Korea Targets 50% Jump in Small-Business Exports With 'K-Tech' Push

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

1. Small-Business Exports to Reach 245 Trillion Won in Four Years, With 'K-Tech' Beyond K-Beauty

- Key summary: The government will raise exports by small and medium-sized enterprises to $180 billion, or about 244.8 trillion won, by 2030. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups discussed a "four-part innovation strategy for SME exports" with related ministries at the 13th national policy coordination meeting on the 3rd. SME exports hit a record $120 billion last year and reached $64 billion in the first half of this year, and the government plans to sustain annual growth of around 9%. Starting next year, a new "Global Scale-Up 500" program will select 500 promising companies each year, and a "K-Tech strategic products" initiative that identifies promising items by country will support 500 companies by 2030. The government will also help companies enter new markets including India, Brazil, Singapore, Europe and Mongolia to ease a concentration in China, the United States, Vietnam and Japan, and plans to enact within the year a law to promote overseas expansion by SMEs that was proposed late last year.

2. KOTEC Discusses Fostering Mega Project-Linked Industries and Reorganizing Its Framework

- Key summary: The Korea Technology Finance Corporation held its second management strategy workshop of 2026 at its head office in Busan on the 3rd to discuss its business direction. Under the theme "The mega project era: growth for all, completed through technology financing," the agenda included the role of technology financing in fostering industries linked to mega projects, a reorganization of the institution's framework to support a third venture boom, support programs for business succession through mergers and acquisitions, and financial support for commercializing government research and development results. KOTEC had earlier established a Haeundae branch in Busan and a dedicated team for business succession M&A, and in July it created an R&D finance department and a center for assessing technology losses at SMEs. In the first half of this year, it expanded intellectual property guarantees for deep-tech companies in fields such as AI, biotechnology and semiconductors, and strengthened restart guarantees that help entrepreneurs who failed in good faith try again. "KOTEC's role is to carry the recovery in our economy, driven by strong exports, through to the growth of technology-based small and venture businesses," KOTEC Chairman Kwon Hyung-taek said.

3. GBSA and KISTI to Support AI Transition at Gyeonggi Companies, With Free Diagnosis and Consulting

- Key summary: The Gyeonggido Business and Science Accelerator signed a memorandum of understanding with the Regional Innovation Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information on the 3rd to promote AI demonstration projects and expand an integrated AX support model. The core of the agreement is to link the AX (AI transformation) integrated support model, known as AXIS and developed and operated by KISTI, to the accelerator's corporate support and AI demonstration programs. AXIS combines "AX diagnosis and consulting," which analyzes a company's level of AI transition, with an "AX convergence archive" that collects transition cases by industry, and the two organizations will identify demonstration projects by first assessing each company's differing level of adoption at the diagnosis stage. This year they will run a proof-of-concept program for companies in the province, and participating companies will receive diagnosis, consulting and related support entirely free of charge. "We will expand cooperation with specialized institutions to actively support companies in adopting AI and applying it on site," said Lim Jong-bin, head of the accelerator's AI division.

4. TVING, With All 39.54 Million Accounts Exposed, Says It Will Quadruple Data Protection Spending

- Key summary: Personal information from 39.54 million user accounts was leaked in a hacking of TVING that occurred in late May this year. The Ministry of Science and ICT released the findings of a joint public-private investigation team on the 3rd, saying every account had been exposed, including active, inactive and test accounts. Over three days from May 29 to 31, the attacker stole an access key to the development environment and penetrated internal systems. The attacker then found production environment access keys across 361 development projects and gained access to the cloud storage holding the user database. A lax security setup that left access keys exposed inside source code was identified as the problem. TVING presented a plan to quadruple its data protection spending by 2030 and to establish a data protection innovation advisory committee. "We will treat data protection as the company's most important responsibility and a source of competitiveness, expanding investment and staffing in information security and rebuilding our entire security framework from the ground up," TVING CEO Choi Joo-hee said.

5. Asia Hubs Reshuffled as Singapore Fills Up: Equinix Says It Will Add AI Data Centers in Korea

- Key summary: Bruce Owen, Equinix president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and senior vice president for global markets, announced plans on the 2nd to expand data centers in South Korea. Equinix, the world's largest colocation data center operator, runs more than 280 data centers in 77 major cities worldwide and has sites in Sangam in Seoul and Goyang in Gyeonggi Province. Owen cited global companies such as Samsung and Hyundai Motor (005380) as a reason the Korean market matters, explaining that many multinational companies in Korea use Equinix to build infrastructure not only in Seoul but around the world. He said the AI industry began in the United States and China but would spread to EMEA and Asia-Pacific over the next decade, and announced plans to increase investment in the Asia-Pacific region. He also said Singapore lacks room to expand, prompting the company to widen its footprint to sites including Johor in Malaysia and Bangkok in Thailand.

6. TSMC Says 20 Fabs Under Construction Still Fall Short of Exploding AI Demand

- Key summary: TSMC of Taiwan, the world's largest foundry, or contract chipmaker, said it is building a total of 20 fabs worldwide but is struggling to meet explosive AI demand. Hou Yung-ching, TSMC senior vice president and chairman of the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association, made the remarks at the CEO summit of Semicon Taiwan 2026 in Taipei on the 2nd. He said the semiconductor industry faces a surge in demand unseen over the past three decades, estimating that equipment purchase demand in July this year had jumped to 1.9 times the level of late last year. Construction is under way at 13 sites in Taiwan and five to six overseas, and while the current scale of construction is up to five times larger than in the past, demand still outpaces capacity, he explained. He pointed to a severe shortage of construction workers as the biggest obstacle to expanding output, and stressed that the company is introducing AI to production lines to improve capacity. Separately, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said in an interview with Japan's Asahi Shimbun published the previous day that memory chips for data centers are 20% to 30% short of demand, and that the group is reviewing ways to invest in Japan, including cooperation with Kioxia.