Kim Jong Un made a surprise visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong on Saturday, touring a commercial vehicle factory and crossing a new bridge, according to the South China Morning Post and the Wall Street Journal. North Korea told the UN that South Korea fabricated a landmine incident, KCNA says.
Geopolitics
Worries about AI profitability are spreading from US tech shares to Asian markets and risky debt. Asia's busiest earnings week now puts the AI boom to the test.
Economy
South Korea has again proposed talks with North Korea on the land border, Reuters reports. The FAZ reports that North Korea has laid nearly a million mines along the frontier since 2024, while US and South Korean officials see fading chances of a Trump-Kim summit this year, according to the South China Morning Post.
Geopolitics
Kim Yo-jong, sister of Kim Jong-un, warned after inspecting border fortifications that loudspeakers aimed at South Korea will be ready to restart, the Guardian reports. Seoul urged dialogue, and Politika reports that it demanded an apology from Pyongyang over mines.
Geopolitics
Pak Jong Chon, North Korea's army chief, inspected fortification construction sites along the country's southern border on Tuesday, according to state news agency KCNA. KCNA says troops must act if the enemy provokes.
Geopolitics
CoreWeave's unsecured bonds sold off, and Korean data-centre firm Elice lost 32% on its first trading day on Tuesday.
Economy
South Korea will withdraw part of its diplomatic staff from Ukraine after a dispute over North Korean prisoners of war transferred to Seoul, Yonhap reported. Seoul recalled its ambassador from Kyiv earlier this month after Zelenskyy disclosed the transfer, and the Foreign Ministry cited security challenges amid threats of airstrikes, according to TASS.
Geopolitics
US stock futures and semiconductor shares recovered on Monday after the sharpest weekly selloff in months. Worries about AI financing remain.
Economy
Japan's Nikkei fell 1.8% on Monday as funding concerns over AI data-centre builders hit chip stocks. Microsoft's exit from a UK deal with Nscale and a new DeepSeek model added to the pressure.
Economy
Oil rose above $110 for the first time since May, Bloomberg reported on Friday. Diesel and ship-fuel markets remain tight despite emergency stock releases.
Economy
Worries about debt-funded AI spending hit CoreWeave shares and bonds and data-centre debt. Big US bank shares are on course for their worst weekly losing streak since 2008.
Economy
Asian tech stocks plunged on Thursday, with South Korea's KOSPI down 7.6% and Japan's Nikkei nearly 5%, after a US selloff on hot inflation data. Record TSMC profit did not stop the slide.
Economy
Chip shares extended a global rout, and Bloomberg reports they were set to erase $1 trillion in value. ASML said on Wednesday that AI demand will exceed supply for two more years.
Economy
Memory-chip stocks fell sharply on Tuesday after Chinese chipmaker CXMT claimed a technical advance and Broadcom's chief likened AI investing to a casino. South Korea's KOSPI closed down 5.5%.
Economy
North Korea fired several ballistic missiles on Monday, according to South Korea and Japan. Seoul describes the launch as an apparent show of force after its own hypersonic missile test.
Geopolitics
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Monday that they detected several ballistic missiles fired off North Korea's east coast. According to TASS, Japan reported two missiles, the first of which landed outside its exclusive economic zone.
Geopolitics
South Korea's Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that it will recall its ambassador to Ukraine, according to TASS. The Financial Times links the move to an escalating row over captured North Korean soldiers.
Geopolitics
TSMC reported a 51% jump in third-quarter revenue on Thursday, and Samsung said its operating profit hit a record. GlobalFoundries also announced a $2bn deal to supply TSMC.
Technology
South Korea's Foreign Ministry announced it will recall its ambassador from Kyiv and demands an apology after President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed last month that two North Korean prisoners of war defected to South Korea. Seoul accuses Zelensky of breaking a confidentiality agreement, according to the New York Times.
Geopolitics
South Korea flight-tested its first domestically developed hypersonic weapon on Thursday, designed to fly at least five times the speed of sound. President Lee Jae Myung observed the launch of the glide vehicle, according to TASS.
Geopolitics
The Wall Street Journal reports that hackers used a Chinese AI tool to attack South Korean banks. Separately, FAZ reports that Japan transferred to Germany a Russian suspected of masterminding a Qilin ransomware attack on a German logistics company, and Handelsblatt reports that a Russian was arrested in a North Rhine-Westphalia operation against the group.
Technology
President Lee Jae Myung said on Tuesday there are signs AI models were used in recent hacks on South Korean banks. Police have opened a full investigation.
Technology
South Korea says it is preparing a response to force an apology from North Korea over a mine blast in the demilitarized zone, and has urged Pyongyang to remove other mines planted on the southern side of the demarcation line. North Korea warned of stronger action against the South over the accusations, Reuters reports.
Geopolitics
South Korea said on Monday that a recent border blast that seriously wounded two of its soldiers was caused by mines planted by North Korea. North Korea denies responsibility, according to Politika.
Geopolitics
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung proposed talks on Saturday to replace the 1953 armistice with a permanent peace regime. North Korea answered by denouncing coming US-South Korean drills and vowing stronger nuclear deterrence.
Geopolitics
Japan's prime minister Sanae Takaichi sent a ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shrine on Saturday, 81 years after the surrender, but stayed away herself. Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited in person.
Geopolitics
Bank of America will deploy $250bn into AI and energy infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Results from Cisco, Foxconn and Tencent showed the spending's reach and cost.
Economy
North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan on Wednesday, its second test in a week. It came five days before a large US-South Korean exercise begins.
Geopolitics
Intel upsized its share sale to about $20bn on Tuesday. Sony and TSMC sealed a $4.7bn image-sensor venture in Japan the same day.
Technology
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that South Korea's Hanwha has offered to acquire an American builder of US Navy ships. The report did not set out the terms of the offer.
Economy
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky said Pyongyang plans to station tens of thousands of soldiers in Russia and tied that warning to a request to South Korea, FAZ reported on Monday. Seoul restated that it does not supply weapons to Ukraine, according to TASS, and South China Morning Post wrote that the request for air defence systems may be more than the government can accept.
Geopolitics
South Korea's Hanwha is making a $1 billion push into naval shipbuilding in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Further details of the investment are not given in the report available.
Economy
SK Hynix will spend $38 billion to expand its chip production capacity in South Korea, the company announced. Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, which reported the plan, give no timeline for the factory expansion.
Technology
A record heatwave gripping most of Asia is driving fears of an energy crisis and health risks, the South China Morning Post reported. In the South Korean city of Gwangju, 69-year-old retired government employee Chae Young-sun has stopped taking daily walks since the heat set in.
Geopolitics
North Korea fired a ballistic missile, South Korea's military said in a report carried by The Hindu on Thursday. No further detail on the missile type or where it came down was given in the report.
Geopolitics
The US Treasury has publicly explained why Washington bought yen together with Tokyo. It says the operation was meant to contain currency risks across Asia.
Economy
Citadel Securities expects a $500bn debt binge to finance semiconductor expansion, and NTT Data is reported to be considering a $9bn outlay for data centres in Japan, Bloomberg reported. Bloomberg also reported that South Korean AI chip designer DeepX reached a valuation of $2.2bn in a funding round, while the Financial Times reported that James Dacombe, 25, tripled his AI chip start-up's valuation to $3.3bn.
Economy
A Shanghai listing by Chinese memory maker CXMT and reports of a Chinese lithography breakthrough sent chip stocks sliding worldwide last week. Markets rebounded on Friday.
Technology
Quarterly results from the largest US technology groups, reported through Friday, divided the market over their AI investments. FAZ counts Microsoft and Amazon among the winners of the reporting season, Apple, Meta and Alphabet among the losers.
Economy
Seoul has asked Washington for the right to enrich uranium on its own territory, Le Monde reported on Friday, after the United States announced an agreement allowing Riyadh to build its own enrichment capacity. Washington still refuses that right to South Korea.
Geopolitics
Amazon reported capital expenditure up 69 percent, and Meta disclosed $279 billion in future data-centre lease obligations tied to its artificial-intelligence build-out. Microsoft's figures showed the same build-out holding up, with profit rising on cloud and data-centre leasing. The reporting agrees that spending keeps growing; it splits on whether investors will keep paying for it.
Economy
Samsung Electronics said its semiconductor division reported a more than 250-fold jump in second-quarter profit, driven by shortages of memory used for artificial intelligence, according to Bloomberg reporting on Thursday. SK Hynix also posted strong results and announced new deals, which Bloomberg described as an answer to investors who doubt the durability of AI chip demand.
Economy
South Korean shares jumped a record 15% on Friday on renewed optimism about the AI trade, Bloomberg reported, following a record selloff a day earlier that had failed to tempt global investors back into the market. Bloomberg also reported that Seoul plans to direct $14 billion of its sovereign wealth fund into AI investments after the rout.
Economy
South Korean shares dropped about 16% over two days in a burst of retail selling that erased the gains of the recent AI rally, with chip stocks hit hardest because investors doubt the companies' heavy capital spending. Bloomberg separately reported growing concern at ASML over China export restrictions and demand risk.
Economy
Samsung Electronics posted an all-time high net profit on device and memory sales, with profit at its semiconductor business soaring more than 250-fold, according to Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg attributes the jump to shortages of memory chips driven by AI demand.
Economy
A powerful earthquake struck Kumamoto prefecture on Japan's southern island of Kyushu on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least 13 people and injuring hundreds. About an hour later an explosion tore through a shopping mall in the prefecture, and a factory chimney collapsed, leaving workers missing. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the search a race against time as more than 9,000 people spent the night in evacuation centres.
Geopolitics
A report that China is bringing a domestically built machine for semiconductor production to market sent chip shares tumbling around the world on Tuesday, 28 July 2026. Samsung and SK Hynix each lost more than 10 percent and Korea's market hit a three-month low, while ASML, Nvidia and the Nasdaq chip complex also fell. Investors are weighing Chinese competition alongside doubts about how US tech groups are financing their artificial-intelligence spending.
Economy
Chinese memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) began trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market on Monday and closed its first session up 466%, after rising roughly 470% during the day. The listing was mainland China's largest initial public offering in years and left CXMT, by market value, the most valuable company listed on a mainland exchange. The debut fed into an already tense global market for memory chips and moved semiconductor shares elsewhere.
Technology
Chinese DRAM manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) began trading on Shanghai's STAR Market on Monday, 27 July 2026, after raising 66.5 billion yuan — reported as roughly $9.8bn and as €9.8bn by Le Monde — in the largest fundraising in Asia this year. The stock rose by roughly 470% and closed up 466%, according to the South China Morning Post, valuing the company at 3.28 trillion yuan (about $484.6bn). Nikkei Asia reports the debut briefly lifted CXMT's market capitalisation above that of Intel.
Economy
The Wall Street Journal reports that chipmaker Nvidia is in talks with OpenAI to guarantee up to $250 billion in financing for a data-centre project. Bloomberg and Reuters picked up the report without independent confirmation, and neither company has publicly commented in the available material. Separately, the Journal reports that Nvidia will invest $1 billion in an artificial-intelligence project run by the South Korean internet group Naver.
Technology
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are set to supply Nvidia and other major US technology companies with memory chips under agreements reported by Daily Sabah at $950 billion. The reported value would make the arrangements one of the largest supply commitments to date between South Korea's memory industry and US buyers.
Economy
The two Koreas are racing to build nuclear-powered submarines, according to the Financial Times. The rivalry points to a lasting shift in the naval balance in Northeast Asia.
Geopolitics