AI Training Demand Surges; Corporate Inquiries Jump 2.6-Fold

* Editor's note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an 'AI-based personalized news recommendation and summary service' developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news articles for each reader type.

[[LINK_0]]1. Half of Corporate Business Trips Are 'AI Lectures'…Education Platforms Popular Amid AX Boom[[/LINK_0]]

- Key Summary: As the AX boom spreads across all industries, AI education specialist startups are rapidly growing. At AI education startup Ablearn, corporate AI education inquiries received in Q1 this year increased 2.6 times compared to the same period last year, with 7 out of 10 inquiries requesting hands-on training courses that can be directly applied to the workplace. Elice Group conducted a total of 1,079 AI training sessions last year, and Day1Company's (373160) platform Fastcampus saw AI education account for 56.7% of approximately 400 corporate training engagements, reaching 51.4% of corporate education business revenue. Meanwhile, Upstage established an education business division this year, and Wrtn separately organized an education business team at its in-house independent company (CIC) Wrtn AX, as AI service startups are also fully entering the education market.

[[LINK_1]]2. 'Low-Power NPU,' the Heart of Physical AI…K-Startups Take On Dedicated Chip Development[[/LINK_1]]

- Key Summary: As physical AI such as humanoid robots, autonomous driving, and drones spreads, demand for low-power NPUs optimized for on-device (immediate in-device computation) methods is rapidly rising. Domestic startups such as DeepX, Mobilint, and HyperAccel have developed NPUs that reduce power consumption to one-third to one-tenth of GPUs, and are mass-producing them through Samsung Electronics' (005930) foundry business division and TSMC. Global market research firm MarketsandMarkets forecasts that the AI inference market will grow to $254.9 billion by 2030, expanding at an average annual rate of 19% since last year. Additionally, as the U.S. government's GPU export regulations against China drive a surge in NPU demand within China, and with only a few countries capable of NPU development—South Korea, the U.S., China, Europe, Israel, and Taiwan—a favorable competitive environment is being created for Korean startups.

- Key Summary: Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced its agentic AI (AI that autonomously performs tasks) based strategy, shifting the axis of its Korean AI market strategy from technology adoption to business outcome creation. AWS analyzed over 1,000 customer and partner conversations and presented four priorities for AI adoption: △prioritizing business goals first △building data utilization systems in advance △embedding security △creating tangible results in order units. Global partners such as Accenture and Capgemini improved productivity by up to 85% and return on investment (ROI) by up to 4 times using AWS's 'Bedrock' and 'AgentCore' based agentic AI platform. Accordingly, in Korea, POSCO DX (022100) reduced drawing creation time by 90% from 7 days to half a day, and CJ Olivenetworks boosted store sales by 5.7% with an AI demand forecasting model.

- Key Summary: As the Chinese government begins full-scale control over the overseas transfer of core talent and research results from its own AI startups, startups seeking to attract U.S. investment are caught in a dilemma. AI startup MiroMind, founded by Chen Tianqiao, withdrew all employees from China immediately after a warning from the Chinese government and relocated its base to Singapore and Redwood City, California, in the U.S. Meanwhile, Manus AI founders received exit ban orders while being investigated for export control compliance in the process of winding down their Chinese business and selling to Meta, exposing the limitations of the 'Singapore laundering' model of erasing Chinese colors by relocating headquarters to Singapore. While more companies are choosing dual structures that maintain core operations in China while establishing overseas subsidiaries, like ByteDance and MiniMax, most founders are caught in a dilemma due to the burden of giving up Chinese government subsidy benefits.

[[LINK_4]]5. Lee Jae-yong's Decision Shines…Harman's Operating Profit Up 27 Times 10 Years After Acquisition[[/LINK_4]]

- Key Summary: Harman, a global audio and mobility parts company acquired by Samsung Electronics for $8 billion (about 9.4 trillion won at the time) in 2016, has achieved 2.2 times revenue growth and 26.6 times operating profit growth 10 years after the acquisition. Last year, Harman's revenue was 15.7833 trillion won and operating profit was 1.5311 trillion won, recording its highest-ever performance, with operating profit margin approaching 10%. This was an M&A decided by Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who foresaw automobiles as a next-generation platform converging semiconductors, displays, communications, software, and AI, and Harman is currently the global leader in digital cockpit (integrated in-vehicle digital driving environment) and car audio fields. Additionally, through Harman, Samsung Electronics acquired the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) business division of German automotive electronics company ZF for 1.5 billion euros (about 2.6 trillion won) last December, accelerating its mobility business expansion.

- Key Summary: NCsoft's (036570) MMORPG 'Aion 2' will be released in the global market in the second half of this year. Aion 2 is a new title released 17 years after the original, and after first being unveiled on mobile and PC in Korea and Taiwan last November, it has generated over 170 billion won in revenue through February this year. The global version will be available for PC only on Steam and Purple platforms, and will support a total of 10 languages including English, German, and French, with regional servers established in North America, South America, Europe, and Japan. The securities industry forecasts that NCsoft will record 93 billion won in operating profit in the first quarter, driven by the success of Aion 2 and 'Lineage Classic,' a 1,681% increase from the same period last year (5.2 billion won).