▲ AI PRISM* Personalized Economic Briefing
* 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.
[Key Issue Briefing]
■ GPU brokerage entry: LG (003550.KS) has entered the U.S. GPU brokerage market through PADO, an AI company spun off from LG Nova. The platform connects cloud providers that own graphics processing units with AI companies seeking to rent them, in a market expected to grow from 6.8 trillion won this year to 19.3 trillion won in 2033.
■ Manufacturing AI commercialization: Mid-sized and smaller Korean companies, from automotive parts forging to food and publishing, are accelerating the commercialization of AI solutions built on shop-floor data. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups selected 48 projects for its program to fast-track the commercialization of AI applications in manufacturing, with total project costs reaching 124.2 billion won.
■ Overseas listing variables: Financial regulators are viewing the IPO of Solidigm, SK Group's U.S. subsidiary, through the lens of duplicate listings, complicating the calculus for companies waiting in line. Listing strategies at overseas subsidiaries of large conglomerates, including Boston Dynamics, Bear Robotics and HyAxiom, are expected to shift depending on how regulators settle the precedent.
[News of Interest to Startup Founders]
1. [Exclusive] LG Enters 20 Trillion Won U.S. GPU Brokerage Market
- Key summary: LG is entering the U.S. GPU brokerage market. PADO, an AI company that began as an internal new business at LG Nova, the North American innovation center of LG Electronics (066570.KS), and was spun off as an independent corporation in May last year, has unveiled a trading platform called PADO Compute. Designed to let users compare rental prices and terms for Nvidia's H100, H200, B200 and B300 chips, the platform carries more than 54,000 sets of transaction terms. PADO has also begun hiring brokerage specialists to source suppliers and negotiate prices, with its main customers being AI developers and companies in robotics, defense, biotechnology and finance. The move strengthens LG Group's "One LG" synergy spanning computing resource procurement, power supply, cooling and operations.
2. Creatz, Retrying Listing, Sets IPO Price at 15,000 Won — Bottom of Band After One Month
- Key summary: Creatz, a golf technology company pursuing a KOSDAQ listing, set its IPO price at 15,000 won, the bottom of its indicative band of 15,000 to 18,000 won. It is the first pricing at or below the bottom of a band in about a month, since Neosapience in early last month, and its expected market capitalization based on the planned number of listed shares is about 197 billion won. Of the 252,485,853 shares bid for in institutional book-building, 77.1% were submitted at 15,000 won or below, and only one of the 831 participating institutions committed to a lockup. The 21 billion won in proceeds will go toward expanding a global R&D center and entering a new commercial business in the United States, with the retail subscription period running on the 20th and 21st of this month.
- Key summary: AI systems that detect fire and worker-collision risks in advance and analyze early warning signs in production equipment are moving into full deployment. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups selected 48 projects for its program to fast-track the commercialization of AI applications in manufacturing, known as AX Sprint. Total project costs come to 124.2 billion won, with the Korea Federation of SMEs serving as project management agency and the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA) as the implementing body. The program is organized into four areas — manufacturing industrial safety, manufacturing processes and production, manufacturing management and operations, and consumer-tailored products and services. Rather than having AI vendors deliver solutions unilaterally, the structure selects technologies based on manufacturers' process data and operating experience and then verifies their effect on site. Hanho Industrial, a forging company, is developing an integrated safety management solution combining vision AI with Internet of Things sensors, while food company Daesang is developing technology to introduce AI agents into allulose fermentation and refining processes.
[Reference News for Startup Founders]
4. "Hongdae Over Myeongdong" — Olive Young Bets on 10 Stores
- Key summary: Seoul's Hongdae commercial district has overtaken Myeongdong as the area with the greatest concentration of CJ Olive Young stores. Olive Young opened its Hongdae L7 store, spanning two floors and about 562 square meters (6,050 square feet), on Yanghwa-ro in Mapo District on the 16th. Including stores slated to open within the year, the Hongdae district will have 10 stores, counting permanent pop-ups, surpassing Myeongdong's eight. From 2023 to 2025, average annual sales growth from foreign customers in the Hongdae district reached 102%, and foreign customers' share of total sales rose to 83% in 2025 from 63% in 2023. The Hongdae L7 store, the district's first globally focused outlet, devoted its second floor to an "It's K-Food" space gathering Korean food products, the largest such space among Hongdae stores. About 40% of the store's floor area is given to skin care, with a concentrated lineup of sheet masks and beauty devices.
5. Boston Dynamics, Bear Robotics in Range as IPO Calculus Grows Complex
- Key summary: With financial regulators viewing the IPO of Solidigm, SK Group's U.S. subsidiary, through the lens of duplicate listings, subsidiaries of large conglomerates that had been preparing overseas listings have come into range. Boston Dynamics, the U.S. robotics subsidiary of Hyundai Motor (005380.KS), continues to deliberate over the timing of a Nasdaq listing, while Bear Robotics, the U.S. robotics subsidiary of LG Electronics (066570.KS), has begun a pre-IPO funding round arranged by Bank of America. HyAxiom, Doosan Group's U.S. hydrogen and fuel cell subsidiary, sent requests for proposal to foreign securities firms last month to select IPO underwriters, and Dasl Logistics, the logistics subsidiary of CJ Logistics (000120.KS), has been pursuing a listing on India's stock market. Some argue a case-by-case approach is needed, however, given that the pool mixes Solidigm, whose fundraising is projected in the tens of trillions of won, with cases of only around 40 billion won.
- Key summary: Companies in intelligent transport systems gathered at the 2026 ITS World Congress in Gangneung to showcase next-generation technology combining AI with two-way communications. This year's event drew 108 institutions and companies from around the world across 428 exhibition booths, with participants including Toyota, Honda, Hyundai Mobis (012330.KS) and Qualcomm. Lotte Innovate (286940.KS), the main sponsor, introduced four businesses — autonomous driving shuttles, mobility infrastructure, smart tolling and electric vehicle charging stations — and set up a hands-on space where visitors remotely operated an autonomous shuttle in Daegu, 300 kilometers from the venue. Lotte Innovate CEO Kim Kyung-yup said the company has set a goal of tripling revenue from its smart mobility business by 2030. Separately, radar sensor maker Bitsensing presented a communications device that prompts nearby vehicles to slow down, and IT company UT Information presented MDMS, a vision AI-based public safety management software.
