LG Uplus, one of the top three telecommunications providers in South Korea, launched its self-developed generative artificial intelligence model ixi-GEN on Tuesday. Ixi-Gen is a small language model that learned LG Uplus’ communication and platform data based on LG AI Research Institute’s Exaone, a multimodal AI model capable of bilingual language processing and the bidirectional generation of language and images, developed in 2021. It can be used quickly and cost-effectively and mit

Technology June 25, 2024

South Korea's recent attempt to launch the fourth telecom carrier -- the eighth of its kind -- fell through again, raising skepticism about the government's preparedness and the feasibility of the plan itself. The Ministry of Science and ICT earlier this month decided to cancel the license of Stage X as the fourth mobile carrier, citing a lack of trust in its capitalization plan. Amid the long-standing dominance of three telecom carriers -- SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus, the govern

Technology June 23, 2024

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won will embark on a business trip Saturday to the US to meet with key figures in artificial intelligence and semiconductors fields for future business opportunities, the group said Friday. Chey’s upcoming trip comes about two months after he met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in San Jose in April. Key executives at SK’s AI and chip businesses, including SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang and SK hynix President Kim Joo-sun, will accompany the chairman. SK said Che

Industry June 21, 2024

Samsung Electronics has been enhancing the reach of its proprietary Tizen operating system by incorporating artificial intelligence capabilities. According to Samsung Newsroom on Thursday, Tizen has been deployed in approximately 270 million units of Samsung smart TVs released as of the end of last year. Considering that it was installed in about 50 million units in 2015, it recorded a growth rate of about 440 percent. “Samsung Tizen is preparing for another leap forward by evolving into

Technology June 20, 2024

SK Telecom, South Korea's largest wireless carrier by membership, on Wednesday unveiled the official name of its quantum alliance: X Quantum. In March, SK Telecom allied with six other companies -- Nokia, SOS Lab, Xgate, Wooriro, KCS and IDQ Korea -- to promote developments in the quantum ecosystem through exploring joint marketing and business opportunities. Regarding X Quantum, SK Telecom explained that it encompasses the identity of the “quantum frontier,” which plays a role

Technology June 19, 2024

LG Electronics said Wednesday it has teamed up with ChargePoint, a leading provider of networked charging solutions for electric vehicles, to leverage their respective strengths for future innovations in EV charging. The two sides recently signed a memorandum of understanding for commercial EV charging in the US. Through the agreement, LG augments its existing client base by securing ChargePoint, which possesses an extensive portfolio of charging solutions, as a customer. ChargePoint has more th

Industry June 19, 2024

Naver Webtoon, known as Webtoon Entertainment in the US, is seeking to be listed on the Nasdaq market, where it expects to have a corporate value of up to $2.67 billion. Webtoon Entertainment submitted a registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for its upcoming initial public offering on Monday. The company aims to raise as much as $315 million by issuing 15 million common shares at an expected price range of $18 to $21 per share, the statement showed. Once listed, the

Industry June 18, 2024

South Korea's Science Ministry said Friday that it will revoke the license of new mobile carrier Stage X for failing to meet legal requirements to run the business, including paid-in capital of 205 billion won ($149 million) that was due last month. The Ministry of Science and ICT will carry out a hearing on Stage X's case to finalize its decision on canceling the designation of the firm as a frequency allocation target corporation. Stage X had been expected to become the country'

Technology June 14, 2024

Two Korean companies -- Naver Webtoon and Yanolja -- are preparing for a US stock debut this year, seeking higher valuation and aggressive overseas expansion. Their US push comes after Coupang’s successful Nasdaq listing in 2021 when the company was valued at $63 billion, the biggest IPO in the US by a foreign company since Alibaba Group in 2014. Industry watchers agree that the market sentiment has changed over the past three years following the bursting of pandemic-bubble stocks. But the

Industry June 13, 2024

Korean software developer Tmax Group on Thursday unveiled a groundbreaking super-app platform, Gaia, which allows users to create apps without coding skills, declaring a new era of digital transformation. “There have been numerous attempts to achieve great IT integration, but no one has been able to achieve effective integration in the right way,” Chairman and CTO Park Dae-yeon said during a press conference held in Seoul. “The IT grand integration presented by Tmax refers to i

Technology June 13, 2024

SK Telecom said Wednesday that it is seeking to merge its fabless unit Sapeon with Korea-based chip designer Rebellions, as part of its renewed push for artificial intelligence chips. The merger push is the result of an agreement between the two sides to create a “homegrown company” to lead the global AI race, the telecom giant said. The market for neural processing units powering AI services is growing rapidly, driven by the widespread adoption of AI across industries. Competition i

Industry June 12, 2024

Korean IT giant Kakao, having suffered from its worst-ever server shutdown in October 2022, unveiled its first in-house data center in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, to local media Tuesday. As part of Kakao's efforts to keep users' daily lives safe, this data center is the first one of its kind to maximize stability. Located on a 47,378-square-meter site, about 2.6 times the size of a soccer field, Kakao Data Center Ansan is situated in Hanyang University’s ERICA campus in the industr

Technology June 12, 2024

South Korean tech firms and a local research center were recognized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity, on Monday, for their significant contribution to commercializing the world's first code division multiple access network used in mobile phones in 1996. The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Samsung Electronics, LG E

Technology June 10, 2024

Instagram has significantly widened its lead over domestic top search engine Naver regarding usage hours among Korean smartphone users, data showed Sunday. According to data compiled by industry tracker Wiseapp, Korean users spent 389 million hours on Instagram, making it the third-most used app in the country in May, surpassing Naver by 46.41 million hours. Instagram had already outstripped Naver in April, maintaining the third-most used smartphone app position here for two consecutive months

Industry June 9, 2024

Samsung Electronics executives have been actively purchasing treasury shares to prop up the price, which has struggled to break out of the 70,000 won ($50.70) range. Six executives at the tech giant have collectively acquired 15,490 shares of the company’s stock this month, which amounts to 1.15 billion won, according to DART, the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure board, on Sunday. Park Hak-kyu, president of management support, purchased 5,500 common shares of Sams

Industry June 9, 2024