▲ AI PRISM* Personalized Economic Briefing
* Editor's note: AI PRISM (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an artificial intelligence-based personalized news recommendation and summarization service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six tailored news items for each reader type.
[Key Issue Briefing]
■ Debate over SK's valuation: Lee Chang-hwan, chief executive of Align Partners, singled out SK as an undervalued company standing at the center of the artificial intelligence revolution. SK shares rose 12.15% the day after his presentation at a summit that drew global investment firms.
■ AI infrastructure innovation: Nvidia unveiled a data center design that connects factory-preassembled modules on site to move up the start of operations. General Motors also said it would shorten new-vehicle development times using AI and virtual engineering, prompting forecasts that AI will change the pace of industrial work.
■ Funding and rate variables: After SpaceX paired strong results with aggressive AI investment plans, concerns over expanded borrowing spread through the bond market. The Bank of Korea, meanwhile, held its benchmark rate steady while making clear it would maintain a tightening stance.
[Top News for Corporate CEOs]
1. Lee Chang-hwan: "At the center of the global AI revolution, yet SK is shockingly undervalued"
- Key points: Lee Chang-hwan, chief executive of Align Partners, described SK as a company at the center of the global AI revolution, saying it is "shockingly cheap when you look at its value." At the 13D Active-Passive Investor Summit in New York, Lee disclosed that Align holds a 1.5% stake in SK and gave a presentation titled "A world-class AI asset trading at 1.0 times earnings." Amid the attention the presentation drew, SK shares had surged 12.15% the previous day. According to Align, net profit attributable to SK next year will reach 24.431 trillion won, putting its price-to-earnings ratio at just 1.0 times — 176th among the KOSPI 200 and effectively last once preferred shares and loss-making stocks are excluded. On talk of a merger between SK and SK Square (402340), Lee was reserved, saying only that "we are at the stage of watching the value-up plan the company is preparing."
2. "Installation done in 14 days": Jensen Huang unveils "Lego-style data center"
- Key points: Nvidia unveiled DSX POD, a modular design standard that cuts on-site installation time for AI data centers to as little as 14 days. Seven server racks of its next-generation AI computing system, Vera Rubin, along with networking, cabling and liquid cooling equipment, are preassembled and tested at the factory, then shipped to the site in containers. On-site installation, which previously took six months, is sharply reduced, though the figure assumes a site with infrastructure already in place and excludes the time needed for site preparation and power grid connection. "A 1-gigawatt AI data center costs about $50 billion," Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said. "If you assume $40 billion in annual revenue, a delay of just three months in starting operations means losing $10 billion in revenue opportunity." Seventeen partners including Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Foxconn are taking part in production, with supply beginning early next year. Industry observers read the move as Nvidia expanding beyond semiconductors into data center infrastructure as a whole.
3. Large projects start booking revenue: Samsung E&A (028050) operating profit jumps 184%
- Key points: Samsung E&A posted third-quarter revenue of 2.9105 trillion won and operating profit of 500.6 billion won, helped by revenue recognition from large projects. The figures are up 45.8% and 183.6%, respectively, from a year earlier. The company cited revenue from large chemical and advanced industry projects, cost management, and innovation in project execution based on AI, digital transformation and robotics. Cumulative orders for the first three quarters came to 17.1 trillion won, with a backlog of 27.2 trillion won, equivalent to about three years of work. Winning a $3.5 billion (about 4.7 trillion won) fertilizer project on its own from Saudi Arabia's SABIC Agri-Nutrients in September lifted results. The company raised its annual order forecast to 19 trillion won and its operating profit forecast to 1.4 trillion won, and has decided on a share buyback of about 780 billion won.
[Reference News for Corporate CEOs]
- Key points: General Motors is pursuing AI-driven innovation in new-vehicle development to counter the push from Chinese electric vehicle makers. At GM Forward, a technology event in New York, the company said it would introduce AI and computer simulation from design through testing and production to cut development time from the current four to five years to two years. In developing next-generation batteries, GM tested more than 300,000 design proposals in a virtual environment, shortening the time from initial concept to development approval for a battery pack to about one month. According to GM, the lithium-manganese-rich battery it is co-developing with LG Energy Solution (373220) is being designed to deliver about 33% higher energy density than the lithium-iron-phosphate batteries that are Chinese makers' mainstay, at comparable cost. The two companies are pushing for mass production in 2028 at their joint venture plant in Tennessee. GM also plans to introduce an "eyes off" feature that allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel on the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ, and to extend it to pickup trucks and large SUVs.
- Key points: SpaceX reported results far above market expectations, but its bonds weakened instead. Third-quarter net profit at the company, valued at $2 trillion, came to $4.4 billion (about 5.8 trillion won), far exceeding the market estimate of $1.88 billion (about 2.5 trillion won), while revenue rose 161% from a year earlier. But after Chief Financial Officer Brett Johnson said the company would invest aggressively in superintelligence computing and Starlink broadband and mobile businesses, concerns over expanded borrowing spread. The company raised $25 billion (about 33 trillion won) in the bond market in June and is in talks with investors to raise $40 billion (about 53 trillion won) to buy Nvidia chips. Its five-year credit default swap price has risen to about 232.6 basis points. According to Bloomberg data, companies worldwide have already borrowed more than $450 billion (about 595 trillion won) this year to fund AI.
6. "The fruit of hoeing": Bank of Korea pauses, with market seeing up to 3.75% next year
- Key points: The Bank of Korea held its benchmark interest rate at 3% at its Monetary Policy Board meeting on the 22nd, pausing after consecutive increases in July and August. Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song said, "When we raised rates in August, I said we were blocking with a hoe what would otherwise require a rake, and this hold is the fruit of that hoeing," crediting preemptive tightening with securing room for policy maneuver. All seven board members backed the hold, with no dissenting vote for an increase. Shin made clear, however, that the bank would continue its tightening stance, saying growth and price increases appear likely to be stronger than projected in August. In the market, forecasts of two more increases through next year are dominant, while Samsung Securities (016360) sees three increases — in November and in February and May next year — bringing the terminal rate to 3.75%.
