AI Industry Development & Policy Dynamics

According to Yonhapnews on October 1, AI search startup Perplexity is raising $4.5 billion in new funding with a pre-money valuation of approximately $30 billion, up from $18 billion about one year ago. Nvidia is leading the financing round, while existing investors are committing an additional $1 b

Jaipur-based Aignosis, an AI-assisted child development screening startup, recently raised 40 million Indian rupees (US$417,000) in a seed round led by Antler, with participation from investor Nikhil Kamath and angel investors including Varun

The US Department of Defense announced the establishment of an Autonomous Warfare Command (Auto War Com) dedicated to drones, robots, and military AI systems. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the plan during a speech at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia on May 30 (local time), stating the

According to the Wall Street Journal, on September 30, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced plans to establish an Autonomous Warfare Command to oversee unmanned systems, military robots, and autonomous AI weapons, with operations targeted to begin in October 2027. The command, to be led

Vice Finance Minister Heo Jang emphasized that finance must support long-term investment in future industries and channel capital into productive sectors to sustain growth in the AI era. Heo made these remarks on the 1st at the 2026 Korea Financial Society (KFS) Forum held at Seoul Shilla Hotel.

According to Yonhapnews, on October 1, South Korean Finance Vice Minister Heo Jang emphasized that the financial sector must support long-term investments in future industries to sustain growth in the AI era and redirect capital toward productive sectors. Speaking at the 2026 Korea New York Korean F

According to Herald Economy, LS Securities today opened the 'API Investment Strategy Center,' integrating its xingAPI and openAPI services with a new ChatGPT-powered AI assistant. The tool automatically generates program code from trading strategies entered as text by investors, lowering barriers

AI optical interconnect startup CScale has completed a Series C round of $145 million, led by Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners, and Premji Invest, with participation from Nvidia and Intel Capital. The company has raised a total of $188 million to date and plans to deliver its chip

Inticube is expanding its artificial intelligence transformation (AX) business based on its existing contact center customer base and deployment experience. The company recently secured a communication infrastructure upgrade contract with Shinhan Card worth approximately 11 billion won, confirming t

IntiCube recently secured a 110 billion won contract from Shinhan Card for telecommunications infrastructure upgrades, leveraging its contact center customer base to expand into AI agent and automation experience (AX) services. The company plans to convert relationships with over 200 existing

Arthur Hayes, Maelstrom chief investment officer, reiterated on Oct. 1 that Bitcoin could reach $1 million by 2030 as a debt-fueled artificial intelligence boom potentially faces a downturn. Hayes expects late 2027 or early 2028 to be a critical turning point when slowing AI infrastructure

According to Yonhapnews, KB Investment participated in GMI Cloud's Series B funding round on October 1, with total funding of $668 million. The round comprised $223 million in equity investment and $445 million in credit facility from Taiwan's CTBC. Leading investors include San Francisco-based AI a

According to Daol Investment Securities, the South Korean brokerage officially launched its MCP Trading service on October 1, enabling customers to check account details and place stock orders directly through generative AI chatbots including ChatGPT and Claude. The service began accepting

According to Financial News, Korea Investment & Securities held two data center and GPU financing briefing sessions on September 30 in Seoul, attracting over 480 industry participants including institutional investors, construction firms, asset managers, and AI infrastructure operators. The sessions

According to Jin10, on October 1, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warned that artificial intelligence could trigger financial market shocks, urging the UK to prepare accordingly. Bailey noted that the central bank is monitoring "very closely" the massive capital flows into AI. He cautioned th

Alphabet subsidiary Google released its next-generation AI model Gemini 4 Argon on the 30th (local time), aiming to recover competitiveness in the artificial intelligence race where it was previously assessed as 'behind,' according to IT media outlet TechCrunch. The model specializes in coding,

According to TechCrunch, Google launched Gemini 4 Argon on September 30, positioning the model as its most powerful to date. The model specializes in coding, research, and software engineering tasks, with particular focus on autonomous cybersecurity vulnerability discovery and enterprise engineering

According to Bridgewater Associates CEO Nir Bar Dea, artificial intelligence could disrupt up to 18% of the U.S. workforce without proper regulation and social preparation, potentially triggering significant social disorder. Bar Dea stated that while AI presents transformative opportunities, rapid t

According to Reuters, Tencent signed its largest reported overseas lease deal with Oracle today (October 1) to access approximately 100,000 advanced AI chips unavailable in China. The arrangement leverages a gap in U.S. export controls that restrict physical shipments of advanced semiconductors to

According to PANews, on October 1, Google began rolling out Gemini 4 Argon, its flagship AI model, to a select group of security partners, with plans to expand access to paying users after further testing. The model achieved leading scores on multiple benchmarks, including surpassing OpenAI's