Global Morning Briefing is a roundup of worldwide news compiled by Seoul Economic Daily.
Micron's AI Data Center Revenue Jumps 11-Fold; 35% of Four-Year Sales Already Locked In
Micron Technology, the U.S. memory chipmaker often seen as a barometer for the semiconductor market, posted record results for both the quarter and the full year. Revenue from its data center business surged 11-fold in a single year on artificial intelligence demand. By shrugging off concerns that the cycle had peaked and confirming the memory upcycle, the results are raising expectations that favorable conditions will extend to earnings at Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS).
Micron said in a filing that revenue reached a record $54.23 billion (about 73.704 trillion won) in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, which ran from May 29 to Sept. 3. It marked the sixth straight quarter of record revenue.
Quarterly revenue rose nearly fivefold from $11.32 billion a year earlier, beating the $51.07 billion average estimate compiled by the London Stock Exchange Group. Annual revenue also hit a record, jumping 256% to $133.19 billion from $37.38 billion a year earlier.
Adjusted earnings per share for the fourth quarter came in at $33.42, above the $31.61 estimate. Micron said it expects first-quarter revenue of $61.5 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $38.15 in fiscal 2027, higher than LSEG estimates of $57 billion and $35.40.
Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra said the company is gaining confidence that strategic customer agreements will make its financial performance more robust. Under the arrangements, customers commit in advance to specific memory volumes and amounts.
Trump Uses Allied Money to Clear the AI Bottleneck
Investment projects in the United States that South Korea, Japan and others have finalized with the Trump administration share a common feature: they are concentrated on power plant construction. Most of the selected sites are places where data centers, the core infrastructure for AI, already operate at scale or are slated for construction. That has led to analysis that Washington is using allied investment as leverage to resolve the electricity constraints that have emerged as a bottleneck for advanced industries.
Pennsylvania, where the United States and Japan agreed in March to spend $17 billion on a 4.3-gigawatt natural gas power plant, is a region where AI power demand is rising sharply. It is also where Amazon said last year it would invest at least $20 billion to build an AI and cloud data center campus.
Texas, where both South Korea and Japan plan to build gas-fired power plants, is one of the world's most closely watched data center hubs.
Citadel Securities said in a recent report that China will add nearly six times more generation capacity than the United States over the next five years, while the United States will struggle with grid interconnection, permitting procedures and local opposition to data centers.
Passengers Avert Airliner Crash After Co-Pilot Stabs Captain
Attention is focused on the motive behind an incident in which a co-pilot stabbed the captain on a flight bound for Israel, nearly causing the aircraft to crash. With the exact motive still unestablished, Israeli officials appear to be leaning toward the possibility of terrorism driven by religious extremism.
On the 30th, a co-pilot of Omani nationality attacked the Indian captain with a bladed weapon aboard a Flydubai Boeing 737 MAX flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv. There were 174 passengers on board, 166 of them Israelis. The aircraft plunged from 34,000 feet to 17,000 feet in less than a minute. The seriously wounded captain opened the cockpit door, and three Israeli passengers and a crew member entered and subdued the co-pilot. Two off-duty pilots traveling as passengers then took over the controls and made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, averting a major disaster.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz described the incident as an attempted jihadist terror attack, saying initial information indicated the attacker had only one intention: to crash the aircraft with everyone on board.
In an interview with Fox News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the exact background was unclear but that the man clearly hated Israelis. Asked whether there were signs that Iran was involved, he said it was too early to say.
Full Pay Past Retirement Age: Japan Courts Older Workers
Japanese companies have long cut wages by about half when rehiring workers past the mandatory retirement age, but going forward they must pay the full amount unless there is a clear reason not to. That is because workers rehired after retirement have been brought under the scope of equal pay for equal work. It is a stopgap measure devised by Japan, which unlike South Korea faces labor shortages extending even to older workers.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on the 1st, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare put revised equal pay for equal work guidelines, amended in April, into effect that day. The revision allows non-regular workers to demand that employers explain why their treatment differs from that of permanent employees doing the same work. Employers must also set standards for allowances, leave and benefits.
The revised guidelines also bar employers from differentiating treatment for older workers hired on fixed-term contracts after retirement, known as shokutaku staff, solely on the grounds that they have been switched to contract status. Last year, Japan had a record 9.43 million workers aged 65 and over, 76.1% of whom were non-regular workers, meaning they fall under the new rules.
Japan has been pushing back retirement ages since 2005, when it became the world's first country in which people aged 65 and over exceeded 20% of the total population, making it a super-aged society.
Paramount-Warner Merger Settlement Reached With 150-Film Production Condition
Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery has cleared its last major hurdle. With an antitrust lawsuit filed by 12 states resolved through a settlement in U.S. federal court, the merger is expected to close soon.
According to The Wall Street Journal on the 30th, the federal court approved a settlement between the two sides in an antitrust suit brought against Paramount by the attorneys general of 12 states, led by California. Because the European Union granted conditional approval of the merger in July, the U.S. federal ruling was the final gateway for the deal. Paramount said it expects the transaction to close on Oct. 6 following the decision.
The two companies agreed to establish an editorial board of five journalists within 180 days of completing the merger. The board will have authority to mediate disputes among CBS News and CNN staff over violations of editorial principles, reporting bias, fairness and related issues.
