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Woori Bank’s specialized prepaid card for foreign visitors, dubbed the “NOL World Card,” reached the 10,000-issuance mark within just three months of its market debut, the bank said Wednesday. The card, jointly introduced by the bank, travel platform operator NOL Universe and fintech company Kona I, aims to make local financial transactions and daily shopping more convenient for international travelers amid the surge in inbound tourism and the corresponding need for easy-to-use local payment options. Data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism show that foreign arrivals reached 10.71 million in the first half of this year, representing a 23.1 percent year-on-year increase. However, short-term visitors have long struggled with local financial barriers, as opening bank accounts or securing domestic credit and debit cards can be difficult, often leaving them reliant on cash exchanges or international payment methods. Designed to address these issues, the NOL World Card can be collected immediately upon landing at Woori Bank exchange counters at Incheon International Airport

The industry ministry's planned briefing to the National Assembly this week on Korea's investment project in the United States has been delayed for undisclosed reasons, sources said Wednesday. According to the sources, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources originally planned to hold a closed-door parliamentary briefing Thursday on Korea's first investment project in the U.S. under a bilateral agreement reached last year. In October, Korea and the U.S. reached an agreement on Seoul's $350 billion investment pledge made in return for lower U.S. tariffs. The investment will comprise $150 billion for shipbuilding cooperation and $200 billion for projects in various strategic sectors. The industry ministry, however, asked the parliament's trade and finance committees to postpone the scheduled briefing without providing details on the reasons. Observers said the delay apparently came as Seoul and Washington failed to reach an agreement during the final stages of negotiations. "Negotiations with the U.S. are currently under way," an official from the industry ministry said. The delay is e

LG Energy Solution and Hyundai Motor Group are distancing themselves from the legal actions of workers against the U.S. government over their detention during last year’s immigration raid at the companies’ joint battery plant in Georgia. An LG Energy Solution official told The Korea Times Wednesday that the company was not aware that employees were taking legal action until media reports emerged Tuesday night. The official added that the company would not get involved because the legal actions were based on individual decisions by the workers, and the company is not tracking who is joining the campaign. An official at Hyundai Motor Group also said none of the company’s employees were among those detained at the time, adding that it is not involved in legal action taken individually by workers from partner companies or those dispatched to the site. A day earlier, CNN reported that more than 300 Korean workers detained during the raid started filing administrative claims with nine federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I

Korean cybersecurity firm Ahnlab said Wednesday it plans to invest 100 billion won ($73.14 million) over the next three years in an effort to restructure its business around subscription-based services. Such plans were announced at a press conference in Seoul as it vowed to transform the company into an "artificial intelligence native" cybersecurity firm. According to the company, the investments will focus on building artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, as well as improving its research and development capabilities and attracting AI-related talent. Building on this, the company also plans to triple its sales from 300 billion won this year to 1 trillion won by 2035, Ahnlab's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kang Suk-kyoon explained. "We need to grow by an average of 15 percent every year to attain that goal, but given our growth trend, we think such a goal is achievable," he said, noting the company could consider carrying out merger and acquisition deals or new investments to scale up. Ahnlab also plans to expand its overseas sales to 30 percent by 2035 from the current 10 percent

The Walt Disney Company’s long-standing legacy in animation, entertainment and consumer products is entering a new chapter in Korea, where the company sees the country’s global content power as a new source of inspiration for next-generation consumer experiences. Walt Disney Company Korea on Wednesday unveiled its new campaign, “ICONS UNLEASED: Global Icon Becomes Center of New K-Wave.” It builds on K-pop, Korean heritage and original Korean content, with plans to develop new businesses from each area. Disney Korea will collaborate with K-pop management companies like Kakao Entertainment, SM Entertainment, HYBE and Starship Entertainment to combine their artists’ unique worldviews with stories from Marvel to create new fan experiences. The company cited the successfull collaboration between G-Dragon’s fashion lineup PEACEMINUSONE and Disney’s "Toy Story” franchise in July to introduce new toys, apparel and goods as precedent. Korean cultural heritage will be combined with Disney intellectual properties (IP) to introduce new region-based tourism products for global touris

S-Oil CEO Anwar Al-Hejazi, second from left, prepares “songpyeon,” traditional Korean rice cakes, during an event at the oil refiner’s headquarters in Seoul, Wednesday, with company employees, children from nearby day care centers and Saudi Arabian students. The participants also delivered 50 million won ($36,000) worth of songpyeon and Chuseok gifts to low-income families living near the headquarters. Courtesy of S-Oil

SK hynix’s production workers’ unions on Wednesday approved a revised tentative agreement reached between their representatives and management, under which employees will receive half of their performance bonuses in cash and the other half in company shares, concluding this year’s wage and collective bargaining negotiations without a labor dispute. According to SK hynix, the two production workers’ unions at the company approved the tentative agreement with a 57.08 percent vote in support. More than 15,000 of the unions’ 16,000 eligible members took part in the vote. The two unions respectively represent production workers at the company’s Icheon plant in Gyeonggi Province and Cheongju plant in North Chungcheong Province. A key feature of the agreement is that half of the performance bonuses, known as excess profit-sharing, will be paid in cash, while the other half will be paid in the form of treasury shares. The revised agreement replaces an earlier tentative deal that called for 60 percent of the bonuses to be paid in treasury shares and the remainder in cash, which the t

Unionized workers at South Korean steelmaker POSCO began a second partial strike Wednesday after failing to narrow differences with management in wage negotiations. The 120-hour walkout began at 7 a.m. at POSCO's steel plants in Pohang and Gwangyang in southern South Korea, the union said. "We will call off the strike before the end of the five-day walkout if the company comes up with an acceptable proposal," union spokesperson Yi Jae-hyuk said by phone. POSCO has about 17,000 employees, including around 10,100 union members. The strike follows a 48-hour walkout that began at 7 a.m. last Wednesday and involved 120 workers, marking the first strike by POSCO workers since the company was founded in 1968. The union said the second strike would cause inevitable disruptions as about twice as many workers are participating compared with the first strike. POSCO said, however, that there would be no major disruption to plant operations, with about 60 workers each from its Pohang and Gwangyang plants expected to join the strike. The union has demanded a 7.1 percent increase in base pay, a performanc

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) went after President Trump on the issue of AI, saying he has a lack of knowledge around its risks. “Look, it is embarrassing, really, I think, going beyond politics, how ignorant this president is about the dangers of AI,” Sanders told MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner in a clip posted Tuesday on...

The president of one of the biggest teachers unions in the country has come out with a cautionary warning on AI in schools, emphasizing the need for learning before students are exposed to the technology.   “So, you know, from an education and a people perspective, the human beings have to be in charge of...

A majority of Americans are concerned that artificial intelligence poses grave risks to the future of humanity, according to a new poll released on Wednesday. The POLITICO survey found that 63 percent of U.S. adults believe this technology could someday destroy mankind. Twenty-six percent of respondents said there was only a “moderate risk” of this...

I tried both the Redmi Note 17 Pro 5G and Redmi Note 17 Pro Max 5G, and after using them, the biggest difference I noticed came down to one thing: battery.  Durability I could actually test The weather has been unpredictable lately, and I got to put the phones’ durability to use. There were times

The rapid build-out of artificial intelligence infrastructure is making technology firms some of the top capital investors in the U.S., according to new research shared first with The Hill. The report, to be published by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) on Wednesday, found tech firms Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft invested more than half —...

China is bracing for a potential massive sell-off of a high-profile artificial intelligence chip stock on Thursday, when a lock-up period affecting 14 million shares in MetaX Integrated Circuits is set to expire. Analysts expect MetaX to face “significant selling pressure” when the restricted shares are released for trading, after the expiry of a similar lock-up period for shares in fellow AI chip firm Moore Threads last week sparked an avalanche of sales that wiped nearly 49 billion yuan...

Taipei’s newest startup gathering didn’t pretend Gen Z needed a seat at the kids’ table. It gave them the microphone instead, and put YouTube’s and Twitch’s co-founders in the audience listening back. The inaugural Boba Tech Summit ran September 9 and 10 in Taipei, pulling in more than 300 attendees from over 15 countries for […] The post Taiwan bets on Gen Z founders to move beyond its chip-supplier image appeared first on e27.

China’s Moonshot AI has attracted global investor interest spanning Europe, Asia and the Middle East, people familiar with the matter say, as international capital scrambles for access to Chinese frontier artificial intelligence labs, betting on their high-stakes race against US rivals. The Beijing-based developer of the Kimi family of AI models has seen mounting interest from overseas players ranging from European investment firms to Middle East family offices, with some seeking indirect...

Meta One consolidates the existing subscription plans for WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, and adds even more AI tools to the mix.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's top official proposed on Wednesday banning children under 13 across the 27-nation bloc from using social media sites and imposing limits for older teens on accessing the platforms. The plan outlined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen adds to global efforts to protect young people using platforms...

Washington is scrambling to manage the abrupt panic around AI development, but party politics, a limited legislative window and lack of consensus makes it an uphill, next-to-impossible task.  In the wake of a researcher’s viral warning about the technology, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are floating numerous proposals to prevent the negative potential...

StarCraft is finally returning, but not as a real-time strategy sequel many fans were expecting.

Plaud, the maker of the credit-card-sized AI voice recorder that has become a fixture on lanyards and phone cases across Asia, has opened an Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore. The Chinese-founded, San Francisco-incorporated firm has also committed at least SGD20 million (~US$15.7 million) to the island nation. This is double the amount it pledged when it […] The post Plaud doubles its Singapore bet to US$15.7M. Now it has to prove the growth is real appeared first on e27.

Razer has brought down Sensa haptics from the Kraken V4 Pro, and put it into the body of a Kraken V4 X.

Cambodia’s startup ecosystem is still small by Southeast Asian standards, but its newest crop of founders is starting to build with a wider market in mind. Newwave Tech Foundry, a Phnom Penh-based artificial intelligence and software development company, is one example: barely two years old, it already says more than 70 per cent of its […] The post Cambodia’s Newwave wins CIFC backing to build AI tools for regional businesses appeared first on e27.

With less than a month to go before we see another Amazon Prime Big Deal Days event, here is what you need to know about the sale.

According to its specifications for the Mainland Chinese market, the phone will likely come with triple 200MP cameras and a powerful MediaTek chipset.

In the era of hyper-liquidity and ultra-low interest rates, the corporate software market witnessed an extraordinary transformation. The rapid global expansion of certain comprehensive business management applications, most notably Odoo, serves as a textbook example of a highly successful “capital + brand” growth narrative. Propelled by substantial venture capital injections and private equity backing, the […] The post The Capital-Driven Rise of Modern Business Suites appeared first on e27.

Southeast Asia’s robotics sector just posted a record year. Look closer, and the story isn’t strength; it’s fragility wearing a big number as a costume. Tracxn’s new Robotics – SEA report says the region’s robotics companies raised US$696 million so far in 2026, blowing past the US$52 million raised in all of 2025. On its […] The post Singapore’s robotics dominance is a warning sign dressed up as good news appeared first on e27.

The Mac mini-sized computer is designed for developers and businesses that want to run AI models locally.

Rosaline Chow Koo has spent much of her career trying to make corporate health benefits less rigid, less opaque and, ultimately, less expensive. Her last company, CXA, attacked the problem from the employee side, giving workers more room to customise their benefits while helping employers manage costs. Now, at 65, she is coming at the […] The post CXA founder Rosaline Chow Koo returns with Covee, an AI tool for benefits brokers appeared first on e27.

In 2018, Carnegie Mellon launched the first bachelor of science degree in artificial intelligence in the United States. A handful of universities followed over the next five years. Then 2025 happened. Bachelor’s level AI programs jumped from 90 to 193 in a single year, a 114 percent expansion. Northwestern launched its own AI major in […] The post Why some Gen Z graduates are skipping AI degrees entirely, and getting better jobs because of it appeared first on e27.

The iPhone did not destroy the compact camera because it was a better camera. It destroyed much of the market because it was already in people’s pockets. A dedicated camera could take better photographs. A specialist GPS unit could navigate more reliably. An iPod could be a better music player. But owning the specialist device […] The post Does the iPhone show us which industries AI will destroy? appeared first on e27.

The digital asset market stumbled through a bruising 24-hour stretch as two outside forces collided with a market already stretched by borrowed money. Bitcoin lost 3.12 per cent to trade at US$75,697.61. Ethereum fell 4.49 per cent to US$2,399.07. Both underperformed a flat broader market. A procedural vote in the United States Senate on September […] The post Bitcoin falls 3.12% to $75,697.61: Did Washington just kill the rally? appeared first on e27.

Ricoh, the Japanese office-equipment and digital-services giant, has made its first bet from a freshly launched corporate venture fund and it has chosen mental health as the theme. The company confirmed on Tuesday that it has invested in Intellect, a Singapore-based workplace mental-health platform, through the RICOH Innovation Fund II. Also Read: YC-backed mental health […] The post Japan’s Ricoh backs Singapore’s Intellect in first deal from new US$20M fund appeared first on e27.

Sometimes, last-minute in-store shopping might be your best option.

Three weeks ago I sat in on a pitch from a Jakarta fintech founder who used the word AI-powered four times in six minutes. When I asked what the model actually predicted, he could not answer. He knew the term. He did not know the mechanism. That gap is the real story of Southeast Asia’s […] The post The AI boom won’t help you scale. Your unit economics will appeared first on e27.

Foreign founders entering Taiwan should organise their research around decisions, not a long directory of programmes. The useful question is not simply what support exists, but which resource removes the next obstacle to testing a business. As the operator of EZStartup, I approach this as a sequencing problem: validate the commercial opportunity, identify the appropriate […] The post Entering Taiwan: A practical resource map for foreign founders appeared first on e27.

A new class of AI tools has changed how research gets done. These tools help researchers gather and present their work, sift thousands of papers in minutes, flag fabricated data in submissions, and, more broadly, are authoring the future of scientific presentation and communication. Already, millions of scientists use them, but outside the lab, almost […] The post Asia’s research-tech companies: Millions of users and nearly invisible to funders and customers appeared first on e27.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent faced lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, amid concerns over rapidly developing artificial intelligence (AI) and surging bond yields. During the nearly three-hour-long hearing, Bessent brushed off concerns about AI and defended his department’s intervention in the bond market. But that did not stop Democrats on the panel from taking him to task on...

MANILA, Philippines – The two best Philippine Call of Duty: Mobile (CODM) teams will enter the biggest stage for the  CODM World Championship 2026 on December 4 to 6 in Mexico City.  Alula SC and ELEVATE have secured CODM Garena’s two spots after finishing first and second in the Southeast Asian Qualifiers. The two squads will

A cryptocurrency regulation bill failed to advance on the Senate floor Tuesday, after all Democrats and a few Republicans blocked a procedural vote. The Senate voted 49-50 on a motion to proceed with consideration of the Clarity Act, failing to reach the required 60-vote threshold. It marks a major setback for the industry, which has long pushed for the measure setting up a regulatory...