Kakao posts record quarterly earnings despite user backlash over messenger revamp

Kakao shrugged off public backlash over its recent KakaoTalk messenger revamp to post record earnings in the third quarter, with both revenue and operating profit hitting all-time highs on the back of steady platform growth and surging ad sales. The South Korean tech firm said Friday its July-September sales climbed to 2.09 trillion won ($1.4 billion) on-year, while operating profit jumped 59.4 percent to 208 billion won — beating market consensus of 2.02 trillion won in sales and 163 billion wo

Nov. 7, 2025

Smart City Expo Barcelona showcases AI-powered urban future

BARCELONA, Spain — The Smart City Expo World Congress, the world’s largest and most influential gathering on urban innovation and smart technologies, wrapped up Thursday at Fira Barcelona Gran Via, in Barcelona, Spain, drawing a record-breaking crowd of over 27,000 attendees, according to the event organizer Fira de Barcelona. Artificial intelligence took center stage as the theme of discussions and exhibitions at the 2025 edition, and a newly introduced section titled “AI-enabled cities” highli

Nov. 7, 2025

Samsung completes FlaktGroup acquisition

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it has completed the acquisition of FlaktGroup, Europe’s largest heating ventilation and air conditioning company, in a push to expand its footprint in industrial cooling and data center infrastructure. The tech giant said it will leverage FläktGroup’s manufacturing and sales networks to strengthen research and development and supply chains, while progressively integrating product portfolios to create synergies. The company plans to operate FlaktGroup as an inde

Nov. 6, 2025

Naver to roll out AI agents, ramp up GPU investments

South Korean internet giant Naver is planning to introduce AI agents across key services like shopping and search next year, while investing over 1 trillion won ($691 million) to purchase graphic processing units to bolster infrastructure, ramping up its drive to become a global AI leader. At the company’s flagship tech conference, Dan25, held at Coex in southern Seoul on Thursday, CEO Choi Soo-yeon outlined Naver's AI strategy in a keynote speech, focusing on artificial intleligence agent servi

Nov. 6, 2025

SK hynix wins eco-friendly certification for 15 memory products

SK hynix said Wednesday it has earned decarbonization certification for 15 of its memory products, including its flagship high-bandwidth memory chips, marking the first time a chipmaker has received the recognition across a broad portfolio of AI-related semiconductors. The company stated that its HBM chips, recognized for their industry-leading performance in the global AI market, have now earned recognition for their environmental efforts. “We aim to set a new benchmark in the industry with pro

Nov. 5, 2025

Naver to invest over W1tr in GPUs for physical AI push

South Korean IT giant Naver said Wednesday it will invest more than 1 trillion won ($691 million) in graphic processing units as part of its broader push into physical AI technologies, as its AI-led strategy helped deliver record quarterly earnings in the third quarter this year. “Our goal is to expand the integration of AI into an even wider range of services,” Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon said during a quarterly earnings call, attributing the company’s rapid growth to its “on-service AI” strategy,

Nov. 5, 2025

'Korea is a living lab for future of cities': MIT's Carlo Ratti

BARCELONA, Spain — As cities worldwide race to reinvent themselves with sensors, artificial intelligence and green infrastructure, one country stands out as a real-world laboratory for the future of urban living: South Korea. At the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, Italian architect and MIT professor Carlo Ratti told The Korea Herald why he sees Seoul as a “living testbed” for how technology, transparency and citizen participation can reshape cities. Ratti, who leads the MIT Senseabl

Nov. 5, 2025

Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Sumitomo Chemical to form JV for chip glass substrates

Samsung Electro-Mechanics said Wednesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical to form a joint venture for producing glass cores, a key material for next-generation semiconductor packaging substrates. The company explained that the partnership aims to tackle the constraints of conventional packaging substrates amid the fast-paced development of AI and high-performance computing technologies. Glass cores offer lower thermal expansion and superior flatness comp

Nov. 5, 2025

Smart City Expo Barcelona maps out future of urban innovation

BARCELONA, Spain — The Smart City Expo World Congress, the world’s largest and most influential event on urban innovation, opened Tuesday in Barcelona, Spain, welcoming over 25,000 participants and 1,100 exhibitors — the biggest edition to date. Held under the theme “The Time for Cities" at Fira Barcelona Gran Via, this year’s three-day event centers on how emerging technologies — particularly artificial intelligence — can shape more sustainable, resilient and people-oriented cities. The congres

Nov. 5, 2025

KT to replace all SIMs, start CEO search

South Korean telecom giant KT said Tuesday it would replace all customer SIM cards free of charge and begin the process of selecting a new chief executive, as part of efforts to restore trust following a recent hacking scandal. At a board meeting, KT approved a full-scale SIM replacement program, expanding beyond its earlier plan to assist only confirmed victims. The move follows weeks of public criticism and bipartisan pressure from lawmakers demanding stronger consumer protection. Starting Nov

Nov. 4, 2025

LG, Flex team up on modular cooling for AI data centers

LG Electronics said Tuesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with US-based data center infrastructure firm Flex to jointly develop a modular cooling solution designed to address the growing heat challenges in artificial intelligence data centers. Under the agreement, LG will combine its high-efficiency cooling technologies — including chillers, coolant distribution units, and computer room air handlers — with Flex’s IT and power infrastructure expertise to create an integrated, scalab

Nov. 4, 2025

Nvidia hails South Korea's industrial rise in official video, pledges deeper AI partnership

A new video posted on US chip giant Nvidia’s official YouTube channel has drawn attention in South Korea for its praise of the country’s rapid industrialization and its role in the global AI race. The three-minute video, titled "Korea’s Next Industrial Revolution," was released Friday, shortly after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced plans to supply 260,000 of the company’s latest GPUs to the South Korean government and major conglomerates. Narrated in Korean, the video lauded South Korea as "a n

Nov. 3, 2025

SK pivots from scale to efficiency in global AI race

Amid surging global demand for artificial intelligence, SK Group Chair Chey Tae-won said the tech-to-energy giant will provide the “most efficient AI solutions” through deeper partnerships with tech giants like OpenAI, Nvidia and Amazon Web Services. Chey said pursuing efficiency is the key to addressing what he described as the “mismatch” between surging AI demand and the limited supply of chips, energy and AI infrastructure — a bottleneck that is constraining industry growth. “It’s time for AI

Nov. 3, 2025

Toss expands multilingual support to better serve foreign users

Viva Republica, operator of Korea’s leading mobile finance platform Toss, said Monday it has expanded the app’s multilingual services to better serve foreign residents. In addition to English, Toss now supports Chinese, Russian, Thai and Vietnamese. The number of foreign users on the platform reached 460,000 in the first half of this year, driven by improvements in user authentication systems addressing differences in name formats across countries. The company said its efforts to enable foreigne

Nov. 3, 2025

How 260,000 Nvidia chips could redefine Korea’s AI ambitions

South Korea’s plan to secure 260,000 of Nvidia’s latest Blackwell AI chips, in a deal worth up to $10 billion, marks one of its boldest steps yet to build world-class artificial intelligence infrastructure. But beyond the record figure, the deal underscores both Korea’s rising AI ambitions and the challenges ahead. Announced during Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s visit to Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, for the APEC summit, the agreement represents one of the largest GPU allocations ever made to

Nov. 2, 2025