Bitcoin Tops $81K · KOSPI Swings Hyundai Deal · Nvidia Groq in Production

Nvidia launched mass production of its Groq 3 LPX AI agent inference accelerator at Samsung Foundry's Pyeongtaek campus. The chip delivers 3,400 tokens per second and slots 256 units per rack in the Vera Rubin platform.

The robotics unit of Chinese EV maker XPENG raised over $900 million in a round led by IDG Capital with Alibaba and Tencent participating, valuing the unit at $6.3 billion.

Thomson Reuters unveiled its own LLM named 'Thomson,' trained on proprietary content including Westlaw and Practical Law. Built on an open-source foundation with a $40 million investment, it will first be applied to table analysis in the CoCounsel legal AI.

On Aug. 25, the KOSPI fell to 6,408.82 intraday — down 4.30% — on Nvidia earnings caution, but recovered to close at 6,742.74, up 0.68%. Foreign investors net-sold approximately ₩4 trillion.

The won-dollar rate closed at 1,386.1 on Aug. 25, up 3.7 won from the previous session, which had hit an 11-month low. Markets held a wait-and-see stance ahead of the Fed Chair's Jackson Hole address on Aug. 28.

The Bank of Korea raised its benchmark rate from 2.50% to 2.75% in July; the Monetary Policy Board meets Aug. 27 to decide on further action. Four of seven surveyed analysts forecast an additional hike to 3.00%, with three expecting a hold.

Korean FM Cho Hyun and U.S. Secretary Rubio agreed in a phone call to cooperate so Trump's message to Kim Jong-un leads to renewed U.S.-DPRK dialogue. The call took place shortly after North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile.

President Lee Jae-myung instructed the Prime Minister's Office to lead police reform following a scandal in which a Jeju officer allegedly falsely closed two missing-persons reports. The directive came at the Aug. 25 cabinet meeting.

On Aug. 24, 74 people visited emergency rooms for heat illness — a resurgence. Cumulative summer total reached 3,732 cases including 33 deaths. The KDCA maintained its highest level-4 warning through Aug. 27.

Sejong City education office data shows 6 youth suicides in 2024 and 8 in 2025 — 14 in two years. Mayor Cho Sang-ho designated youth mental health and suicide prevention as a four-year core priority and directed strengthened cooperation with the education office.

Incheon city is pursuing plans to convert the closed 2nd SMA Landfill (1.54M sqm, closed 2018) into park, sports, and cultural facilities. The Ministry of Climate and Environment proposed solar energy installations, but resident opposition has emerged.

Deputy Minister Lee Hyung-hoon met on Aug. 23 with 10 young healthcare workers — including residents, pharmacists, and nurses — to discuss improving training environments and expanding policy participation.

MOHW held its advance directive writing contest awards ceremony on Aug. 25, drawing 405 entries — more than double the prior year. The same evening at 8 p.m., a new feature allowing advance directives to be shared with family members went live.

MOHW presented an update to its primary care innovation pilot to the Health Insurance Policy Review Committee on Aug. 25. Targeting adults 50 and older, multidisciplinary teams will provide comprehensive care under a bundled payment model, with launch expected as early as September.

SpaceX completed its 100th Falcon 9 launch of 2026 on Aug. 25. Booster B1067 flew for the 37th time, a company record, and deployed 29 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has been enclosed in a Falcon Heavy rocket fairing. It is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 30 and will observe the universe with a field of view 100 times wider than Hubble.

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot conducted a spacewalk on Aug. 25 outside the International Space Station, successfully replacing a ground-to-space communications antenna.

TWICE released their Japan best album '#BEST 2015-2025' on Aug. 26, compiling 50 Korean and Japanese title tracks from 2015 to 2025 across 4 CDs in standard and limited editions.

SF9 released their 2nd full album 'TENACITY' at 6 p.m. KST on Aug. 26. The title carries a double meaning — perseverance and the group's 10th (TEN) anniversary — with 10 tracks total.

RIIZE released their 3rd Japan single 'Sunburst' at midnight KST on Aug. 26. The house-genre title track is available in 9 versions including regular, limited A/B, and six solo editions.

In the Aug. 25 KBO game at Jamsil, LG's Austin hit for the cycle. With two outs and bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th, Hong Chang-ki singled in the winning run for a 5-4 LG victory.

FC Seoul defeated Bucheon FC 1-0 in K League 1 Round 25 on Climala's 10th goal of the season, extending the club's winning streak to three matches.

Dunamu & Partners invested $5 million (approx. ₩7 billion) in a seed round for UK AI inference optimization startup Calossum. The total $100 million round was led by Atomico and included the UK Government's Sovereign AI Fund.

Ably's next-day delivery service 'Guaranteed Arrival,' launched June 23, saw GMV up 74%, orders up 68%, seller marketplace count up 97%, and listed products up 153% within six weeks of launch.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups passed an amendment to the Startup Support Act cutting the period during which a founder who closed a business cannot restart in the same industry from three years to one year.

The Ministry of Land extended the designation of the metropolitan area as a foreigners' property transaction permit zone for one year through Aug. 25, 2027. Foreign residential property transactions in the metro area fell 27% year-on-year since the initial designation.

The government and ruling party are reviewing raising the comprehensive real estate tax basic deduction for non-resident single homeowners from ₩900 million to ₩1.2-1.4 billion, with cabinet discussion expected on Sept. 1.

Brent crude futures fell more than 3% on Aug. 25 to around $89 per barrel, with WTI declining to near $82. Markets concluded that U.S. sanctions on Iran would not cause military-level supply disruptions, driving the selloff.

Bloomberg reported on Aug. 25 that Italy saw temperatures exceeding 40°C, large wildfires swept Western Europe, and typhoons struck — all during the same summer. Bloomberg warned that climate change is making such compound extreme weather events more frequent.

The Ministry of Education published the list of 288 eligible and 20 restricted universities for the 2027 academic year. The 16 lacking institutional accreditation face full restrictions; 4 acknowledged as in financial crisis face partial loan restrictions.

Prof. Jeon Sang-min's team at POSTECH announced on Aug. 25 a device that generates electricity from ambient moisture using a cascaded ion-redox amplification mechanism, achieving output and runtime sufficient to power actual Bluetooth earphones.

On Aug. 25, AME 2026, EV Trend Korea, and the Unmanned Vehicle Expo opened as a combined event at Seoul COEX. Korean companies including SOCAR and Ride Flux showcased latest physical AI and autonomous logistics robot technologies.

The Korea Economic Daily reported that while the U.S. and Japan have tightened autonomous vehicle regulatory frameworks to protect domestic industries, Korea's commercialization remains limited to 19 safety-operator-accompanied vehicles operating only at night in one Gangnam district.

CISA released a comparative red team assessment report on Aug. 25 covering a government services organization and a water/wastewater utility. Both were tested with identical phishing and AD misconfiguration techniques, but SOC detection and response differed significantly. Lack of staff communication and unaddressed alerts were identified as key weaknesses.

Red Hat and the Keycloak team released a patch for CVE-2026-18963 (CVSS 9.1), a flaw in the password-reset flow that allows unauthenticated attackers to take over any account — including admin accounts — without email verification. No active exploitation has been reported.

Bitcoin reached an intraday high of $81,023 on Aug. 25, crossing $80,000 for the first time since May. The U.S. Treasury's expanded bond buyback program and the Aug. 21 White House crypto policy meeting were cited as key catalysts.

Combined weekly net inflows into Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs reached $2.62 billion — a 2026 high. Ethereum ETFs alone recorded $697.2 million, their best weekly result of the year.

Samyang Foods' 'Samyang1963' and 'Buldak Sauce' won the 2026 Red Dot Design Award in packaging design — the company's second consecutive year winning a major global design award, following Tangle.

Nongshim announced two new snack products as part of Olive Young's 'Ollyoung Pick' campaign: chicken nuggets with spicy sauce flavor and potato chips with sweet corn flavor, inspired by regional foods from Suwon and Gangwon, packaged with Hello Kitty branding.

Pulmuone's pet food brand 'Pulmuone Amio' announced two new brown rice treats for dogs aged 7 and older. The products contain Coenzyme Q10, exclude 35 potentially harmful additives, and were formulated with input from Pulmuone Research Institute veterinarians.

Hyundai Motor and its union reached a tentative agreement on Aug. 25 covering a ₩100,000 base pay raise, a 400% performance bonus, a ₩12.7 million lump sum, and 15 company shares. It is the first agreement since talks began in May. A ratification vote is set for Aug. 31.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries' union began a strike authorization vote at 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 25, running through 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 27, covering approximately 8,000 members. The union is demanding a ₩149,600 base pay raise and a minimum 30% profit-sharing bonus.

Ulsan city bus workers held a labor action authorization vote on Aug. 25. If the Regional Labor Relations Commission mediation fails, the union plans to strike from the first buses on Aug. 28, which would suspend 709 buses across 108 routes.