Dokpamo Round 2 Evaluation: Four-Way Race Alibaba Unveils Qwen3.8-Max

The second evaluation of Dokpamo, the project to select Korea's national AI foundation model, began in August. After all four teams completed development, the evaluation panel will test and score the models directly from August 8-11 before announcing results.

SK Hynix revealed the first standard specifications for HBF — a new memory tier between HBM and SSD — alongside SanDisk at FMS 2026 on August 4.

Alibaba announced Qwen3.8-Max on August 3 with 2.4 trillion parameters and a 1 million token context window. Open-source weights are planned for release, and the company's Hong Kong-listed stock rose 7%.

On August 2, the European Union enacted the continent's first unified regulation requiring AI systems to identify themselves as AI to the people they interact with.

The Bank of Korea's July Monetary Policy Committee minutes, released on August 4, showed that members broadly agreed on the need for further rate hikes, citing strong growth and inflationary pressures.

At its August 4 inflation monitoring meeting, the Bank of Korea projected that consumer inflation, which ran at 2.8% in July, will rebound in August due to a base effect from last year's telecom fee discounts. Core inflation rose 2.6%.

The U.S. S&P 500 gained 1.48% on August 4, closing at 7,600.50. The semiconductor index surged 5.7% on expanded AI investment, while the Nasdaq rose 2.0%.

The USD/KRW rate closed at 1,427.53 on August 4, down 0.13% from the previous day. The won has appreciated 6.63% over the past month, supported by foreign capital inflows and improved trade conditions.

The Democratic Party of Korea is pushing to pass a National Assembly Act amendment on August 13 that would cut the maximum fast-track review period from 330 days to 90 days. The People Power Party is resisting with a filibuster.

The Fair Trade Commission gave final approval on August 3 for Korail's acquisition of SR. An integrated booking app 'Korail+' combining KTX and SRT reservations has also launched, with fares averaging 10% lower than KTX.

On August 4, Russia's Aerospace Forces collapsed one span of a road bridge in Sloviansk and also struck the Zatyka railway bridge. Ukraine reported 226 combat engagements the same day.

Iranian Army spokesman Brigadier General Akbarinia officially announced on August 2 that Iran had used the ceasefire and MoU period to introduce new equipment, repair damaged systems, and complete production of new systems.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance finalized the 2026 tax reform package at the Tax Development Deliberation Committee on August 3. Owner-occupants of a single home with a market value of 2 billion KRW or less will be exempt from the comprehensive real estate tax.

The controversy continues after National Assembly Speaker Jo Jeong-sik mentioned extending the current president's term as a topic for constitutional amendment discussions. Current Article 128 of the Constitution prohibits applying any term-extension amendment to the president who proposed it.

Taiwan's intelligence authorities officially announced on August 4 a marked increase in Chinese official vessel activity in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, western Pacific, and South China Sea.

Daewoo E&C reported H1 2026 operating profit of 487.9 billion KRW, up 109% year-on-year, in results released on August 4. The company sharply raised its annual order target from 18 trillion to 27 trillion KRW.

The Fair Trade Commission announced in its second-half work plan on August 4 that it will strengthen sanctions by directly fining conglomerate chairpersons when affiliated companies are omitted from designation filings.

S&P Global's Korea Manufacturing PMI for July came in at 53.1, up from June, marking the highest reading in 17 months. Export orders returned to growth for the first time in three months.

Domestic startup investment in H1 2026 totaled 7.8005 trillion KRW, exceeding the full-year 2025 total in just six months. Investment in AI and robotics surged 485% year-on-year.

SpaceX launched 24 satellites into low Earth orbit on the Starlink 17-53 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base on August 4 using a Falcon 9 rocket. It was the 90th Falcon 9 launch of the year, with the Starlink constellation now exceeding 10,800 satellites.

Expedition 75 astronauts completed a review of procedures for the next spacewalk on August 3. NASA also officially introduced the crew for the SpaceX Crew-13 mission, scheduled to launch on September 12.

On August 3, the Korea Meteorological Administration issued its first-ever 'Severe' rating — the highest level under the new four-tier heatwave alert system — for parts of Seoul and Gyeonggi. Yangsan in South Gyeongsang Province set an all-time national high of 42.5°C on August 2.

As of August 4, approximately 950,000 hectares have been scorched by around 29,000 wildfires across the U.S. England received only 8% of its average July rainfall, leaving more than half the country in extreme drought.

Despite wind and solar capacity growing 23% and 33% respectively in Q1 2026, China's CO2 emissions rose 2% year-on-year as curtailment forced increased coal and gas generation, according to Carbon Brief.

Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency sentinel surveillance data shows the ratio of suspected hand, foot, and mouth disease cases surged 33-fold over 12 weeks, reaching 48.3 per 1,000 outpatient visits among children aged 0-6. Parents are advised to keep sick children home from daycare and kindergarten.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare expanded the dementia management primary care pilot program from 42 to 92 cities and counties. Participating physicians also increased from 315 to 417, strengthening integrated community-based dementia care.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced plans to gradually release national integrated bio big data covering 770,000 people starting in H2 2026, and to expand data access support grants of up to 400 million KRW for AI startups from 8 to 40 cases.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced in its presidential briefing on August 4 that it will develop a plan this year to establish a Labor Welfare Council targeting 8.69 million non-standard workers, including platform workers and freelancers.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced it will complete enactment of the 'Basic Act on the Rights of Working People' within 2026, including a roadmap for cross-company bargaining to achieve equal pay for equal work and introduction of an employee presumption system.

Admission cutoffs for semiconductor contract university programs — which guarantee employment at Samsung Electronics or SK Hynix — have surpassed Seoul National University's natural sciences colleges and are approaching medical school levels, accelerating the competition for semiconductor talent.

Korea Real Estate Board data shows that of the 127,588 apartment transactions in the greater Seoul area from January to May this year, 76,602 were purchased by buyers in their 30s and 40s. Demand is heavily concentrated in school district neighborhoods.

The average jeonse price for Seoul apartments hit an all-time high of 662.58 million KRW in June. Jeonse listings have fallen 25% over the past year as land transaction permit zones expanded, deepening the jeonse shortage.

Jeonse prices in 9 outer Seoul districts — including Gangseo, Gangbuk, Gwanak, and Guro — have all exceeded their 2020-21 peaks. Average jeonse in Gangseo-gu has broken through 500 million KRW for the first time since 2011.

A total of 28,015 units across 33 developments are scheduled for sale nationwide in August. General public offerings of 18,861 units represent a 43% increase year-on-year, with 22,492 units — 80% of the total — concentrated in the greater Seoul area.

Christopher Nolan's new film 'The Odyssey' opened in Korean theaters on August 5. Director Nolan and cast members including Matt Damon and Charlize Theron visited Korea, with pre-sales of 440,000 tickets ranking it No. 1 overall.

Kiss of Life released their third single 'SWEAT' at 6 PM on August 4. The track is an electronic pop song blending Afrohouse with Latin rhythms, marking the group's comeback after approximately four months.

Heo Ji-won, formerly of Cherry Bullet, made her solo debut on August 5 with her first mini album 'The Calling.' She is currently active under B.able Company.

Hanwha Eagles pitcher Wang Yancheng threw 6 scoreless innings to lead a 4-1 victory over Samsung in Daegu on August 4, becoming the first Asian quota foreign player to record 10 wins in a single KBO season.

Hanwha beat Samsung 4-1 in Daegu on August 4 to end a three-game skid. Samsung, which had been in second place just 1.5 games behind league leader KT, fell into a two-game losing streak, adding uncertainty to the pennant race.

Son Heung-min scored the opening goal in the 37th minute against Vancouver in MLS, extending his consecutive scoring streak to four games. LAFC were held to a 1-1 draw after Mueller equalized from the penalty spot.

According to Bloomberg on August 4, Chinese state-owned memory chipmaker CXMT plans to begin small-scale production of LPDDR6 smartphone memory by end of 2026, rapidly narrowing the technology gap with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

China's largest DRAM manufacturer CXMT raised 57.9 billion CNY on the Shanghai stock exchange. The proceeds are set to be used for construction of new chip production facilities.

TSMC is reportedly developing its own chip packaging technology benchmarked against Intel's EMIB. The company is said to be working with Taiwan's Kinsus to prepare a next-generation packaging solution that goes beyond CoWoS.

Hacking group ExfilSquad breached the UK Police National Legal Database and published approximately 135,000 records on the dark web. The data includes names, affiliations, and work email addresses of police officers and criminal justice staff.

CVE-2026-18577 was confirmed to be actively exploited starting August 1. CISA added it to the KEV catalog on August 3, and FCEB agencies are required to apply patches by August 6.

The INC ransomware group has been actively exploiting vulnerabilities in SonicWall SMA 1000 series VPN devices, with cumulative victims surpassing 885 organizations. Activity surged in early August with ongoing targeted attacks against healthcare and public sector entities.

Global pharmaceutical company Amgen disclosed a cyber breach to the SEC. Patient personal information, intellectual property, R&D materials, and confidential business documents were confirmed stolen by cybercriminals.

Hyundai and Kia combined sold 131,032 EVs in Europe in H1 2026, surging 41.8% from the prior half and breaking the 100,000-unit half-year barrier for the first time. The Kia EV3 led sales.

Since Tesla's broad rollout of FSD v14 Lite to HW3 vehicles in late July, reports of autopilot computers overheating above 90°C and forced feature disengagement have been mounting, with some units requiring computer replacement.

Kia sold 72,078 EVs domestically in January-June 2026, up 151% year-on-year, already surpassing last year's full-year domestic sales total in just six months.

Uber signed a robotaxi partnership with Rivian with an investment of up to $1.25 billion. Fully autonomous vehicles based on the Rivian R2 SUV are set to be deployed incrementally starting in 2028, with 10,000 vehicles planned.

An exploit of the Coldcard hardware wallet drained 1,816 BTC. Bitcoin recovered 1.6% from the previous day to $64,160 following the incident, while the Fear & Greed Index registered 25.

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act faces an August 7 summer recess deadline without a Senate floor vote scheduled. Democrats failed to secure the necessary votes, leaving no date set for a floor vote.

Approximately $630.2 million worth of new token unlocks are scheduled to hit the crypto market in the first week of August. Succinct's PROVE token unlocked 208.33 million tokens on August 5.

Woowa Brothers analyzed 19 million order data points to identify five dining trends: health food for self-satisfaction, everyday gourmet culture, single-bowl originality, rediscovering seafood, and experiential K-food.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety revised hygiene standards for restaurants and institutional foodservice to reflect the spread of delivery and takeout culture. Requirements now include mandatory labeling of frozen food thawing methods and separate storage for culinary ice.

Low-sugar beverage sales rose 30% year-on-year following the implementation of MFDS's convenience store health food corner program. GS25, CU, and 7-Eleven are expanding their high-protein and zero-sugar product lines.