1. Semiconductors
SK Hynix has begun mass shipments of its 48GB, 16-layer HBM4 memory chips — destined for Nvidia's next-generation AI platform, Vera Rubin — beating Samsung and Micron to market in the third quarter (17th Sept). The new product offers 33% more capacity than its 12-layer predecessor and underscores how advanced packaging has become the decisive battleground in high-bandwidth memory. Supply constraints remain acute: lead times for TSMC's CoWoS packaging lines have stretched to between 52 and 78 weeks.
2. Internet
Kakao announced it will unveil its first agentic AI service — built on top of KakaoTalk, the dominant South Korean messaging platform — at its annual developer conference in October (16th Sept). The company aims to reach 5m monthly active users for its AI services by the end of this year, before integrating AI agents into advertising and e-commerce to begin monetisation next year. It has set a target of 1 trillion won in AI-segment revenue by 2030.
3. Renewable Energy
The Korea Hydrogen Alliance hosted the "2026 Korea-China Hydrogen Policy Forum" at the Novotel Ambassador in Seoul, drawing around 200 industry representatives from both countries to discuss expanding renewable energy and deepening north-east Asian hydrogen-economy co-operation (17th Sept). Chinese delegates noted that their country's policy is broadening beyond fuel-cell vehicles towards multi-sector applications of clean and low-carbon hydrogen. Hyundai Motor and others shared progress on the domestic rollout of hydrogen mobility.
4. Power Equipment
Hyosung Heavy Industries has secured a string of contracts in the United States (15th Sept). Through its local subsidiary, it signed a deal worth approximately 22.1bn won to supply 765kV-class transformers and reactors, and separately struck agreements with two American big-tech companies to provide ultra-high-voltage transformers worth a combined 386.5bn won.
5. Shipbuilding
Samsung Heavy Industries announced on 14th September that it had won an order from an Oceanian shipowner for six vessels — four LNG carriers of 200,000 cubic metres capacity and two crude-oil tankers — worth $1.2bn (approximately 1.648 trillion won). The deal pushed the company's cumulative commercial shipbuilding orders for the year to $7.3bn, surpassing last year's full-year total of $7.1bn and exceeding its annual target by 28%. At the Gastech 2026 conference that same week, Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai both exhibited their latest technologies; Hanwha Ocean used the occasion to debut a self-developed 60MW floating data centre (13th Sept).
6. Defence
Poland's Ministry of National Defence received a further 18 K2GF Black Panther main battle tanks from South Korea, bringing total deliveries to 226 units and deploying them with the 16th Mechanised Division (17th Sept). The handover falls under a second implementation contract signed in August 2025, covering 180 tanks between 2026 and 2030 at a cost of approximately $6.5bn. Hyundai Rotem is simultaneously establishing a local assembly line in Poland for the K2PL, a domestically modified variant.
7. Nuclear Power
The small modular reactor (SMR) market continued to attract attention internationally. Thailand's Electricity Generating Authority signed an agreement with the US Trade and Development Agency on 14th September to conduct a feasibility study for installing 600MWe-class SMRs. The following day, Britain's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero launched a regulatory review of the American-designed Xe-100 high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, designating Hartlepool in north-east England as the leading candidate site for construction. South Korean industrial conglomerate Doosan Enerbility is positioning itself to capture a share of the global SMR supply chain: it has partnered with X-energy and committed 806.8bn won to build a dedicated SMR manufacturing facility in Changwon.
8. Retail
CPLB, the private-label operator of e-commerce giant Coupang, held its first offline festival in Seoul's Seongsu district on 14th September, showcasing its house brands, including Gomgom and Tamsa. Some 120 small and mid-sized manufacturers participated, and advance registrations alone drew 6,300 visitors — a signal that Coupang's private-label strategy, hitherto focused almost entirely online, is extending into physical retail experiences.
9. Hotels
Josun Hotel & Resorts rolled out Chuseok (Korean harvest festival) holiday programmes across its seven properties (16th Sept). Josun Palace and The Westin Josun Busan offered seasonal dessert menus, while L'Escape Seoul Myeongdong and Gravity Josun Seoul Pangyo organised family activities including calligraphy workshops and traditional rice-cake making.
10. Leisure
The KPGA Korean Tour's 2026 Golfzon Open teed off on 17th September at Golfzon County Sunsan in North Gyeongsang Province, marking the domestic professional golf circuit's entry into the autumn season and drawing keen interest from the wider leisure industry.
11. Capital Markets
The KOSPI (South Korea's main stock index) surged 178.82 points, or 2.66%, to close at 6,894.23 on 18th September, shrugging off the shock of a US Federal Reserve interest-rate increase. Falling crude-oil prices and remarks by Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang — who said he expects next year's chip sales to be double this year's — provided the lift. On the same day, the Bank of Japan raised its policy rate by 25 basis points to 1.25%, its first move since June and the highest level in 31 years.