※[Global Morning Briefing] summarizes global news delivered by Seoul Economic Daily.
Middle East Tensions Rise Again as US-Iran Talks Remain Murky
Tensions in the Middle East are escalating once more as Iran has expanded its targets beyond US military facilities in the Gulf region to include Kuwait International Airport. Nuclear negotiations between the US and Iran have yet to find common ground, entering a complex phase where combat and dialogue continue simultaneously.
Kuwait's Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced on the 3rd that an Iranian attack caused casualties and facility damage at Terminal 1 of Kuwait International Airport. Authorities immediately activated emergency response protocols and suspended all flight operations, with aircraft being diverted to nearby alternative airports. Unlike the period since the ceasefire, when Iran had limited itself to sporadic attacks on US military facilities in the Gulf region, this time it has expanded the scope of attacks to include civilian facilities.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed it had "struck the US Navy's Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain and US military bases in Kuwait with missiles and drones." However, US Central Command immediately refuted this, stating that "all Iranian attacks targeting US forces failed." Two missiles aimed at Kuwait either crashed or disintegrated mid-air before reaching their targets, while three missiles directed at Bahrain were intercepted by US and Bahraini forces. The US military also reported that after shooting down three suicide drones targeting civilian vessels, it had conducted airstrikes on Iranian ground control facilities on Qeshm Island near the Strait of Hormuz in self-defense.
On the diplomatic front, debate continues over whether negotiations will continue. US President Donald Trump dismissed reports of a halt in negotiations as "fake news," emphasizing that dialogue is ongoing, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio also kept the possibility of an agreement open while reaffirming that sanctions relief is impossible without nuclear abandonment. Iran, on the other hand, maintains its existing position that $12 billion (approximately 18.312 trillion won) in frozen overseas assets should be released simultaneously with any ceasefire agreement, leaving a significant gap between the two sides.
Meanwhile, criticism has intensified within Israel following reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu withdrew plans for airstrikes on Lebanon under pressure from President Trump. Opposition leader Yair Lapid bluntly stated that "Israel has become a vassal state of the United States," while former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also criticized that "the current government has lost control over national sovereignty."
Kioxia Closes In on Toyota...AI NAND Boom Shakes Up Japanese Stock Market
Japanese semiconductor company Kioxia has seen its stock price soar on the wave of artificial intelligence (AI) investment, shaking up the rankings of market capitalization on the Japanese stock market. Toyota Motor, which had held the title of Japan's largest company for over 20 years, has already ceded the top spot to SoftBank Group and now finds its second-place position under threat as well.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) on the 3rd, Kioxia's stock price on the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 7% from the previous day to 83,140 yen, with its market cap temporarily surpassing 45 trillion yen (approximately 427 trillion won). Kioxia, which ranked just 169th in market cap last June, saw its stock price surge more than 3,900% in just one year, briefly overtaking Toyota during intraday trading. The stock has gained more than 660% this year alone. However, near the close, the stock fell to 78,080 yen (approximately 746,200 won), allowing Toyota to reclaim second place.
The key driver of Kioxia's stock surge is the rapid increase in NAND flash demand resulting from expanded AI data center investments. Kioxia, which mainly produces NAND flash memory used for long-term storage, has also seen sharp improvements in performance. Its fiscal year 2025 revenue reached 2.3376 trillion yen (approximately 22.2927 trillion won), with operating profit of 876.2 billion yen (approximately 8.356 trillion won), increasing approximately 37% and 93% respectively from the previous year. To meet growing AI demand, Kioxia plans to invest a total of 2.1 trillion yen (approximately 20.0268 trillion won) in capital expenditure and R&D by March 2029.
The global NAND flash market is also growing rapidly. According to market research firm TrendForce, the combined revenue of the world's top five NAND flash suppliers in the first quarter of this year reached $38.9 billion (approximately 59 trillion won), up 83.7% from the previous quarter. Samsung Electronics maintained its lead with a 31.6% market share, followed by SK hynix at 17.6%. Kioxia tied for third place at 13.9% along with Micron and SanDisk.
Musk Earning $5.5 Billion Won an Hour...On Verge of Becoming First Trillionaire
As SpaceX, the space company led by Elon Musk, pursues the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history, Musk is moving closer to becoming humanity's first "trillionaire." If this listing, which targets a corporate valuation of $1.75 trillion (approximately 2,665 trillion won), is realized, his net worth is likely to exceed $1 trillion (approximately 1,527 trillion won).
According to Reuters on the 2nd (local time), SpaceX has fixed its offering price at $135 per share (approximately 206,000 won) and plans to issue a total of 555.6 million shares to raise $75 billion (approximately 114 trillion won). Starting with an investor presentation (roadshow) on the 4th, trading is scheduled to begin on the Nasdaq market under the ticker "SPCX" on the 12th of this month. Fixing the offering price before the start of the roadshow is a highly unusual approach for a major IPO, and it is also drawing attention for adopting a pure new share issuance method in which all proceeds from new shares flow directly to the company.
This listing is also drawing attention to the scale of Musk's wealth. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) estimates Musk's current paper net worth at approximately $970 billion (approximately 1,477 trillion won). This figure combines his SpaceX stake worth $538 billion (approximately 821.526 trillion won) and his Tesla stake worth $167 billion (approximately 255.176 trillion won). If SpaceX goes public at its target valuation, the value of Musk's stake alone would exceed $700 billion (approximately 1,069.6 trillion won), pushing his net worth past $1 trillion. The WSJ reported that Musk has earned approximately $59,492 per minute (approximately 90 million won) and approximately $3.6 million per hour (approximately 5.5 billion won) since founding his first company in 1995.
However, there are also concerns about overvaluation. Investment research firm Morningstar said, "SpaceX's technology and business viability have not yet been sufficiently verified," and presented an appropriate corporate valuation of $780 billion (approximately 1,190 trillion won). This is less than half of the company's target, and the responsible analyst warned of a possible stock price decline immediately after listing.
Microsoft Unveils 7 In-House AI Models...Direct Showdown with OpenAI and Anthropic
Microsoft (MS) has unveiled its own AI models for the first time, entering full-scale competition with OpenAI and Anthropic, with whom it had maintained investment and partnership relationships. This represents an official declaration of its transition from an AI platform company that relied on external models to an independent AI model provider.
On the 2nd (local time), Microsoft unveiled seven of its own models, including the reasoning AI model "MAI-Thinking-1," at its annual developer conference "Build" held in San Francisco. MAI-Thinking-1, a mid-sized model with 35 billion active parameters, was found to have recorded performance similar to Anthropic's top-tier model in benchmark evaluations.
Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, emphasized that "we have closed the gap with Anthropic in just six months." Microsoft also unveiled the coding model "MAI-Code-1" targeting enterprises and developers, as well as the image generation model "MAI-Image-2.5," which the company said outperforms Google's competing model.
New product announcements followed. Microsoft unveiled "Scout," an AI agent that operates 24 hours a day. It is an autonomous agent that can be used in various ways in corporate environments, from coordinating meeting schedules to supporting sales operations. The "Surface RTX Spark Devbox," a small developer-oriented computer developed in cooperation with Nvidia, also drew attention. Regarding this product, which is equipped with Nvidia's new AI PC chip "N1 X" unveiled the previous day, CEO Satya Nadella expressed his expectations, calling it a "dream machine."
Microsoft's move can be interpreted as a redefinition of its partnership relationships.
