▲AI PRISM* Customized Economic Briefing
*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an AI-based personalized news recommendation and summarization service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It provides six curated news items tailored to each reader type.
[Key Issue Briefing]
■ Smart Glasses Usher in Post-Smartphone Era: Global AI smart glasses shipments reached 8.7 million units last year, with Meta dominating the market at 7.4 million units (85.2%). While the Chinese government is nurturing smart glasses as a next-generation national strategic industry by providing subsidies of up to 500 yuan (about 110,000 won) per AI glasses product, Korea has virtually no meaningful shipments, prompting analysts to call for urgent early-response strategies in the global competitive landscape.
■ Korea-China Gap Widens in AR Market, Failure-Tolerant Culture a Watershed: Yin Zhichang, Asia-Pacific head of Xreal, the world's No. 1 AR glasses maker, cited "a corporate culture that tolerates failure" and "the government's full-scale infrastructure support" as key factors behind China's AR market dominance. With Xreal's Korea sales at just 10,000 units compared to 50 million globally, market indifference has deepened, raising calls to reexamine an investment decision structure centered on short-term profitability.
■ POSCO Responds to Global Steel Shift with India Joint Venture Mill: POSCO signed a $7.29 billion (about 10.76 trillion won) joint venture agreement (JVA) with India's top steelmaker JSW Steel and began construction of an integrated steel mill with 6 million tons of crude steel capacity, targeting completion in 2031. Amid the spread of global protectionism, POSCO's moves to reshape supply chains through localization strategies in markets such as India and the U.S. are seen as a valid benchmarking case for executives seeking overseas market entry.
[News of Interest to Corporate CEOs]
- Key Summary: Global AI smart glasses shipments reached 8.7 million units last year, with Meta capturing 85.2% of the market at 7.4 million units, while Korean companies' market share is effectively close to zero. The Chinese government has launched full-scale national market development efforts, including AI glasses in its national subsidy program from January and having Premier Li Qiang himself advocate for the adoption of next-generation smart devices. Smart glasses are evolving into a next-generation platform integrating payments, shopping, smart homes, and mobility, with forecasts projecting the global market to reach $200 billion (about 300 trillion won) by 2040. Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) plans to unveil its "Galaxy Glass" as early as July, combining it with Google Gemini and leveraging an ecosystem of 800 million AI devices as its comeback strategy.
- Key Summary: Yin Zhichang, Asia-Pacific head of Xreal, the world's No. 1 AR glasses maker, cited a culture that tolerates failure and ecosystems like Shenzhen where the government has fully equipped supply chains and industrial infrastructure as key reasons China seized the global AR market. Xreal sold 50 million units worldwide last year, but its Korea sales were only around 10,000 units, showing Korean companies' participation in the AR market itself remains minimal. The global AR market is currently dominated by Chinese companies including Xreal (No. 1) and TCL's RayNeo (No. 2), with assessments that the industry paradigm is rapidly shifting from VR to AR. Analysts say investment decisions centered on short-term profitability risk missing opportunities to preempt future platforms, requiring executives to reexamine their criteria for technology investment judgments.
3. POSCO's India Joint Integrated Steel Mill Bears Fruit…A Bet on Future Competitiveness
- Key Summary: POSCO on the 20th signed a $7.29 billion (about 10.76 trillion won) joint venture agreement with India's top steelmaker JSW Steel and began construction of an integrated steel mill with 6 million tons of crude steel capacity in Odisha state. POSCO, which had attempted to enter India's upstream steel business four times since 2004, placed the project on track with a 2031 completion target as part of the "complete localization strategy" pursued after Chairman Jang In-hwa took office. India is a high-growth market where steel consumption has grown at rates exceeding 10% in recent years, with expected expansion in demand for premium steel used in automobiles and home appliances due to rising incomes. As a successful case of localization strategy responding to the spread of global protectionism, analysts say this will serve as a key reference for executives reviewing similar overseas supply chain restructuring.
[Reference News for Corporate CEOs]
4. Google Extends Hand to Nvidia Partner, Begins Developing AI Inference Chips with Marvell
- Key Summary: Google has joined hands with semiconductor design firm Marvell Technology to begin development of two new AI inference chips. After Nvidia unveiled its inference-focused language processing unit (LPU) "Grok 3" last month to dominate the AI inference market, Google has launched a strategic counterattack by bringing in Marvell, a former Nvidia partner. The chips under development are two types—a memory processing unit (MPU) and an inference-specialized tensor processing unit (TPU)—with plans to complete designs by next year and pilot-produce approximately 2 million MPUs. As the AI chip hegemony race shifts its center of gravity from training to inference chips, analysts say this structural shift warrants close attention from domestic companies reviewing medium- to long-term AI infrastructure investment directions.
5. Amid Soaring Fuel Prices, Europe Switches to Chinese EVs
- Key Summary: As the Middle East-driven energy crisis sent European fuel prices soaring, new EV registrations in 15 major European markets in the first quarter reached 560,000 units, a 29.4% surge from a year earlier. Notably, 240,000 units were registered in March alone as the U.S. airstrikes on Iran began in earnest, attributed to gasoline prices surging about 15% and diesel about 30%. A significant portion of the increased EV demand is being absorbed by Chinese-made vehicles, with EU imports of Chinese-made cars rising 30% year-on-year to 1.006 million units last year, surpassing 1 million for the first time ever. Bank of America analyzed that China's EV exports will increase 40% year-on-year this year with Europe as the key demand region, suggesting Korean automakers and battery companies need to reexamine their European market strategies.
6. After Drawing Line Against Korea, U.S. Now Discusses Currency Swap with UAE
- Key Summary: The UAE central bank governor reportedly visited Washington recently and conveyed plans for a currency swap agreement to U.S. Treasury officials and Federal Reserve representatives. While the U.S. has expressed refusal to Korea's currency swap requests, it is proceeding with discussions with the UAE, raising concerns that the U.S. is applying different standards based on its strategic interests. Domestic IB circles observe that the UAE is using yuan settlement expansion as a pressure card, while the IMF has warned that countries in the region could demand up to $50 billion in additional funding. Kim Jin-il, a professor at Korea University, emphasized, "It is important for Korea to build the response capacity to enter consultations even a day earlier than other countries," suggesting the need for corporate-level foreign exchange management strategy reviews to address dollar liquidity risks.
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