▲ AI PRISM* Personalized Economic Briefing
* 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 delivers six tailored news items for each reader type.
[Key Issue Briefing]
■ U.S. Investment Finalized: South Korea's $200 billion U.S. investment program was finalized on the 1st, 14 months after the two countries reached a tariff agreement in July last year. Washington had demanded the investment as one of the conditions for not raising tariffs on South Korea above 15%. But a sense of crisis is growing within the ministries leading the negotiations after U.S. President Donald Trump said Alaska investment would exceed $50 billion — a figure absent from the two countries' joint fact sheet.
■ Memory Upcycle: U.S. memory maker Micron posted record results for both the quarter and the full year on Sept. 30 local time, as artificial intelligence demand drove its data center revenue up 11-fold in a single year. The results reconfirmed the memory upcycle despite concerns that it had peaked, raising expectations that earnings at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix will also benefit.
■ Japan's Elderly Employment: Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare put a revised "equal pay for equal work" guideline into effect on the 1st, extending it to workers rehired after retirement. Japanese companies had cut wages roughly in half when rehiring workers past retirement age, but must now pay the full amount without a clear justification. The shift also coincides with companies turning to experienced older workers as the shortage of college graduates grows severe.
[Top News for Corporate CEOs]
1. Trump Pins $50 Billion on Alaska, Deepening Uncertainty
- Key points: The $200 billion U.S. investment program, worth 272 trillion won, was finalized on the 1st, but the detailed negotiating agenda remains untouched. Trump announced investment plans covering a combined-cycle liquefied natural gas power plant in Encinal, Texas, construction of eight large nuclear reactors in the United States and the Alaska LNG project. He said the Alaska investment would top $50 billion, a figure not included in the joint fact sheet. President Lee Jae-myung immediately pushed back on X, formerly Twitter, saying the two sides had agreed to proceed with the Alaska LNG project only on the condition that its commercial viability is confirmed and that it complies with South Korean legal procedures. Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan stressed that the announcement was not an end but a new beginning, and talks on the $150 billion MASGA (Make American Shipbuilding Great Again) initiative have yet to begin in earnest.
2. Micron's AI Data Center Revenue Jumps 11-Fold, With 35% of Four-Year Sales Already Locked In
- Key points: Micron's revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 reached $54.23 billion, or about 73.704 trillion won, a record for a sixth straight quarter. Annual revenue surged 256% to $133.19 billion from $37.38 billion a year earlier, driven by the data center business, which posted $18 billion. Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra said strategic customer agreements, under which clients commit to purchase volumes and prices in advance, would further strengthen financial performance. The number of SCAs rose to 26 from 16 in the previous quarter, and those contracts are estimated to account for more than 35% of revenue through 2030. Remaining performance obligations also climbed 50% from the previous quarter to $150 billion.
3. Same Pay Past Retirement: Japan Courts Older Workers
- Key points: Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare implemented on the 1st a revised "equal pay for equal work" guideline it had rewritten in April, barring companies from treating older workers rehired on fixed-term contracts after retirement differently on the grounds of their contract status. Japan had 9.43 million workers aged 65 and over last year, an all-time high, and 76.1% of them were non-regular workers. Japan introduced its Act on Stabilization of Employment of Elderly Persons in 2006, requiring companies to choose one of three options — abolishing the retirement age, raising it or adopting a continued employment system — and in 2021 extended to 70 the age up to which employers must make efforts to secure employment. The job-openings-to-applicants ratio across all industries was close to 1.2 in July this year, and reached 7.9 for some construction occupations. With labor shortages persisting, companies are turning to retirees as an alternative.
[Reference News for Corporate CEOs]
- Key points: Hanmi Pharmaceutical has decided to accept activist fund Life Asset Management's proposal for a special audit of Beijing Hanmi. It has reportedly asked to push back the Oct. 30 deadline proposed for disclosing the audit results, saying the timeline is tight given the need to select an external auditor and arrange on-site due diligence in China. Life Asset Management formally demanded an external special audit of the entire transaction structure between Beijing Hanmi and Runmeikang, a local pharmaceutical distributor, in a shareholder letter on the 17th of last month. Uncollected accounts receivable from Runmeikang surged to 125.4 billion won at the end of 2025 from 35.1 billion won at the end of 2023, and Beijing Hanmi's second-quarter operating profit fell 96.6% from a year earlier to 600 million won. Management reportedly failed to obtain Runmeikang's financial records and inventory data during a business trip to China.
5. "Can't Absorb Surging Memory Prices": Galaxy S26 List Price Rises 150,000 Won
- Key points: Samsung Electronics began selling the Galaxy S26 series on the 1st at prices 149,600 won higher than before for the 256GB versions, bringing the base model to 1.4036 million won, the Plus to 1.6016 million won and the Ultra to 1.947 million won, while the Ultra 1TB model rose about 270,000 won to 2.8215 million won. According to DRAMeXchange, the average DRAM price climbed to $26 at the end of September, double the $13 recorded in March this year. Counterpoint Research said memory's share of premium smartphone production costs rose 16 percentage points to 43% from 27% over the same period. Samsung Electronics' Mobile eXperience division posted its first-ever quarterly loss of 700 billion won in the second quarter of this year, and Apple raised prices on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 by $100 each last month.
6. 16 Trillion Won in Price Fixing Over Five Years: Six Petrochemical Firms, 37 Employees Face Trial
- Key points: The Fair Trade Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office indicted 43 people and entities on the 1st on charges of violating the Fair Trade Act, including six petrochemical companies and 37 current and former executives and employees, among them former and current chief executives. The alleged price fixing totaled 16.3961 trillion won, the largest collusion case ever investigated by South Korean prosecutors. The companies involved are LG Chem (051910), Aekyung Chemical (161000), LOTTE Fine Chemical (004000), OCI (456040), PKC and UNID (014830). They are accused of colluding on the range and timing of supply price adjustments for eight products, including polyvinyl chloride, plasticizers, caustic soda and hydrochloric acid, from January 2021 through April this year. Chief Prosecutor Na Hee-seok said South Korea has among the lightest penalties for collusion cases of any major country, adding that the office would take an active part in discussions on revising the legal framework, including raising statutory sentences and introducing provisions deeming gains to be criminal proceeds.
▶Read the full article: "Can't Absorb Surging Memory Prices": Galaxy S26 List Price Rises 150,000 Won
▶Read the full article: Rural Community Corp. Faces Mandatory Renewable Expansion; 1.3 Trillion Won in Fines if Annual 1GW Target Missed
▶Read the full article: 1.8 Trillion Won Pours Into Korea Investment Holdings Bonds; Korea Zinc Draws Three Times Its Target
