WEF Report Charts Long-Term Global Growth Strategies A new WEF report projects middle-income economies will drive global GDP growth through 2030, highlighting key sectors and policy barriers.

World Economic Forum: Middle-income economies to drive ~66% of global GDP growth by 2030, with Asia contributing >50%.

#Macro #Investing #Economics #Strategy

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#Japan to expand state support for chemicals, #AI & #robotics as >60% of firms rely on China for materials.

#Investing #SupplyChain #Strategy

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South Korea Revamps Regulatory Framework After 28 Years South Korea restructures its regulatory committee to a presidential body and introduces Mega Special Zones to ease rules for key industries.

Gov't shifts to a negative regulation system, cutting early-stage startup paperwork >50%. Mega Special Zones proposed. #Strategy #Policy #Investing #SouthKorea

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Upstage Raises KRW 180 Billion in Series C South Korean AI startup Upstage raises KRW 180 billion (US$ 120.8 million) in Series C funding, reaching a KRW 1 trillion valuation.

Upstage secures ₩180B Series C, reaching a ₩1T valuation. The gen #AI firm reports annual revenue growth of 130%+. #Upstage #GenAI #VC #Tech

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SoftBank, Tech Firms Form xIPF Consortium for AI Data SoftBank, NTT DATA, and Fujitsu launch the xIPF Consortium to develop a decentralized AI computing platform for cross-industry data integration.

10 Japanese corps, including SoftBank, launch xIPF Consortium to process secure, real-time data via #decentralized AI. #AI #Data #Tech #TechNews #Japan

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Musinsa 2026 Tokyo Pop-Up Reaches 10K Visitors in 3 Days South Korean fashion platform Musinsa's 2026 Tokyo pop-up store drew 10,000 visitors in three days, featuring 80 brands and an O4O retail strategy.

Musinsa's Tokyo pop-up drew 10K+ in 3 days. O4O strategy doubled online transactions, driven by a 70% Gen Z base. #GenZ #Retail #O4O #Fashion #Japan

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Coupang Invests $84M in AI, Partners With Contoro Coupang announces $84M in AI tech investments since 2023 and a new partnership with Texas robotics startup Contoro for logistics automation.

Coupang invests $84M in AI startups since 2023, partnering with Contoro to automate global logistics. $CPNG #AI #Robotics #Logistics

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Sony Completes First Close of New 20B Yen Venture Fund Sony Ventures completes the first closing of Sony Innovation Fund 4, targeting over JPY 20 billion to invest in tech startups globally.

Sony completes first close of Innovation Fund 4, targeting ¥20B+ for global tech startups. Total platform AUM may top ¥85B. #Startup #VentureCapital

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Naver Integrates MyPlace Reviews into Clip Platform Naver Corp. links MYPlace location reviews with its Clip platform and restructures the app to a three-tab interface for enhanced content discovery.

Naver links MYPlace reviews to Clip and adopts a 3-tab AI interface to scale its creator ecosystem. #AI #TechNews #Korea #SouthKorea

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JR East to Roll Out AI Person Detection on Sagami Line JR East implements AI-based passenger detection on Sagami Line to enhance safety for driver-only operations. Full fleet deployment expected by FY2026.

To offset labor shortages, JR East adds #AI passenger detection to driver-only trains, targeting a full FY2026 rollout. #TechNews #Japan

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SoftBank, NEC, Honda, Sony Form AI Joint Venture SoftBank, NEC, Honda, and Sony formed a joint venture to build a 1-trillion parameter AI model and next-generation physical AI in Japan.

SoftBank, NEC, Honda & Sony form #Japan #AI #JointVenture for a 1-trillion parameter model and #physicalAI, eyeing a $6.3B grant. #TechNews

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Rebellions, SKT, Arm Partner on AI Server Infrastructure Rebellions, SK Telecom, and Arm partner to develop AI inference servers combining Arm AGI CPUs and RebelCard accelerators for sovereign AI.

Rebellions, SK Telecom( $SKM), and Arm ($ARM ) partner on AI servers for sovereign AI. The tech pairs Arm CPUs with 4-chiplet #HBM3E NPUs. #AI #DataCenter

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Hyundai Launches IONIQ EV Brand and Concept Cars in China Hyundai Motor debuts its all-electric IONIQ brand in China, unveiling the VENUS sedan and EARTH SUV concepts ahead of Auto China 2026.

Hyundai launches IONIQ EV brand in China with 2 concepts, signaling a strategic shift to localized tech. #EV #China #IONIQ #AutoChina

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S. Korea's Daangn (Karrot) Adds AI Voice Reviews South Korean app Daangn (Karrot) launched an AI voice-to-text review feature for local businesses, reporting a 43% return usage rate in beta.

S. Korea's Daangn adds #AI voice reviews. Beta saw a 43% usage rate & a 40% boost in review quality metrics.

#TechNews #Startup

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SK hynix supplies 321-layer QLC SSDs to Dell for #AI PCs. QLC market share projected to reach 61% by 2027. #TechNews #AIPC #NAND #Investing

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S. Korea MSS Unveils KRW 60B Won Matching Fund South Korea's MSS announced the Next-generation Unicorn Fund, providing KRW 60 billion (US$ 40.5M) per tech company via VC, FoF, and KIBO.

S. Korea's new fund offers KRW 60B ($40.5M) per growth-stage #AI and #DeepTech #startup via public-private matching. #VC

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S. Korea Net Lending Rises to KRW 158.2T in 2025 The Bank of Korea reports South Korea's total economy net lending reached KRW 158.2 trillion (US$ 109.6B) in 2025, with household assets rising.

S. Korea 2025 total net lending hit KRW 158.2T ($109.6B). Non-financial corp borrowing narrowed to KRW 34.2T. #BOK #Macro #Investing

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Soombit AI Secures MFDS Approval for AI Radiology Software South Korean firm Soombit AI receives Class 3 MFDS approval for AIRead-CXR, a generative AI tool that drafts preliminary chest X-ray reports.

Soombit AI's AIRead-CXR received the first global Class 3 approval for generative AI SaMD. Radiologists accepted its draft reports at an 85% rate. #AI

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Krafton Launches Open-Source AI Brand Raon S.Korea's Krafton launches AI brand Raon, releasing four open-source models on Hugging Face including a 9B parameter voice-enabled LLM.

Krafton launched its AI brand Raon, releasing 4 open-source models. The 9B-parameter Raon-Speech model ranked 1st in its class across 40 benchmarks. #AI

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S. Korea Launches GMEP to Fund AI Startup US Expansion S. Korea's MSS launches the 2026 Investment-linked GMEP, providing 20 AI startups with 80M won, US PoC testing, and venture capital matching.

South Korea's MSS launched the 2026 GMEP, providing 20 AI startups with 80M won and US-based PoC testing to facilitate global VC matching. #AI #Startups

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Rebellions Raises $400M Pre-IPO at $2.34B Valuation South Korean AI infrastructure firm Rebellions secures $400M in pre-IPO funding to scale its Rebel100 NPU and expand into the US market.

Rebellions raised $400M in pre-IPO funding, reaching a $2.34B valuation to scale its Rebel100 #NPU and expand into the US market. #AI #Semiconductors

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SoftBank LTM Ranks 3rd in GSMA Open-Telco LLM AI Benchmarks SoftBank's Large Telecom Model (LTM) ranks third among 84 models in the GSMA Open-Telco LLM Benchmarks, utilizing a specialized telecom AI training framework.

SoftBank’s Large Telecom Model (LTM) ranked 3rd out of 84 in the GSMA Open-Telco LLM Benchmarks, utilizing a specialized AI training framework. #AI

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Delivery Hero's Baemin Sees Growth After South Korea Rebuild Delivery Hero reports renewed growth for its South Korean unit Baemin in FY 2025 following an 18-month restructuring. Subscriptions now hit 50% of orders.

Delivery Hero’s South Korea business returned to growth in late 2025. Subscriptions now drive nearly 50% of total orders. #DeliveryHero #delivery #earnings

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AMD Secures AI Pacts with Samsung and Naver AMD signs MOUs with Samsung for HBM4 memory and Naver for HyperCLOVA X infrastructure, advancing next-generation AI computing development.

AMD signs MOUs with Samsung for HBM4 memory and Naver for HyperCLOVA X infrastructure to advance next-gen AI computing. #AMD #AI #Cloud #TechNew #HBM4

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South Korea Allocates KRW 50 Trillion (US$ 33.3 billion) for 'K-Nvidia' AI Chip Fund South Korea’s MSIT and FSC launch a KRW 50 trillion (US$33.3B) National Growth Fund to develop domestic AI semiconductors, investing heavily in NPUs.

South Korea allocates KRW 50T ($33.3B) to a "K-Nvidia" fund to target low-power #NPU development and challenge #GPU dominance. #AIChips #Semiconductors #TechNews

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Rakuten Releases 700B Parameter Open-Source AI Model Rakuten launches Rakuten AI 3.0, a 700-billion parameter MoE model developed under Japan's GENIAC project, available via Apache 2.0.

Rakuten releases Rakuten AI 3.0, a 700B parameter MoE model. It outperformed GPT-4o on Japanese cultural benchmarks. #AI #GenAI #OpenSource #TechNews

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Hyundai Motor, Kia Expand Nvidia Autonomous Tech Partnership Hyundai Motor and Kia expand strategic partnership with Nvidia to develop and deploy Level 2 to Level 4 autonomous driving technology and robotaxis.

Hyundai and Kia expand Nvidia partnership to scale Level 2-4 #autonomous #tech and #robotaxis via unified #AI data pipelines. #GTC26

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SoftBank Deploys Nvidia Tech for Telecom AI Data Platform SoftBank builds a synthetic data generation platform using Nvidia NeMo Safe Synthesizer to securely train its Large Telecom Model (LTM).

SoftBank Corp launches a synthetic data platform using Nvidia tech to train its Large Telecom Model while ensuring data privacy. #SoftBank #AI #GTC26 #telecoms

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Kakao Mobility Launches Autonomous Car Service in Gangnam Kakao Mobility begins operating a late-night autonomous vehicle service in Seoul's Gangnam district using its proprietary AI driving technology.

Kakao Mobility launches proprietary AI-driven late-night robotaxis in Gangnam, scaling urban autonomous tech for a 2026 fare rollout. #AutonomousDriving #Mobility #TechNews

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LY Corp Launches Ads on Renewed LINE Home Tab LY Corporation begins programmatic ad distribution on the updated LINE Home Tab, reaching 100 million monthly active users with in-feed ads.

LY Corp launches programmatic ads on LINE’s new Home Tab, tapping into 100M+ monthly active users in Japan. #AdTech #LINE #Programmatic #Japan

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