US lead in AI over China narrows after DeepSeek gains: report

The Business Times - Oct 4, 2026

That improving performance spells further market share gains for Chinese contenders

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KT&G launches new Indonesia plant, completes 5-country production network

Oct 7, 2026

KT&G launches new Indonesia plant, completes 5-country production network

KT&G has begun full-scale operations at a new cigarette plant in Indonesia, completing a five-country global production network spanning Korea, Indonesia, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkey. KT&G said Wednesday that it held an opening ceremony for the plant in Pasuruan, East Java, on Monday Indonesia is one of the world's major tobacco markets and a key export hub in the Asia-Pacific region. KT&G entered the market in 2011 by acquiring a local company. It has since introduced Esse and Juara, its leading brands in Indonesia. The company ranks fourth in the country's cigarette market. KT&G built the plant to meet growing demand. It signed an agreement with Indonesia's Ministry of Investment and the Investment Coordinating Board in September 2023, began construction in April 2024 and started trial operations in the first half of 2026. Once all nine production lines are installed, the plant will have an annual capacity of up to 21 billion cigarettes. Combined with the existing plant's 14 billion-cigarette capacity, KT&G's total capacity in Indonesia will reach 35 billion cigarettes a year, making

KCCI, audit authority collaborate to resume construction of 4,000 public housing units

Oct 7, 2026

KCCI, audit authority collaborate to resume construction of 4,000 public housing units

The audit authority has cleared a key hurdle for six stalled public housing projects totaling nearly 4,000 units after the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) sought a preliminary consultation on behalf of builders struggling with soaring construction costs. The KCCI said on Tuesday that the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) determined that project costs for the six sites, covering 3,936 housing units, can be recalculated to reflect current market conditions. The case marks the KCCI’s first use of the consultation program since it was opened to private organizations in May. “Companies have faced difficulties for a long time, but this was not an issue they could easily make a decision on,” Lee Jong-myung, head of the KCCI's industry innovation division, said. “The BAI's decision to open its doors to the private sector has added another channel for resolving corporate difficulties, and its first result will benefit the public through housing supply.” The six projects are part of a public-private housing program, with public agencies providing the land while private bu

Private sector's role increased in 5th Nuri launch

Oct 7, 2026

Private sector's role increased in 5th Nuri launch

Private companies played a significantly greater role in the successful fifth launch of Korea’s Nuri rocket on Wednesday, signaling that the country’s efforts to keep pace with the global shift toward a private sector-led “New Space” era are gaining momentum. The Nuri rocket completed its fifth launch and 20-minute-long flight successfully after lifting off at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City, at 12:25 p.m. The most notable change in the latest launch was not the rocket itself, but the growing presence of private-sector personnel at the launch site. Hanwha Aerospace has overseen the manufacturing of the Nuri rocket as its system integrator since the fourth launch on Nov. 27 last year, but this time, its role expanded to the consoles at the launch control center. Hanwha Aerospace deployed 42 staffers for the fifth launch. They participated in operations at 20 of the 22 consoles responsible for launch vehicle systems, and at 18 of them, Hanwha employees directly operated the controls instead of specialists from the Korea Aerospace Researc

[EXPLAINER] How AI emerged as new threat in Korea's bank hacking crisis

Oct 7, 2026

[EXPLAINER] How AI emerged as new threat in Korea's bank hacking crisis

Hackers once had to manually test security defenses, identify vulnerabilities and work out how to exploit them. Now, artificial intelligence (AI) can do much of that work, requiring little human input. That possibility is at the center of Korea's latest security crisis in the financial sector, as investigators have found traces of an AI-powered autonomous penetration-testing tool in a series of recent cyberattacks on the country's major banks. Since last week, Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, Hana Bank, Yegaram Savings Bank and BNK Busan Bank have all reported data breaches, while Woori Bank and NH NongHyup Bank have detected signs of hacking attempts, though no data leaks were confirmed. Shinhan Bank reported that about 25,000 customers were affected, with personal information including names, phone numbers, annual income and loan limits exposed. KB Kookmin reported 119 affected customers, while Hana Bank said personal information belonging to 89 customers was exposed. The hacking spree has drawn particular concern after investigators reportedly found traces of an AI-powered tool known as

SK Energy, HD Hyundai Oilbank face fines over alleged fuel price fixing

Oct 7, 2026

SK Energy, HD Hyundai Oilbank face fines over alleged fuel price fixing

SK Energy and HD Hyundai Oilbank may face sanctions from the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) over allegations that they colluded on gasoline, diesel and kerosene prices, with combined fines potentially reaching 4.63 trillion won ($3.45 billion). The antitrust regulator said Wednesday that it sent a review report to the two companies, formally launching deliberations over the alleged price-fixing case. The FTC said the alleged collusion lasted from February 2022, shortly before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, through March this year, shortly after the outbreak of the war in Iran. The case covers petroleum products that are essential to household and economic activity. Korea's oil refining industry is highly concentrated, with SK Energy, HD Hyundai Oilbank, GS Caltex and S-Oil accounting for about 98 percent of the domestic market. According to the FTC, SK Energy and HD Hyundai Oilbank exchanged information on the prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene, including provisional prices, final prices and sales policies. The regulator also determined that the two companies colluded on prices followin

Beef tallow remains hurdle to Charrr's global expansion

Oct 7, 2026

Beef tallow remains hurdle to Charrr's global expansion

Countries’ regulations on imported foods containing beef tallow pose a hurdle for Samyang Foods as the Korean instant noodle giant seeks to expand exports of its latest black bean sauce instant noodles, Charrr. The company has established Buldak as a massively popular product around the globe without using beef tallow, selling 10 billion units and generating cumulative sales of 7 trillion won ($5.2 billion) as of June. Unlike the spicy, brothless instant noodle brand, however, Charrr uses beef tallow as a key ingredient to give its sauce a rich, beefy flavor. Charrr is not Samyang’s first instant noodle product using beef tallow. The company launched Samyang 1963 in November last year with the ambitious goal of reviving the “forgotten” taste of its first instant noodle product, Samyang Ramen, which was introduced in 1963 and used beef tallow. Samyang Ramen, introduced by the late company founder Chun Joong-yoon to help feed a population suffering from widespread poverty at the time, remains a cornerstone of the company’s identity. Its use of beef tallow has now become part of

Bank data breach victims step up calls for compensation

Oct 7, 2026

Bank data breach victims step up calls for compensation

A growing number of customers affected by a string of recent personal data breaches at major commercial banks and other financial firms appear to be turning to class action lawsuits in pursuit of compensation, according to industry officials, Wednesday. The banks have pledged to fully compensate customers whose losses, including those from voice phishing scams, are found to have directly resulted from the leaks. But proving that a loss was caused by a specific data breach can be difficult in practice, and the banks have yet to set out clear standards for determining which claims would qualify, prompting some victims to resort to legal action. Seven financial firms have reported information leaks so far, including three of the country’s largest commercial lenders — Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank and Hana Bank. Shinhan reported the largest breach, affecting around 25,000 people, followed by 119 at KB Kookmin and 89 at Hana Bank. The exposed data includes customers’ names, contact details, resident registration numbers, annual income and loan limits. The combination of personal and fin

[COVER STORY] Nuri rocket successfully completes 5th flight

Oct 7, 2026

[COVER STORY] Nuri rocket successfully completes 5th flight

Korea’s domestically-developed Nuri rocket successfully carried out its mission in its fifth launch Wednesday, sequentially deploying 14 out of the 15 satellites it carried into their target orbit. The key objective of the fifth launch was to safely deploy the five microsatellite constellations, and its success has demonstrated Korea's increased multisatellite launch capabilities, taking another step toward privately-led commercial launch services. The rocket lifted off from the launchpad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City, at 12:25 p.m. and completed its roughly 20-minute flight at around 12:45 p.m. The rocket separated its first stage about two minutes after liftoff, followed by the second stage about four and a half minutes into the flight. At around 12:40 p.m., it reached an altitude of 570 kilometers and completed the sequential deployment of five New-space Earth Observation Satellite Constellation for National Safety (NEONSAT) microsatellites (satellites No. 2 to 6), its primary payload, along with nine of the 10 CubeSats it carried. In

AMD to establish AI research center in Korea this year, hire hundreds

Oct 7, 2026

AMD to establish AI research center in Korea this year, hire hundreds

U.S. chip giant AMD announced Wednesday that it plans to establish an artificial intelligence (AI) research center in Korea by the end of this year and hire hundreds of researchers as part of broader AI cooperation between the company and Korea. The announcement came during a meeting between AMD CEO Lisa Su and Second Vice Minister of Science and ICT Ryu Je-myung in Seoul. AMD also plans to help develop graduate-level AI and AI transformation talent and collaborate with Korea on a reference model for heterogeneous AI computing. The model would combine AMD’s central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) with domestically developed neural processing units (NPUs). The meeting, arranged by the Ministry of Science and ICT, served as an interim review of AI cooperation agreed upon by the ministry and AMD during President Lee Jae Myung’s attendance at the San Francisco AI Summit in July. AMD also outlined plans to work with Korea’s private sector to create new business opportunities. At a subsequent roundtable with 13 Korean companies involved in AI infrastructure, c

China’s open-weight AI models are winning global users. Who is capturing the value?

Oct 7, 2026

China’s open-weight AI models are winning global users. Who is capturing the value?

China’s open-weight artificial intelligence models are taking off globally, but much of the money they generate is flowing to third-party providers rather than the companies that create them, according to a new study. Developers including DeepSeek and Moonshot AI make their model weights – essentially the “brains” of their AI systems – freely available for download. This strategy, which has accelerated global adoption over the past two years, allows other companies to run the models on their own...

Nuri rocket deploys 14 satellites, 1 CubeSat fails to release

Oct 7, 2026

Nuri rocket deploys 14 satellites, 1 CubeSat fails to release

The Nuri rocket successfully lifted off on its fifth launch and deployed 14 of the 15 satellites it carried into their target orbit Wednesday. The rocket lifted off from the second launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City, at 12:25 p.m. and completed its roughly 20-minute flight at around 12:45 p.m. The rocket separated its first stage about two minutes after liftoff, followed by the second stage about four and a half minutes into the flight. At around 12:40 p.m., it reached an altitude of 570 kilometers and completed the sequential deployment of five NEONSAT swarm microsatellites (satellite No. 2 to 6), its primary payload, along with nine of the 10 CubeSats it carried. Initially, the Nuri sent signals indicating that all of the CubeSats had been successfully deployed. However, subsequent checks found that PERSAT02, developed by Quaternion, had failed to separate from the rocket. The flight ended at around 12:45 p.m. after the third stage completed its autopilot sequence. "The Nuri rocket successfully completed its planned fifth launch mis

Pornhub returns for Australians, but only if Apple says you’re over 18

Oct 7, 2026

Pornhub returns for Australians, but only if Apple says you’re over 18

The Canadian owner of the adult content website says Apple’s age checks for iPhone and iPad users are some of the hardest to get around.

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