration at our level of using such terminology,” the official said on Tuesday. The clarification came after Deputy Prime Minister and Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon, during a National Assembly audit earlier in the day, used the term SI while describing U.S. efforts to secure leadership in advanced AI competition. The Donald Trump administration has been promoting the use of SI instead of AI. Trump signed an executive order titled "Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence" on Sept. 29, requiring federal executive agencies to use SI instead of AI in official documents, including websites, reports and policy papers. The shift has also drawn attention from the private sector. Elon Musk has said he plans to rename SpaceX’s AI

Korea's forgotten fortune: $1.1 bil. in shares left unclaimed

Oct 8, 2026

Korea's forgotten fortune: $1.1 bil. in shares left unclaimed

Nearly 1.5 trillion won ($1.1 billion) worth of shares held by the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) remain unclaimed by some 26,000 shareholders, data showed Thursday. According to data released by Rep. Han Min-soo of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the KSD held 800.84 million unclaimed shares worth a combined 1.47 trillion won as of the end of August. Unclaimed shares typically arise when shareholders fail to claim shares issued through rights offerings, bonus issues or stock dividends. Shareholders may be unaware of the newly issued shares or miss notifications after changing their addresses. In such cases, the shares are held by the KSD or other designated transfer agents until their rightful owners claim them. The value of unclaimed shares rose by about 26.4 billion won in the first eight months of this year, from 1.44 trillion won at the end of last year, when 763.54 million shares remained unclaimed. The number of shareholders with unclaimed shares also increased by 931, from 25,349 at the end of last year to 26,280 as of August. The figure included 22,526 individual sharehol

Hanmi Pharm's obesity treatment Eppe wins domestic approval

Oct 8, 2026

Hanmi Pharm's obesity treatment Eppe wins domestic approval

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Thursday approved Hanmi Pharmaceutical's Eppe, Korea's first domestically developed glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)-based obesity treatment. Eppe is the 45th novel drug developed in Korea and the country's first domestically developed GLP-1-based obesity drug. It has been approved in five doses: 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 milligrams. According to the ministry, the injectable drug is intended for chronic weight management in adults with obesity or for those who are overweight and do not have diabetes, as an adjunct to a reduced-calorie diet and exercise. The drug was initially licensed out to global pharmaceutical company Sanofi in 2015 as a diabetes treatment, but the rights were returned in 2020. Hanmi Pharm then decided to develop the drug as its own obesity treatment. Eppe was initially expected to become Korea's 44th domestically developed new drug, but became the 45th after an eye treatment jointly developed by Aju Pharm and GL Pharm Tech received approval on Sept. 8. Eppe is set to compete with leading GLP-1-based obesity treatments such as Wegovy and

Controversy resurfaces over SK hynix's potential Solidigm IPO

Oct 8, 2026

Controversy resurfaces over SK hynix's potential Solidigm IPO

Controversy has resurfaced over SK hynix’s reported efforts to list its NAND flash memory subsidiary Solidigm in the U.S., after reports said the company had selected lead managers for an initial public offering (IPO), despite repeatedly maintaining that “nothing has been confirmed.” In an effort to protect retail investors, Korean financial regulators have introduced rules that prohibit parent-subsidiary listings in the domestic market in principle while allowing exceptions under certain conditions. However, because Solidigm is seeking an overseas listing, the case has raised questions over whether SK hynix could face regulatory penalties if it fails to comply with shareholder protection requirements. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Solidigm has selected Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as lead underwriters for its planned IPO in the U.S. next year. The offering, if pursued, is expected to raise approximately $10 billion and value the NAND flash memory maker at up to $100 billion. Solidigm's parent company, memory chip giant SK hynix, has maintained that no decision has been mad

Lamborghini unveils ultra-fast Urus SUV, Revuelto SV sports car

Oct 8, 2026

Lamborghini unveils ultra-fast Urus SUV, Revuelto SV sports car

Automobili Lamborghini Korea unveiled two of its latest high-performance models, Thursday, highlighting the country as the first Asia-Pacific market to see the Urus SE Performante and Revuelto SV. The event marked a major milestone for Lamborghini in Korea, with the brand also celebrating the delivery of its 3,000th vehicle in the country since Volkswagen Group Korea began operating the brand’s local import business. The Urus SE Performante, a high-performance plug-in hybrid SUV, and the Revuelto SV, a limited-edition plug-in hybrid super sports car, represent Lamborghini’s latest push to combine electrification with its performance-focused brand identity. The Urus SE Performante combines a twin-turbo eight-cylinder engine with an electric motor, producing a combined 812 horsepower. The Revuelto SV, based on Lamborghini’s 12-cylinder hybrid architecture, delivers more than 1,000 horsepower and will be limited to 1,963 units globally, commemorating Lamborghini’s founding year of 1963. “Korea is the No. 2 market in the Asia-Pacific region (in terms of the number of vehicle delive

Tesla Korea's 'unverified' FSD under scrutiny

Oct 8, 2026

Tesla Korea's 'unverified' FSD under scrutiny

Tesla Korea’s vehicles equipped with supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) will be facing tighter scrutiny after the company came under criticism during the National Assembly’s annual audit, Thursday, over the system’s lack of an official safety evaluation by relevant authorities in Korea. Some 45,000 U.S.-made Tesla vehicles equipped with FSD are currently on Korean roads, but the autonomous driving system has not undergone a government safety test. During the audit, Tesla Korea Country Manager Seo Young-deuk said the company plans to seek formal approval for FSD in Korea. He acknowledged that it has not officially requested testing by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport or the Korea Transportation Safety Authority — two key authorities related with auto safety certification. “We have not requested any tests from the authorities,” Seo said. “If the government establishes a system and channel for verification, we will actively undergo the evaluation.” U.S.-made Tesla vehicles can currently operate with supervised FSD in Korea. More than 70 percent of Tesla Kor

Coupang files lawsuits against 620 bil. won fine over data leak

Oct 8, 2026

Coupang files lawsuits against 620 bil. won fine over data leak

E-commerce firm Coupang Corp. has filed lawsuits against 620 billion won ($462 million) in fines levied by a state-run data protection agency over its massive data leak, sources said Thursday. According to the sources, Coupang has filed two separate suits with the Seoul Administrative Court seeking to nullify the fines imposed by the Personal Information Protection Commission in June this year. The Commission fined Coupang a record 624.7 billion won over privacy violations, including a massive data breach that affected more than 37 million users. The amount breaks down to a record fine of 423.6 billion won for the data breach and levies an additional 201.1 billion-won fine for the unauthorized collection of records of online user activities and other violations. It marked the largest fine ever imposed by the regulator on a single company, according to the commission. The punitive measures came more than six months after Coupang belatedly reported a large-scale data breach last November of personal information of users in Korea, including their names, phone numbers and delivery details. The

Can China match up with Meta’s Muse in race to harness AI agents?

Oct 8, 2026

Can China match up with Meta’s Muse in race to harness AI agents?

Meta Platforms’ breakout Muse personal AI agent is shining a spotlight on a new battleground in artificial intelligence – one in which China’s biggest internet companies are already jostling for position. Launched on September 8, Muse surpassed 2.5 million downloads in its first two weeks and topped free-app rankings on Apple and Google’s US app stores. Its popularity has drawn fresh attention to the emerging market for what are known as agent harnesses. Unlike chatbots, which merely respond to...

Alibaba’s AI cloud revenue set to surge over 50% as investment blitz pays off: analysts

Oct 8, 2026

Alibaba’s AI cloud revenue set to surge over 50% as investment blitz pays off: analysts

Alibaba Group Holding is expected to report a 50 per cent revenue surge for its cloud and artificial intelligence unit for the September quarter, driven by strong returns on its aggressive AI investments, according to analysts. Analysts across several financial institutions projected revenue growth for the Chinese tech giant’s AI Cloud and Compute Services unit to have accelerated in the three months ended September 30, up from the 45 per cent growth seen in the preceding quarter. The unit’s...

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