Nvidia Agrees to Buy HuggingFace for $12.9B Jackson Hole Shock, BoK 3%, Bitcoin Plunges

Anthropic signed a $45 billion computing supply agreement with GPU cluster specialist Nscale, TechCrunch reported. In the same week, Anthropic scored its first court victory in its lawsuit over the Pentagon's supply chain risk label, with the court ruling that the Defense Department had failed to provide notice and an opportunity to respond.

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

Wrtn Technologies raised 100 billion won (approx. $86M) in a Series C at a valuation exceeding 1 trillion won on August 26, becoming the first unicorn among Korean AI service startups. Its cumulative funding now stands at 230 billion won. The SK-led K-AI Alliance expanded its membership to 50 companies at a Silicon Valley event the same day.

OpenAI plans to deploy its in-house AI chip 'Jalapeño', co-developed with Broadcom, in model operations before year-end, YTN reported on August 26. The chip is believed to use Samsung HBM4 and reportedly outperforms Nvidia's GB300 in throughput per watt and response latency.

Google DeepMind unveiled Gemini 3.5 Transcribe, a high-accuracy speech recognition model designed for multiple speakers, diverse accents, and noisy environments. Chinese AI startup Z.ai officially confirmed on August 26 that it is the developer behind Ox Alpha, which has topped multiple public leaderboards, noting the model was built on Chinese-made chips.

Korea's exports in the first 20 days of August rose 56% year-on-year to $55.2 billion, according to the Ministry of Trade. Semiconductor exports exploded 198.8% to $26 billion, accounting for a record 47.2% of total exports.

The KOSPI surged 1.53% to 6,912.37 on August 27 following Nvidia's strong earnings. It then plunged 1.79% to 6,788.88 on August 28 as foreign investors sold a net 1.757 trillion won and caution over the Jackson Hole meeting weighed. Samsung Electronics fell about 3% and SK Hynix about 4%.

Fed Chair Kevin Waller's remarks at Jackson Hole that the central bank has 'more work to do' if inflation target confidence is lacking sent the Nasdaq down 0.52% and Nvidia down 4.57%. The yen slid to 160.20 per dollar. Korea's foreign-currency deposits reached a record $108.9 billion at end-July, breaking $100 billion for the first time.

President Lee Myung-bak's job approval rating fell to 42%, the lowest since taking office. Disapproval stood at 52%, outpacing approval by 10 percentage points.

Norway's King Harald V has died. Having reigned since 1991, he served for 35 years. Crown Prince Haakon succeeded to the throne according to constitutional procedures.

Iceland held a referendum on August 29 on whether to resume EU accession negotiations suspended in 2013. Early results showed a 46%–46% tie between yes and no. A yes vote would trigger renewed negotiations, with final accession subject to a separate second referendum.

Russian forces struck an ammunition depot near Kyiv on August 29, triggering massive explosions that killed at least 37 people, Modern Diplomacy reported.

A resolution urging the expulsion of Rep. Lee Jin-suk over a forum that disparaged the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement passed 157 to 0 among those present, with 159 lawmakers in attendance, on August 26. People Power Party members walked out before the vote. The Democratic Party plans to pursue formal expulsion through the ethics committee.

A glacial-lake outburst flood struck a hydroelectric construction site in Nepal's Rasuwa district on August 26, leaving nine Koreans — employees of Korea South-East Power and Doosan Enerbility — unaccounted for. An 11-person government rapid response team from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Police Agency, and fire services was dispatched to the site on August 27.

The Korea Meteorological Administration officially announced the formation of Typhoon No. 23 'Bangnang' in the waters northeast of Guam on August 28. Nationwide rainfall of 20–60mm was forecast for August 29–30, with some areas expected to receive more than 50mm per hour.

Amid President Lee Myung-bak's emphasis on minimizing conflict in healthcare reform, the government and the Democratic Party agreed to establish a roughly 1 trillion-won special account for regional and essential healthcare in the 2027 budget.

Three acute pancreatitis cases were reported in Korea following administration of GLP-1 obesity drugs such as Mounjaro and Wegovy. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stated that a causal relationship with the drugs has not been established and that domestic and international adverse event monitoring would continue.

Korean health authorities warned that confirmed campylobacter food poisoning cases doubled within a week. Hot and humid conditions are conducive to bacterial food poisoning, and the public was advised to refrigerate food properly and maintain rigorous cooking hygiene.

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

The Korea AeroSpace Administration officially approved the fifth flight of the Nuri launch vehicle. It will carry a record total of 15 satellites — five small cluster satellites and ten CubeSats — with launch targeted for late October.

The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope captured the clearest direct image yet of Betelgeuse's companion star, 'Betelgeuse B.' The companion is estimated to have a mass two to three times that of the Sun, and its existence has now been visually confirmed for the first time.

BLACKPINK's Jennie released her solo EP 'Fallen Angel' on August 28. The three-track release — FALLEN ANGEL, HEAVEN, and Less Than a Lover — features a title music video set in a dark fantasy world exploring human greed.

SF9 released their second studio album 'TENACITY' on August 26 to mark their 10th debut anniversary. The album contains 10 tracks, with 'Without Wings' as the title song. A Seoul concert at KBS Arena in October was also announced.

RIIZE dropped their third Japanese single 'Sunburst' on August 26. The title track is a house genre song, and physical albums were released in nine editions including regular and limited solo versions.

Samsung Lions hold first place in the KBO League at 58 wins, 2 ties, and 35 losses, four games ahead of second-place KT. LG Twins beat NC in extra innings 5–4 on August 25 and followed with an 8–0 shutout on August 26, earning three consecutive wins for the first time in 66 days.

Samsung Biologics will issue approximately 2.27 million new shares at 1.32 million won each to raise 3 trillion won. About 2.7 trillion won will fund the acquisition of GLP-1 CDMO Polypeptide Group, with the remainder earmarked for expanding its Songdo second campus.

The Ministry of Science and ICT selected three consortia — SK Telecom, Kakao, and KT — for the 'AI for All Project.' The plan involves developing Korean AI chatbots and agents for a nationwide rollout by year-end, supported by 512 Nvidia B200 GPUs.

At its 2026 CEO Investor Day on August 26, Hyundai Motor announced plans to launch more than 100 new models by 2030, achieve a 60% EV mix, and deliver an operating margin above 9%. Autonomous driving AI 'Atria' is slated for mass production in 2029.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport redesignated 25 Seoul districts, 23 Gyeonggi cities and counties, and 9 Incheon districts as foreigner residential land transaction permit zones through August 25, 2027. Foreign residential transaction volume in the designated areas has fallen 27% year-on-year since designation.

Land Minister Kim Yoon-deok and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon agreed on August 26 to supply up to 13,000 youth housing units on the Tancheon Water Reclamation Center site.

The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment announced a plan to expand renewable energy to 220 GW by 2040, equivalent to the output of 45 nuclear reactors, with a 100 GW interim target for 2030.

Seoul Energy Corporation warned of a winter cost crisis, noting that city gas rates rose 46% even as Dubai crude fell 36%. The company cited the structural issue that 82% of LNG consumption is concentrated in the winter season.

The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and KEPCO held a public hearing on a four-region tiered electricity pricing system. The proposal includes a reduction of 13–18 won/kWh in the southern region, with industries outside Seoul expected to save up to 2.8 trillion won annually.

A research team led by Prof. Jeon Sang-min at Pohang University of Science and Technology announced on August 25 the development of a power generation device using a cascaded ion-redox amplification mechanism that produces electricity from ambient moisture. The device achieved sufficient output and runtime to operate real Bluetooth earbuds.

The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation will administer the 2027 CSAT September mock exam simultaneously on September 2 at 2,162 high schools and 574 designated test centers nationwide. A total of 500,128 students are registered, 15,772 fewer than last year. Results will be notified on September 29.

LG Innotek has signed an agreement to supply high-resolution 360-degree five-direction camera modules for the Zoox purpose-built robotaxi. Zoox currently operates fully driverless robotaxi service in Las Vegas.

The Korean government expanded its autonomous vehicle highway pilot program to 44 routes as part of infrastructure build-out toward a Level 4 autonomous driving service target in 2027.

A zero-day vulnerability CVE-2026-81578 allowing unauthenticated remote Java code execution was found in all versions of PaperCut NG and MF. An emergency patch was released on August 28. Approximately 1,000 internet-exposed instances are believed to be at risk.

Patches were released for four ServiceNow vulnerabilities including CVE-2026-18885, which allows unauthenticated RCE and SQL injection. CISA ordered federal agencies to patch the actively exploited Citrix NetScaler RCE vulnerability (CVE-2026-8452) by August 30.

Red Hat and the Keycloak team released a patch for CVE-2026-18963 (CVSS 9.1), a password-reset flow validation bypass that lets unauthenticated attackers take over any account. No active exploitation has been reported. A DNS rebinding vulnerability in NVIDIA NemoClaw (CVE-2026-65105) was also disclosed.

Combined weekly net inflows into Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs hit $2.62 billion, the highest of 2026. Ethereum ETFs attracted $697 million, their best weekly performance of the year. BlackRock's IBIT posted net inflows for seven consecutive trading days, absorbing $284 million in a single day.

SGP-0002, a proposal to cut Solana's annual issuance by 30%, passed in the network's first-ever full governance vote. Validators affiliated with Kraken and Galaxy cast deciding yes votes. The decision reduces SOL supply by approximately 18.9 million tokens.

Hana Financial Group agreed to acquire a 6.55% stake in Dunamu, operator of Korea's largest crypto exchange Upbit. The acquisition will expand financial cooperation between Hana Financial and the domestic crypto exchange.

The Korean government implemented new guidelines permitting listed corporations and professional investors to trade cryptocurrency. Stablecoin legislation and spot ETF licensing are also expected to be pursued within 2026.

Online channels accounted for 60.3% of Korea's total retail sales in the first half of 2026. Large-format retailers contracted 7.3% year-on-year while online retailers grew 8.1%, accelerating channel restructuring.

McDonald's Korea is preparing to open a new store near Seongsu Station, returning to Seongsu three years after its 2023 exit. Burger King is also set to open its first-ever global flagship store, 'Flame Ground,' in Seongsu on September 10.

Kia's union ratified its 2026 wage agreement at 64.1% approval, including a 100,000 won base pay increase and a 300% bonus plus 12.7 million won lump sum. Following Hyundai Motor, Kia also concluded negotiations without a strike for the sixth consecutive year.

POSCO management and union failed to reach an agreement during Central Labor Relations Commission mediation. The union announced it will launch a 48-hour partial strike if management does not submit a revised proposal by September 9. POSCO has never had a strike since its founding in 1968.

Second-quarter real wages fell 0.8% according to a Ministry of Employment and Labor survey released in July. The triple pressure of high exchange rates, oil prices, and inflation has driven three consecutive months of declines since April. Involuntary separations rose by 131,000, doubling the number of voluntary ones.