Trump Renews Call for Powell to Quit Fed Board Despite No Criminal Findings

* 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. Trump Again Demands Powell 'Resign Immediately' Despite No Criminal Findings by Fed Watchdog

- Key points: U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his demand that former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell resign from the board. The demand came on the same day the Fed's Office of Inspector General said it found no administrative wrongdoing in the $2.4 billion renovation of the central bank's Washington headquarters. Trump pressed for the resignation on social media, citing mismanagement of the project, and said he had instructed Attorney General Todd Blanche to review the inspector general's report. The OIG did point to several management failures that drove costs above the initial 2020 estimate of $1.3 billion, and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said the central bank would implement the recommendations and appoint an independent auditor.

2. Meta Stock Soars 27% in September on 'Muse' Success, Biggest Gain in Four Years

- Key points: Meta shares surged 27% in September on the back of its artificial intelligence agent Muse. The stock closed at $725.18 on the 30th local time, its highest monthly gain since November 2022, far outpacing the Nasdaq index, which rose just 2% over the same period. Muse, released on Sept. 8, overtook OpenAI's ChatGPT to rank first in downloads on Apple's iOS App Store, and surpassed 5 million cumulative downloads in about 22 days, according to Sensor Tower estimates. Meta is also moving faster into the business-to-business market, hiring former MongoDB Chief Executive CJ Desai and unveiling Muse for Small Business.

3. 'HBM Average Selling Price to Rise 121% Next Year': Green Light for Samsung, SK Price Talks

- Key points: Market research firm TrendForce forecast that the average selling price (ASP) of high-bandwidth memory will rise 121% next year from this year. With the HBM supply shortage persisting, a growing share of the relatively more expensive HBM4 (sixth generation) and increased production of HBM4E (seventh generation) from the second half of next year were cited as factors behind the increase. Micron said it has already contracted most of its 2027 HBM volume at prices higher than this year, which analysts said signals a green light for price negotiations by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Samsung Electronics' global HBM share by revenue jumped 12 percentage points to 33% in the second quarter from 21% in the first quarter, narrowing the gap with SK hynix.

4. Micron's AIDC Revenue Jumps 11-Fold, With 35% of Four Years' Revenue Already Locked In

- Key points: Micron posted revenue of $54.23 billion (about 73.704 trillion won) in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, a record for both the quarter and the full year. Data center revenue surged more than 11-fold to $18 billion from $1.577 billion a year earlier on AI data center expansion, driving the results. The number of strategic customer agreements, under which customers lock in purchase volumes and amounts in advance, rose to 26 from 16, and more than 35% of revenue through 2030 is estimated to be secured under contract. Remaining performance obligations also climbed 50% from the previous quarter to $150 billion. With capital spending projected at $25 billion in the first half of fiscal 2027, however, some are watching for a possible slowdown in margins.

5. Trump Pins Down '$50 Billion for Alaska,' Deepening Uncertainty

- Key points: A program under which South Korea will invest $200 billion in the United States was finalized on the 1st, setting the broad framework 14 months after the tariff negotiations were concluded in July last year. U.S. President Donald Trump announced a combined-cycle liquefied natural gas power plant in Encinal, Texas, the construction of eight large nuclear reactors in the United States, and the Alaska LNG project, saying, "The scale of the Alaska investment will be more than $50 billion." That figure was not included in the fact sheet jointly released by the two countries, and President Lee Jae-myung immediately countered that the Alaska LNG project would proceed only on the premise that its commercial viability is confirmed and that it complies with domestic legal procedures. Concerns were also raised that the investment funds, to be disbursed at up to $20 billion a year, would be a source of instability in the foreign exchange market over the next decade.

6. European Alternative Investment Firm Hayfin Opens Seoul Office: 'Strengthening Ties With Korean Institutions'

- Key points: Hayfin Capital Management, a European alternative investment manager with more than 40 billion euros (about 62 trillion won) in assets under management, has opened a Seoul office. Hayfin, which has local offices in 13 countries and invests primarily in private credit, has deployed more than 1 billion euros (about 1.5378 trillion won) in areas including Korean ship finance, and Samsung Life Insurance (032830) acquired a 3.96% stake in Hayfin in December last year. Hayfin said repayment risk for private credit borrowers has risen as long-term government bond yields in many countries have climbed above 5%. Carlos Pla, head of portfolio management, said Europe's private credit market has lower concentration in particular industries, making it a diversification option for Korean institutional investors whose holdings are heavily weighted toward the United States.