Samsung Launches Robot Dream Team Under CEO With Top-Tier Talent

*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an "artificial intelligence (AI)-based customized news recommendation and summary service" developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news items by reader type.

1. Control Tower to Lead '60 Trillion Won Physical AI' Investment Established, Additional M&A Also Signaled

- Key Summary: Samsung Electronics has newly established the Robotics eXperience (RX) Business Division, a control tower for its robot business, directly under Roh Tae-moon, head of the Device eXperience (DX) division and CEO, and has begun full-scale efforts to seize the robot market in connection with plans announced on the 3rd of this month to build a global physical AI innovation cluster worth approximately 60 trillion won in the Yeongnam region. Amid expectations that the global robot market will grow explosively from 59.7 billion dollars (about 88 trillion won) this year to 257.5 billion dollars (about 380 trillion won) in 2035, Samsung Electronics plans to use affiliate infrastructure such as Samsung SDI (006400.KS) (all-solid-state batteries for humanoids), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (009150.KS) (substrates for AI servers), and Samsung Heavy Industries (010140.KS) (autonomous shipyards) as a stage for robot learning. Lee Dong-gun, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics' planning team, who led the Boston Dynamics business strategy at Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) Group, has taken charge of the robotics strategy team, and Kim Hyun-jin, a professor at Seoul National University and an authority in the field of intelligent autonomous control, and Kim Eui-kyum, a professor of mechanical engineering at Ajou University and an expert in precision robot hands, have also joined. In the industry, there are forecasts that Samsung Electronics—having completed the three pillars of an integrated organization directly under the CEO, Yeongnam infrastructure, and S-class talent—will soon aggressively pursue large-scale mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and investments in promising startups targeting the global robot market.

2. [Exclusive] SK China to Inject 900 Billion Won Into SK Innovation Through Capital Reduction

- Key Summary: SK Innovation plans to raise 900 billion won through a capital reduction that reduces its stake in SK China, the control tower for SK Group's China business, and expand its investment in the energy sector. SK China holds retained earnings of more than 1 trillion won based on the proceeds of about 1.5 trillion won from the sale of the Beijing SK Tower in 2021, and after the capital reduction is completed, the SK Innovation affiliate's stake in SK China will fall from the current 33% to around 10%. The investment banking (IB) industry expects the recovered funds to be invested in energy solutions (technology that combines the entire process of energy production, storage, and consumption with AI technology for efficient management) and the power sector, and SK Inc. is also pursuing the establishment of Korea's largest renewable energy joint venture (JV) with global private equity fund (PEF) manager Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). Meanwhile, this fund recovery is interpreted as completing a structure in which SK Innovation takes charge of the energy supply axis in SK Group's AI value chain that extends from SK hynix (000660.KS) (semiconductors) to SK ecoplant (AI data centers) and SK Telecom (017670.KS) (software).

3. Korea Zinc Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting on September 9, Board Restructuring in Focus

- Key Summary: Korea Zinc, currently in a management control dispute, will hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting on September 9 at the Mondrian Hotel in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, to newly appoint an audit committee member and four directors. Although the agenda to amend the articles of incorporation to expand separately elected audit committee members was rejected at the March regular shareholders meeting due to opposition from MBK Partners and Young Poong, the same agenda has been resubmitted in line with the September 10 effective deadline under the revised Commercial Act. This extraordinary shareholders meeting also includes an agenda to appoint four independent directors through cumulative voting to fill the board vacancy created by the mid-term resignation of four independent directors last month, and this agenda was submitted at the request of Yumi Development, a shareholder of Korea Zinc, and the MBK-Young Poong side. In addition, at the extraordinary board meeting that day, an agenda for investment in the integrated construction of the Richmond Valley battery and solar power plant with a storage capacity of 2,200 MWh and generation capacity of 200 MW, which Korea Zinc's Australian sub-subsidiary Ark Energy is pursuing in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, was also approved.

4. Trump Pulls Out Century-Old Law, Hits Canada With 50% Tariff Bomb

- Key Summary: U.S. President Donald Trump has invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act, enacted in 1930 and subsequently dormant, for the first time ever, signing a proclamation to impose a 50% tariff on most Canadian products starting August 19. The applicable items include wine, cement, dairy products, plywood, paper, and furniture, including items that had received duty-free benefits under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said the targets are Canadian products worth approximately 20 billion dollars (about 29.5 trillion won). Section 338 of the Tariff Act has no expiration limit and allows the target and scope to be freely determined, so it is evaluated as a more powerful tool than the existing Section 122 of the Trade Act, and legal circles offer the analysis that it is a measure to increase bargaining power in the follow-up USMCA negotiations. Korea is on the U.S. government's list of countries under investigation for both forced labor and overproduction, so whether the 15% tariff cap derived from the Korea-U.S. trade agreement will be maintained has emerged as the biggest issue.

5. Chasm 'Over'...LG Energy Solution to Restart Halted U.S. EV Battery Plant

- Key Summary: LG Energy Solution (373220.KS) has decided to restart its Ultium Cells (LG Energy Solution-GM joint venture) Plant 1 in Ohio, U.S., which closed in January due to a sharp drop in EV demand, from the fourth quarter, and will sequentially reinstate about 850 temporarily laid-off employees from the 27th to mid-August. A surge in oil prices following the outbreak of war in the Middle East stimulated consumers' EV purchases, accelerating the recovery of global demand, and market research firm SNE Research forecast that this oil price shock will advance the recovery of EV demand by at least two years or more. European EV sales increased 15.3% year-on-year in January-May this year, and domestic EV sales in the first half also surged 92.1% to 201,096 units from 92,242 units a year earlier. Accordingly, LG Energy Solution's overall plant utilization rate is expected to rise from 46.9% in the first quarter to around 60% in the second half.

6. Breaking Debt-Free Principle Amid AI Boom...Semiconductor Substrates, Bold Bets

- Key Summary: As the semiconductor substrate industry, enjoying a boom driven by the growth of the AI industry, embarks on bold expansion investments, Daeduck Electronics (353200.KS) announced an investment plan worth 710 billion won this year alone.