South Korea

Yonhap | English | News | Dec. 4, 2025 | Geopolitical Conflict and Disputes

On December 2, 2025, the South Korean government reaffirmed its commitment to fully comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations while pursuing plans to build nuclear-powered submarines and gain rights to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. This assurance was made during a high-level meeting in Seoul between Lee Chul, director of the International Organizations and Nuclear Affairs Bureau at South Korea’s foreign ministry, and Massimo Aparo, head of the Department of Safeguards at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

During the meeting, Lee pledged transparent cooperation with the IAEA, which was met with appreciation by Aparo, who expressed a desire to maintain close collaboration. They discussed ongoing developments in IAEA safeguards and shared views on verifying North Korea’s nuclear program. Both parties agreed to continue regular consultations and policy meetings to strengthen cooperation.

This development follows approval from U.S. President Donald Trump in October 2025, authorizing Seoul to deploy nuclear-powered submarines and acquire rights to enrich civil uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes. The discussions underscore South Korea’s efforts to advance its nuclear capabilities while maintaining international non-proliferation commitments.

2026년 산업부 예산 9조4342억원 확정…18.8% 증가

ZD Net Korea | Local Language | News | Dec. 4, 2025 | UndeterminedBudgets-Budgeting

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's 2026 budget was confirmed at 9.4342 trillion won, marking an 18.8% increase of 1.4912 trillion won from the current year's budget. During the National Assembly's deliberations, the original government proposal of 9.7869 trillion won was adjusted with 352 billion won added for 57 projects and 704.6 billion won cut from 12 projects, including a 570 billion won reduction in trade insurance fund contributions for U.S. investment support.

The budget prioritizes overcoming domestic industrial challenges and advancing AI transformation, with 1.1 trillion won allocated for the spread of AI across industries, nearly double this year's level. Investments will focus on manufacturing innovation through the "M.AX Alliance" involving companies, universities, and research institutes. A further 1.7 trillion won, up 34.2%, is devoted to fostering advanced and leading industries to enhance global competitiveness.

To improve export competitiveness and assist domestic companies in adapting to changing trade conditions, the budget increases related funding by 18% to 1.2 trillion won and establishes a new program supporting overseas expansion of the distribution industry, capitalizing on the Korean Wave. Supply chain resilience will also be strengthened with a 1.9 trillion won investment, an 8.1% increase, including a new core minerals re-resource project.

The budget for regional growth and investment stimulation rose 18.4% to 900 billion won, with 409.9 billion won directed toward upgrading industrial complexes through AI initiatives and RE100 industrial complex creation. The Ministry aims for full budget execution readiness early next year to ensure fiscal spending effectively catalyzes economic revival.

“구리의 시대는 끝났다” 마벨, 4조원대 실리셜AI 인수…엔비디아·AMD 견제

Digital Daily | Local Language | News | Dec. 4, 2025 | UndeterminedMergers & Acquisitions

Marvell announced its acquisition of optical interconnect startup Silicial AI for approximately $3.25 billion, with a deal structure involving $1 billion in cash, $2.25 billion in stock, and potential additional payments of up to $2.25 billion based on revenue milestones. The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2026. Silicial AI's core technology, 'Photonic Fabric,' offers significant advantages over traditional electrical signaling, including over twice the power efficiency, nanosecond-level latency reduction, and 16 Tbps bandwidth on a single chiplet, along with superior thermal stability for high-heat environments.

Marvell plans to integrate Silicial AI's technology with XPUs, scale-up switches, and 3D packaging to develop an all-optical scale-up fabric, which is expected to become the industry standard for next-generation data centers. This represents a shift from copper-based interconnects, targeting intra-rack, inter-rack, and intra-package connections that copper cannot adequately support. Major industry players like AWS have recognized the importance of optical-based interconnects for future AI cloud infrastructure.

The acquisition positions Marvell to compete in the evolving data center market, where several companies, including Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and Google, are advancing packaging, connectivity, and scale-up networking technologies. The industry consensus is that as AI server architectures grow from rack-level to multi-rack and pod structures, the transition to optical connectivity is essential to overcome bottlenecks, making interconnect strategies as critical as chip performance in determining corporate value.

By acquiring Silicial AI, Marvell gains comprehensive data center connectivity solutions across scale-up, scale-out, and scale-across domains, aligning with hyperscalers’ needs for alternatives in an AI infrastructure market currently dominated by Nvidia. Revenue contributions from this acquisition are expected starting in the second half of fiscal 2028, potentially reaching $1 billion annually by 2029.