Qualcomm has signed a second agreement with a large-scale data center operator, or hyperscaler, to jointly design and produce artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators. The deal marks tangible progress in AI for Qualcomm, which has historically relied on smartphone chips for most of its revenue.

Akash Palkhiwala, Qualcomm’s chief financial officer (CFO), said at the Goldman Sachs Technology Conference 2026 on Sept. 8 that the company is working with another global hyperscaler in addition to Amazon. He said the custom silicon Qualcomm is developing with hyperscalers is intended not for auxiliary workloads but as primary AI accelerators in data centers.

The remarks indicate that Qualcomm is developing AI accelerators optimized for the customer’s data centers and services. Palkhiwala did not identify the hyperscaler. Major hyperscalers include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, Google, Meta, Oracle and IBM. Qualcomm is already working with Amazon and Meta.

The agreement with the undisclosed hyperscaler is expected to be similar in structure to Qualcomm’s Amazon deal. Qualcomm and Amazon recently announced a collaboration on customized silicon for data center AI acceleration and high-performance optical connectivity solutions.

Qualcomm will supply the products to Amazon over the next 10 years. The agreement is valued at a total of $60 billion, or about 80.514 trillion won. Amazon will also receive warrants that vest in proportion to its purchases. The structure is intended to strengthen and extend the companies’ long-term partnership. Qualcomm has begun chip production, while Amazon has secured 15% of the warrants.

“The Amazon agreement is very large, but it is only the beginning,” Palkhiwala said. He added that Qualcomm’s technology collaboration with another hyperscaler is taking a similar form and is making strong progress.

Qualcomm has also agreed to supply data center central processing units (CPUs) to Meta. Its Dragonfly C1000 is planned for Meta’s next-generation server fleet. Dragonfly is Qualcomm’s data center product portfolio. Qualcomm is targeting more than twice the performance per watt of existing competing server CPUs with the C1000. A server fleet refers to a group of servers operating together to perform the same function.

Qualcomm expects its agreements with Amazon, Meta and the undisclosed hyperscaler to help push data center product revenue above 20 trillion won in three years. “We have already made significant progress toward our fiscal 2029 target of $15 billion, or about 20.07 trillion won,” Palkhiwala said. “We are at a point where we don’t need that many additional business elements.”

Qualcomm has recently been focusing its experience in advanced-node chip design and high-volume manufacturing on its custom silicon business. It is also developing Dragonfly commercial AI accelerators that are not customized for individual customers: the AI250 and AI300. The AI250 is scheduled for mid-2027, followed by the AI300 in 2028. Both products will incorporate Qualcomm High Bandwidth Compute (HBC) memory technology.

Hyundai Motor Group will work with LG Energy Solution, Wonik PNE and others to test technology that reuses spent electric vehicle batteries in energy storage systems (ESS). The project will connect an ESS with an EV fast-charging station to assess charging infrastructure efficiency and the potential for reusing spent batteries.

Hyundai Motor and Kia said they held an event on Sept. 10 with LG Energy Solution, Hyundai Engineering and Wonik PNE at Wonik PNE’s Dongtan site in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, to launch a demonstration project for a Used Battery Energy Storage System (UBESS) based on spent EV batteries.

The project will use battery packs previously deployed in Hyundai Motor Group vehicles built on its Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP). It is Korea’s first ESS demonstration using spent E-GMP batteries. The system has a capacity of 200 kilowatt-hours (kWh) and will operate in conjunction with an EV fast charger.

The ESS will store electricity during periods when power rates are lower and use the stored electricity for EV fast charging when rates are higher. The participating companies will test charge and discharge control algorithms, system safety and reliability, battery performance and charging service quality.

LG Energy Solution will build the ESS using spent battery packs provided by Hyundai Motor and Kia and will be responsible for battery diagnostics and performance and safety validation.

Wonik PNE will handle facility operation and technical validation based on its EV charger manufacturing and charging infrastructure expertise.

Hyundai Engineering will assess the project’s economic viability in a real-world business environment and its potential integration with EV charging infrastructure businesses.

Hyundai Motor and Kia plan to use the demonstration results to establish a system for reusing spent batteries and evaluate ESS business models.

Samsung Electronics is expanding professional installation and service training for heat pumps as it steps up efforts to target Korea's electric heating and cooling market.

Samsung Electronics said on Sept. 10 that it opened a dedicated EHS heat pump training center at its CS Academy in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. The company provides business-to-business (B2B) partners and installation engineers with training covering water piping construction, product installation, commissioning and service inspections.

The EHS heat pump is a system that uses air-source heat and electricity to provide cooling, heating and hot water. Samsung Electronics installed water tanks, hot-water distributors, water piping equipment and fan coil units (FCUs) at the training center to create an environment similar to actual installation sites. It also provides commissioning training using an artificial intelligence (AI)-based appliance diagnostic program.

The company will also begin domestic production. Samsung Electronics has established a production line for EHS heat pump boilers at its Gwangju plant in Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City, and plans to begin mass production at the end of this month.

Samsung Electronics installed an EHS heat pump boiler at a detached house in Jeju in June and is testing its "EHS All-in-One" system, which provides cooling, heating and hot water through a single system. The company is also testing its suitability for apartment buildings at Samsung C&T's Residential Performance Research Institute in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

"We will respond to the growing electrification of heating by expanding professional training and service infrastructure following the establishment of our domestic production base," said Lim Sung-taek, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics' Digital Appliances (DA) Business.

HD Hyundai is expanding its supplier support program beyond first-tier partners to second- and third-tier suppliers, covering about 7,500 companies working with its shipbuilding, power equipment and construction machinery affiliates.

HD Hyundai said on Sept. 10 that it signed a joint agreement for mutual growth with first-, second- and third-tier suppliers at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries’ Ulsan shipyard. Five affiliates — HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, HD Hyundai Samho, HD Hyundai Marine Solution, HD Hyundai Electric and HD Construction Equipment — are participating.

The five affiliates will pay suppliers in cash and cash-equivalent instruments. They will also operate financial support programs to help stabilize suppliers’ operations and provide training and equipment to improve productivity and safety.

The companies will also provide technology escrow programs to protect suppliers’ technology assets and support efforts to strengthen cybersecurity capabilities. First- and second-tier suppliers will improve payment terms for second- and third-tier suppliers, respectively, and expand the use of mutual-growth payment systems.

“Suppliers are our partners for sustainable growth,” an HD Hyundai official said. “We will continue cooperation and support for mutual growth.”

Infineon has introduced a new power management integrated circuit (PMIC) for traction inverters in electric and hybrid vehicles, integrating motor-position sensor excitation and safety monitoring functions.

Infineon said on Sept. 9 that it launched the OPTIREG TLE9744QK PMIC for high-voltage traction inverters.

A traction inverter converts direct-current (DC) electricity from a battery into alternating-current (AC) electricity that drives a motor. The system includes a microcontroller (MCU) that controls the system, gate drivers that switch power semiconductors on and off, and various sensors. The PMIC generates and supplies the power required by these components.

Infineon added resolver excitation functionality to the new product. A resolver is a sensor that determines the position of a motor rotor. Precise motor control requires continuous monitoring of the rotor’s position.

A reference signal is required to operate the resolver. Conventional systems use separate circuitry to generate the signal and monitor its status. The TLE9744QK generates the required signal directly within the chip, reducing the need for external resolver drivers and monitoring circuitry.

Safety circuitry for monitoring inverter faults is also integrated into the chip. Integrated Safety Logic (ISL) continuously monitors motor phase currents, inverter DC-link voltage, and the status of the MCU and gate drivers.

If the main MCU malfunctions, the ISL operates through a separate safety path to transition the inverter into a safe state. The chip also has a redundant supply input to keep the safety function operating even if the primary power supply fails.

The new product was developed in accordance with the ISO 26262 automotive functional safety standard. It meets requirements up to Automotive Safety Integrity Level D (ASIL-D).

Infineon said integrating functions previously handled by multiple components for power supply, resolver excitation and safety monitoring into a single chip can reduce printed circuit board (PCB) area by as much as 70%.

The TLE9744QK is currently available. Infineon provides samples, evaluation boards, reference designs, software and development tools.

Celltrion said on Sept. 10 that it participated in the 2026 European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress, held in Barcelona, Spain, from Sept. 5 to 9, where it showcased Omlyclo, a treatment for chronic urticaria and allergic asthma.

Omlyclo, presented at the respiratory congress, contains omalizumab. Omalizumab is an antibody therapy used to treat allergic diseases.

Celltrion launched Omlyclo in Europe late last year and added a 300 mg formulation in August this year. The company offers various dosages and devices to provide more options for healthcare professionals. It also highlighted storage stability and convenience, a latex-free product configuration and reliable supply capabilities as competitive advantages.

Omlyclo is currently sold in 26 European countries. Celltrion estimates that its market share in Spain exceeded 90% as of July this year. The company plans to expand sales across Europe.

Celltrion will also participate in Global Urticaria Forum 2026 in Berlin, Germany, in December as it continues efforts to expand sales of Omlyclo.

Naver began developing an artificial intelligence (AI) model specialized for cybersecurity after export controls on Anthropic’s Claude disrupted access to the service.

The disruption led the company to conclude that it could not rely on overseas models for its security capabilities.

Kim Jin-hwi, an executive director at Naver Cloud’s Security Division, disclosed the circumstances at the AIDC Security Technology Workshop held at Militopia Hotel in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on Sept. 7. Kim, a former National Intelligence Service official, joined Naver in April. He oversees infrastructure security across the group, including Naver, Naver Cloud and Naver Webtoon.

“The service was interrupted midway because of export controls,” Kim said. “After experiencing that problem, we decided that we needed to build our own AI model.”

The US Department of Commerce in June ordered Anthropic to suspend access by all foreign users to Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5, citing national security concerns. Access to the two models was blocked for 19 days until the department lifted the restrictions. Mythos 5 remains available only to certain approved organizations.

Kim also pointed to limitations of overseas models. “Foreign models don’t have an understanding of the domestic threat environment,” he said. “Their guardrails, or AI control mechanisms, also pose major problems for how we use them.” He added that the episode made Naver realize it could not depend on overseas providers for its security policies and capabilities.

Kim said, however, that Naver does not plan to handle all AI security tasks with its own model. The company intends to continue using external solutions for tasks including vulnerability assessments.

According to Kim, Naver is already using existing AI models in actual security operations. AI automatically scans all ports on about 100,000 externally exposed servers twice a day. The company also operates a system in which a red team responsible for attacks and a blue team responsible for defense and patching exchange results and repeatedly validate vulnerabilities.

As Naver prepared its own model, it also built an in-house “harness” that connects AI models with vulnerability-analysis tools and execution environments. “Using this harness, we reproduced all of the open-source vulnerabilities that Mythos had discovered,” Kim said. Naver’s security team identified and reported 29 previously undisclosed high-risk vulnerabilities during the process, he said.

Against that backdrop, the government announced a project in late July to develop an AI foundation model specialized for cybersecurity. Naver Cloud formed a consortium and applied. “There were many areas that were difficult to address at the level of a single company,” Kim said. “It is an opportunity to build GPU resources, data and validation capabilities on a national scale.”

The consortium, comprising Naver Cloud and 32 other organizations, was selected on Sept. 3 as the final contractor for the government’s project to develop an AI foundation model specialized for cybersecurity.

Naver will contribute 4,000 of its own GPUs. The consortium aims to train Naver’s HyperCLOVA X and LG’s EXAONE on security data to develop a mixture-of-experts (MoE) security model with 700 billion parameters. The completed model will also be deployed on domestic AI chips from FuriosaAI and HyperAccel to validate its performance.

Development will begin on Sept. 18. With Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon saying the security-specialized model will be unveiled within the year, the consortium is targeting a demonstration in December. An interim evaluation will follow in February next year, with the project scheduled to conclude in July. Naver plans to release the final model as open source and distribute it through application programming interfaces (APIs) and software development kits (SDKs), allowing Korea’s cybersecurity industry to use it.

Global Technologies aims to generate 169.5 billion won in revenue by 2029 by expanding its light-emitting diode (LED) driver IC, transparent display, micro LED and automotive system semiconductor businesses.

Kim Min-sun, chief executive officer of Global Technologies, said at a press briefing at the CCMM Building in Yeouido, Seoul, on Sept. 10 that the company plans to expand its LED driver IC technology from TVs to monitors and automobiles, while developing micro LED and automotive system semiconductors as new growth engines.

Global Technologies is a fabless chipmaker that designs LED driver ICs (LDIs) controlling the current and brightness of backlight LEDs. The TV market currently accounts for about 70% of its revenue. The company secured a purchase order from a Taiwanese display customer in July. It plans to begin mass production of monitor LDIs in December and is developing automotive products with a target of mass production in the second half of next year.

The company is also developing a red-green-blue (RGB) backlight module combining driver ICs, LED packages and lenses. The key technology is time-division driving, which alternately controls three light sources through a single output channel. Conventional designs use a separate channel for each light source. By sharing the control circuitry, the technology can reduce the number of driver ICs required to as little as one-third of the conventional level.

Global Technologies plans to use the reduced chip count to counter price competition from Chinese suppliers. TV makers can lower overall component costs without cutting the price of individual chips. The company aims to improve profitability by charging higher prices for chips incorporating the technology while increasing shipment volumes as customers expand their adoption of RGB LED models. A TV-set customer will evaluate the technology this month, with mass production targeted for early next year.

In transparent LED displays, the company is targeting commercial signage and automotive glass. The products combine driver ICs with ultra-small LED packages, allowing users to see through the display. Global Technologies has supplied commercial products to customers including Yangju City Hall in Gyeonggi Province and is developing products for vehicle rear windows and roofs.

In micro LEDs, the company is jointly developing pixel driver ICs, packages and modules. A 24-pixel driver IC for TVs is targeted for mass production early next year. The company is also developing modules for automotive center information displays (CIDs). It invested 5 billion won to establish a pilot line in Pyeongtaek for prototype production and process validation.

Global Technologies is developing lighting and communications products for its automotive system semiconductor business. It operates a joint research center with an automotive parts supplier and is developing about 10 products. Its smart ambient lighting (SAL) IC, which controls vehicle interior lighting, has secured an initial order for 3 million units, with deliveries scheduled to begin early next year. The company also plans to commercialize controller area network (CAN) communication chips used to exchange data among vehicle electronic systems.

The company posted first-half revenue of 28.8 billion won and operating profit of 1.155 billion won this year. It generated revenue equivalent to 97% of last year's full-year total in the first half and returned to an operating profit. Global Technologies plans to increase revenue from mass-produced products and raise its operating margin from a target of 7.7% this year to 21.8% in 2029.

Global Technologies is scheduled to list on the KOSDAQ on Sept. 29. It is offering 4 million shares at an indicative price range of 13,000 won to 15,000 won each, for an offering size of 52 billion won to 60 billion won. The company is conducting bookbuilding for institutional investors through Sept. 11 and will accept retail subscriptions on Sept. 16 and 17. Korea Investment & Securities is the lead underwriter.

The company plans to invest a combined 78.7 billion won through 2029 using IPO proceeds, operating cash flow and government funding. Of the total, 23.5 billion won will be allocated to research and development, 7.7 billion won to facility expansion and 47.5 billion won to working capital, including securing foundry capacity.

Smilegate's new title "Eclipse: The Awakening," or "Eclipse," launched on PC and mobile at noon on Sept. 10. The game is a key project for Smilegate after its operating profit fell 30% last year, while developer NPIXEL is seeking to offset an operating loss of 12.3 billion won. With Com2uS's new title "Zeus," released about two weeks ago, holding the top spot in mobile game sales, attention is turning to how Eclipse will perform.

Eclipse is a free-to-play game with in-app purchases. The company designed its monetization model to attract users early on while reducing the burden of spending. According to Smilegate, the game secured 1 million pre-registrations before launch. During the first round of character pre-creation on Aug. 19, all 24 available servers reached capacity within 25 minutes. Some streamer servers filled up in just one minute. Smilegate increased capacity and opened a second round the following day, but that also closed within a day.

The game's core concept is "MMOLite," designed to reduce the time commitment, spending pressure and intensity of player competition typically associated with massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). A key example is "Sanctuary," which accumulates character-growth resources and summon tickets even while users are offline. An AI mode allows gameplay to continue automatically after users exit the game. Player-versus-player (PvP) combat is also disabled in most areas.

The monetization system follows the same approach. Eclipse does not allow users to directly purchase "cash accessories" that boost character stats. Some growth-related products are subject to weekly or monthly purchase limits rather than being available without restriction. The goal is to minimize the gap between hardcore and casual players. From a financial perspective, however, the policy could lower average revenue per user (ARPU) by reducing the incentive to spend. The model therefore depends on maximizing the overall number of paying users.

The importance of Eclipse's commercial performance is evident in the financial statements of Smilegate and NPIXEL for last year.

Smilegate posted consolidated revenue of 1.4365 trillion won and operating profit of 359.8 billion won in 2025. Revenue fell 5.6% from the previous year, while operating profit declined 30%. Net income dropped about 36% to 302.3 billion won.

The stakes are even higher for developer NPIXEL. According to its audit report, the company generated 13 billion won in revenue last year. Sales have continued to decline from 67 billion won in 2022 to 31.6 billion won in 2023 and 14.2 billion won in 2024. NPIXEL posted an operating loss of 12.3 billion won last year. It cut operating expenses to about 25.4 billion won from 67.6 billion won a year earlier, narrowing its operating loss by about 77% from 53.4 billion won in 2024. Despite the cost reductions, revenue has yet to recover.

NPIXEL also faces pressure from its financial structure. At the end of last year, the company had 7.7 billion won in current assets, compared with 56.3 billion won in current liabilities, more than seven times as much. Total assets stood at 14.8 billion won and total liabilities at 66 billion won. Total equity was negative 51.1 billion won, leaving the company in a state of complete capital impairment. EY Han Young said in its audit report that material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as a going concern. NPIXEL's co-chief executives have also lent money to the company. Borrowings related to co-CEO Jung Hyun-ho totaled 11.9 billion won, while those related to co-CEO Bae Bong-gun amounted to 6.9 billion won.

Eclipse therefore carries significant weight for both companies. For Smilegate, it represents a new revenue source that could help revive earnings. For NPIXEL, it is a game that needs to rebuild the company's revenue base and help it move out of losses and capital impairment.

The game industry is focusing less on Eclipse's initial user numbers than on its future retention rate and sales ranking. Users drawn in by free summon tickets and other incentives need to remain in the game for at least a month, with some converting into paying customers. Smilegate's "MMOLite" model will only prove viable if the game can generate meaningful revenue while keeping the burden of spending low.

As of 4 p.m. on Sept. 10, Eclipse ranked No. 10 in sales on Apple's App Store. It ranked No. 1 in free downloads.

Zscaler has unveiled Agentic SOC, a security operations platform that uses frontier artificial intelligence (AI) models from companies including OpenAI and Anthropic.

The U.S. cloud security company said on Sept. 9 that AI-powered attacks are occurring at speeds that traditional security operations centers (SOCs) struggle to handle, requiring SOCs to be redesigned so AI can take the lead in detecting, investigating and blocking threats.

Zscaler's Agentic SOC combines security information and event management (SIEM), which collects logs and detects threats, with security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR), which handles identified threats. It adds AI agents that can independently assess situations and take action throughout the process.

The company has also partnered with frontier AI labs including Anthropic and OpenAI, based on its view that a single model or approach has limitations in delivering accurate agentic AI operations.

Agentic SOC assigns AI agents to perform decisions and responses traditionally handled by security analysts. The agents identify genuine threats among large volumes of security alerts, investigate attack paths and root causes, and determine whether a threat is present. They can then automatically take necessary actions, such as isolating compromised users or blocking attackers' command-and-control (C2) communications.

Zscaler provides the AI agents with security data collected from networks in real time and its own threat intelligence. The platform can also integrate with customers' existing security tools to analyze threat information and automatically block lateral movement by attackers across systems.

"Agentic SOC represents a fundamental reimagining of security operations," said Deepen Desai, Zscaler's vice president of cybersecurity. "It is designed to proactively reduce exposure and contain threats at machine speed."

"AI attacks operate with a speed, scale and adaptability that are markedly different from humans, fundamentally changing the threat landscape," said Allie Mellen, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. "Defenders need to focus on fundamentals such as zero-trust principles, data loss prevention and access restrictions."

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has selected Korean battery startup UBATT as the battery supplier for the KF-21, filling a supply-chain gap created by Israeli company SolarEdge's withdrawal from its battery business in Korea.

KAI recently selected UBATT to supply batteries for 80 KF-21s planned after the initial production run of 40 aircraft, as well as for export models, according to industry sources on Sept. 10. UBATT is a startup specializing in batteries for aerospace and defense applications.

Development of the KF-21 began in 2015 and was completed this year. The battery supplier was finalized relatively late because SolarEdge, the previous supplier, exited the battery business. SolarEdge entered the defense battery market after acquiring Korean battery maker Kokam in 2018, taking over its military battery technology and production infrastructure and supplying batteries for the KF-21.

The issue arose when SolarEdge decided in late 2024 to withdraw from its Korean operations. The company agreed to supply batteries only for its existing contracted volume, requiring KAI to find another supplier for subsequent production.

KAI began searching for a replacement last year. UBATT competed with LiBEST, Grinergy, RootJade, Enertech International and Top Material, according to industry sources. Some companies, including LiBEST, had been considered strong candidates after participating in aerospace battery development, but UBATT was ultimately selected. UBATT will manufacture and supply the battery cells, while ITScience will assemble them into packs and deliver them to KAI.

UBATT's core technology is its proprietary Thick Electrode Platform (TEP). Thicker electrodes can store more energy but may reduce power output and performance. UBATT's technology is designed to mitigate those limitations by maintaining electrode uniformity while increasing thickness. The company is developing high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries and lithium metal batteries (LMBs). It has its own production facilities and can handle battery cell design and manufacturing in-house.

Before the KF-21 battery project, UBATT jointly developed batteries with KAI for unmanned aircraft used in Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) systems. It has also developed drone batteries with Poongsan and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).

UBATT was selected for the Defense Acquisition Program Administration's Defense Innovation Company 100 program in 2024 in recognition of its technology. It won the startup category at the InterBattery 2025 Awards last year and has attracted investments from Hyundai Motor, Korea Development Bank and POSCO Technology Investment.

The KF-21 is a domestically developed 4.5-generation fighter aircraft led by KAI over about a decade since 2015. System development was completed this year, and the first production aircraft rolled out in March. The aircraft is scheduled to be delivered to the Republic of Korea Air Force this month.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration plans to deliver 40 KF-21s to the Air Force by 2028 and add another 80 by 2032, bringing the fleet to 120 aircraft. KAI has already secured production contracts for the 40 aircraft scheduled for delivery through 2028.

About 65% of the components used in the KF-21, including the battery, are domestically produced. That is a higher localization rate than previous fighter aircraft produced under license in Korea. The domestically developed T-50 supersonic advanced trainer has a localization rate of about 59%. KAI plans to raise the KF-21's component localization rate to more than 80%.

"We cannot confirm any contract with KAI or whether we will supply batteries for the KF-21," a UBATT official said.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries will invest more than 1 trillion won in land-based power generation engines and small modular reactors (SMRs) to meet growing electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.

The company said in a regulatory filing on Sept. 10 that it will invest a total of 1.0722 trillion won to build a new power generation engine production base and a dedicated plant for SMR main components.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries will invest 833.6 billion won in power generation engines. It will build a HiMSEN engine production base with annual capacity of 3 gigawatts (GW) in Onsan, Ulju County, Ulsan. The facility, covering about 215,000 square meters, will include plants for engine assembly and testing, crankshaft machining and engine block casting. Construction is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of next year, with operations starting in May 2028.

HD Hyundai plans to produce land-based power generation engines at the new plant and HD Hyundai Engine in Yeongam, South Jeolla Province, while the existing Ulsan plant will focus on marine engines. Total HiMSEN engine production capacity is expected to increase from 3 GW annually to 7.2 GW by 2030.

The company will also invest 238.6 billion won in SMRs. It plans to build a dedicated plant for SMR main components at its Ulsan shipyard, with completion scheduled for the first half of 2029. HD Hyundai is also working with TerraPower to commercialize the Natrium next-generation SMR.

“We will secure core competitiveness in power generation engines and SMRs to respond to rapidly growing electricity demand and target the global AI infrastructure market,” an HD Hyundai Heavy Industries official said.

Orchem has introduced two plating approaches for metallizing through-glass vias (TGVs) in glass substrates. The company also unveiled a wet-process adhesion technology designed to improve bonding between glass and copper and between glass and insulating layers.

Orchem introduced its TGV plating and wet seed layer technologies at a technical seminar held during KPCA Show 2026 at Songdo Convensia in Incheon on Sept. 10. The company specializes in plating and surface-treatment chemicals used in semiconductor packaging and printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing.

Orchem has developed two TGV plating approaches depending on substrate thickness and hole diameter. One is the bridge-fill method, commonly called center fill, which first forms a copper bridge at the center of the TGV hole and then fills the spaces above and below it. The other is the side-up fill method, which grows copper from the hole sidewalls toward the center.

The bridge-fill method uses Orchem's ZENITH-1000 plating solution. Filling the spaces above and below the copper bridge separately shortens overall plating time. The method is suited to TGVs with a low aspect ratio (AR). As substrates become thicker or hole diameters smaller, however, a higher AR can result in deeper enclosed holes, or blind vias, above and below the copper bridge.

ZENITH-1500 is used for side-up fill, in which copper grows across the entire TGV sidewall until the copper layers meet at the center. The approach can reduce void formation in high-AR TGVs. Orchem has completed plating evaluations on glass substrates up to 1 millimeter thick and is evaluating smaller hole diameters with aspect ratios of up to 20:1. Because copper grows across the entire hole sidewall, however, a thicker copper layer also forms on the substrate surface and plating takes longer.

Orchem has also developed an adhesion promoter (AP) to improve bonding between glass and copper or between glass and Ajinomoto Build-up Film (ABF). Glass has lower surface roughness than organic substrates, making it difficult to achieve sufficient adhesion. Palladium (Pd) catalysts used in electroless plating also have difficulty bonding copper to the glass surface.

The company synthesized the AP based on 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES), a conventional silane-based adhesion material, by increasing the number of functional groups and molecular size. It is designed with separate functional groups that bond to glass and to copper or ABF, improving adhesion. The adhesion promoter can be wet-coated onto the glass surface before electroless copper plating. The coating is less than 100 nanometers thick.

Orchem also plans to commercialize bottom-up plating and a sputter-less process. Bottom-up plating grows copper from the bottom of a TGV hole and can reduce void formation even at high aspect ratios. The company is currently evaluating technology to uniformly form a seed layer at the bottom of the hole. The sputter-less process uses an adhesion promoter and electroless plating to form a copper seed layer without conventional sputtering. Orchem plans additional evaluations and aims to commercialize the adhesion material for the sputter-less process by year-end.

"TGV plating chemicals have already reached the commercialization stage," an Orchem official said. "Development of the adhesion material for the sputter-less process is complete, and our goal is to commercialize it by year-end after additional evaluation and validation."

Hyundai Mobis is expanding its research and development (R&D) beyond automotive components into robotics. The company plans to apply its core technologies in electrification and software-defined vehicles (SDVs) to robotics and develop competitive products into items for global customers.

Hyundai Mobis said it is holding its 2026 R&D Tech Day at its technology research center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, through Sept. 18. The company is showcasing about 60 next-generation technologies in areas including electrification, electronics, chassis and safety, and infotainment. It is also displaying two types of actuators for robotics.

Hyundai Mobis selected 10 products with strong technological competitiveness as its “Hero” technologies. Its next-generation hybrid battery system, one of the key products, can accommodate pouch, prismatic and cylindrical battery cells. It also supports both liquid- and air-cooling systems.

The company also unveiled an integrated controller combining autonomous driving and advanced parking functions. By integrating long- and short-range sensors into a single controller, the system improves convenience and safety during low-speed driving and parking. Hyundai Mobis has also developed an airbag designed to protect passengers from rear impacts in purpose-built vehicles (PBVs) where the first- and second-row seats face each other.

Other technologies include a suspension system that enables U-turns within the width of two lanes, a four-wheel independent steering system and fire-resistant materials that prevent battery thermal propagation. Hyundai Mobis is also displaying infotainment technologies including its CES Innovation Award-winning holographic windshield display.

During the event, Hyundai Mobis will present the technologies to customers from North America and Asia and discuss potential orders and technology cooperation.

TLB said it is participating in KPCA Show 2026 at Songdo Convensia in Incheon, marking the first time the company has set up an independent booth at the exhibition. It also won awards in three categories.

The company is showcasing printed circuit boards (PCBs) for Small Outline Compression Attached Memory Module (SOCAMM), Low Power Compression Attached Memory Module (LPCAMM) and Compute Express Link (CXL) memory modules. TLB is expanding beyond its core memory module business to address growing demand for high-performance, high-bandwidth memory in next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) servers and high-performance computing (HPC).

TLB also unveiled a PCB for high-speed memory modules supporting data rates of 8,600 MT/s, or 8.6 billion data transfers per second. As memory interface speeds increase, PCB design technologies that reduce signal loss and interference have become increasingly important.

The company is also displaying PCBs based on the Enterprise and Data Center Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) for solid-state drives (SSDs) used in data centers. EDSFF is a next-generation SSD form factor designed for data center applications.

TLB received the Best Booth Design Award, KPCA Education Award and Rising Partner Award at the exhibition. The company was recognized for effectively presenting its next-generation technologies through its exhibition space, as well as for its efforts to advance the PCB industry and strengthen future competitiveness.

“At our first exhibition at KPCA Show, we were able to showcase our next-generation products directly to customers and industry officials,” a TLB official said. “We will expand new business opportunities in AI, data centers and next-generation memory markets.”

Haesung DS said it showcased semiconductor substrate products including lead frames, package substrates and tape substrates at KPCA Show 2026 at Songdo Convensia in Incheon.

Lead frames are metal substrates that connect semiconductor chips to external circuits and provide structural support. Package substrates transmit electrical signals between semiconductor chips and mainboards. Tape substrates are thin-film substrates used for packaging components such as display driver integrated circuits (DDIs).

Haesung DS has participated in the event annually since 2023, presenting its key products and technologies. The company uses the exhibition to share technology and market trends with Korean and overseas customers and industry officials and explore potential business cooperation.

Haesung DS CEO Choi Young-sik received the Best Pathfinder Award at this year’s event in recognition of his active corporate management and commitment.

“We were able to introduce our technologies to industry officials,” a Haesung DS official said. “We will continue to strengthen our technological competitiveness and production capabilities to proactively respond to market and customer needs and actively identify new growth opportunities.”

CK Solution is expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) data center business with global energy management and automation company Schneider Electric. The company plans to broaden its data center capabilities by adding power and automation solutions to its existing HVAC and cooling business.

CK Solution said it signed an agreement to become an authorized distributor for Schneider Electric in Korea. CK Solution will supply Schneider Electric's AI data center solutions in the Korean market and provide technical support and services.

Schneider Electric offers power infrastructure and cooling solutions for data centers, including switchgear, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), transformers and automation systems. It also supplies software including digital twins and data center infrastructure management (DCIM) systems.

The company is also developing high-density power and cooling technologies for AI data centers with Nvidia and other major graphics processing unit (GPU) companies. It is also working with SK Telecom on the SK AI Data Center Ulsan project.

CK Solution has been expanding its data center business based on HVAC technology developed for semiconductor cleanrooms and battery dry rooms. After establishing a data center business division last year, it secured telecommunications and information and communications technology (ICT) companies as customers. It also partnered with LG Electronics in data center HVAC solutions.

The company has also been building its order backlog. In June, CK Solution signed a 9.2 billion won contract with Hanwha Systems to build data center cooling facilities and a building management system (BMS). The contract runs through March next year.

CK Solution plans to use the Schneider Electric distributor agreement to expand its data center business from cooling and HVAC into power infrastructure and automation. It aims to secure new customers by combining its design and construction experience with Schneider Electric's solutions.

LIG Defense & Aerospace (LIG D&A) discussed potential defense cooperation between Korea and Japan with former Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

LIG D&A said Ishiba and a delegation including Japanese Ambassador to Korea Koichi Mizushima visited the company's Pangyo House in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on Sept. 9.

The delegation reviewed LIG D&A's key defense technologies, including precision-guided weapons such as the Cheongung-II, as well as surveillance and reconnaissance systems, avionics, and space and unmanned systems.

LIG D&A CEO Shin Ik-hyun and Ishiba's delegation also exchanged views on the security environment in Northeast Asia, security cooperation between Korea and Japan, and potential collaboration between the two countries' defense industries.

Standard Energy introduced its vanadium-ion battery (VIB)-based energy storage system (ESS) technology and production processes to officials from major European countries.

The company said more than 20 officials, including representatives from the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Korea and the French and German embassies, visited its Daejeon facility on Sept. 9. The visit was part of the 2026 INNOPOLIS-Europe Innovation Partnership Day program organized by the Innopolis Foundation.

Participants toured a VIB ESS demonstration site at KAIST's Munji Campus and Standard Energy's automated V-Line production line at its headquarters. They discussed the commercialization and production status of VIB ESS, as well as potential expansion and cooperation in Europe.

VIB is a non-lithium battery that uses a nonflammable aqueous electrolyte. Its fast charging and discharging capabilities and high power output make it suitable for applications including AI data centers, power grid stabilization and ultra-fast electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

"We will accelerate the commercialization of VIB technology by expanding cooperation in Korea and overseas," said Kim Sung-jin, vice president at Standard Energy.

LS ELECTRIC will jointly develop renewable energy projects in Korea with Korea Midland Power (KOMIPO).

LS ELECTRIC said it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with KOMIPO on Sept. 9 to jointly identify and develop renewable energy projects in Korea.

The companies will cooperate on onshore wind, solar power and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects. Their partnership will cover the full project cycle, including identifying new projects, investment and financing, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), power equipment supply and power plant operations.

The companies will initially pursue onshore wind projects and later expand their cooperation into solar power and BESS. They will also consider using LS ELECTRIC's EPC services and equipment in jointly developed projects.

"We will enhance our competitiveness in renewable energy projects by combining the two companies' power generation and EPC capabilities," said Park Woo-bum, senior vice president and head of LS ELECTRIC's EA business division.