The Heart of Innovation·Corporate Research Labs

Editor's NoteThere is a growing call for a new driving force to revitalize the Korean economy, which is losing momentum. Corporate research institutes once served as the heart of our economy. However, there is now little public interest in what these corporate research centers are focusing on. IBM, the leader of the U.S. IT industry, managed to stage a comeback after its "lost decade." A key factor in this revival was the rebuilding of its research center. In the past, founders of Korea's leading conglomerates all emphasized "technology for the nation." Within the industry, there are increasing arguments that the founding spirit should be revisited and that a Korean-style research and development (R&D) DNA should be reintroduced into corporate research institutes. Asia Economy is launching a four-part series exploring research centers of global corporations, proposing the role of technology and policy directions for this era. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, has repeatedly told his employ

Editor's NoteThere is a growing call for a new driving force to revitalize the Korean economy, which is losing its momentum. The research institutes owned by corporations were once the heart of our economy. However, there is little attention paid today to what corporate research institutes are focusing on. IBM, a giant in the American IT industry, overcame its 'lost decade' and made a comeback. A key factor in its revival was the rebuilding of its research institute. The founders of Korea's leading conglomerates once unanimously advocated for 'technological nationalism.' In the industrial sector, there are arguments that the founders' spirit should be revisited and that the Korean-style research and development (R&D) DNA should be re-embedded in corporate research institutes. Asia Economy will publish a four-part series exploring the research institutes of global companies, offering insights into the role of technology and policy recommendations for this era. As time passes and market

Editor's NoteThere is a growing call for a new driving force to revitalize the Korean economy, whose growth engine is fading. Corporate research laboratories, once the heart of our economy, no longer attract attention to what they are working on. IBM, a leader in the U.S. IT industry, has made a comeback after overcoming its 'lost decade.' A key secret to this revival was the rebuilding of its research labs. The founders of Korea's leading conglomerates once unanimously championed the idea of 'technology for the nation.' In the industry, there are increasing arguments that the spirit of these founders should be revisited and that a Korean-style research and development (R&D) DNA must be re-embedded in corporate research labs. Asia Economy will run a four-part series exploring the research labs of global companies, proposing the role of technology and policy in this era. The scene where a rocket from SpaceX, the space company founded by Elon Musk, returned to Earth last year and was cau

Electric vehicles equipped with batteries are inherently heavy, which inevitably affects their agility. Hyundai Motor Company is working to break this stereotype by developing electric vehicles that are "smaller and more agile." The company aims to reduce the length by more than 300mm and the weight by 320kg compared to the Ioniq 5 N (3,000mm, 2,200kg). Although the body is lighter, the maximum output remains at 650 horsepower, the same as the Ioniq 5 N, enabling movements as nimble and dramatic as a racing car. This is the story of the Rolling Lab "RN24" currently under development by Hyundai Motor Company. Rolling Lab refers to a "mobile research lab," a vehicle used for research and verification of high-performance technologies before they are applied to mass-production models. The RN24 aims to combine motorsport technology with electric vehicles. Although the RN24 is still in the research and development (R&D) stage, it is on display for everyone to see on the third floor of Hyund

In 2027, it will be the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology. In human years, this would be considered the age of “unwavering maturity.” Although the institute has reached a point where it should be able to move forward confidently, leveraging the capabilities it has accumulated over the years, the prevailing view is that its current status is not what it once was. On October 22, 1987, Samsung established the Advanced Institute of Technology with a total investment of 125 billion won. It was located near the semiconductor plant in Giheung-eup, Yongin-gun, Gyeonggi Province (now Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi Province). The institute was tasked with the company’s mission to explore and develop semiconductor technologies that no one else had achieved. Although the Semiconductor Research Center had been established earlier in 1982, the center of gravity shifted to the Advanced Institute of Technology once it was founded. Strictly speaking, the

The LG Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institute, located in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, stands apart from traditional research labs with its caf?, game room, and open meeting spaces. The research environment, featuring personalized desks, a flexible work culture, and a collaborative system with affiliates, is gaining attention as a new model for corporate research institutes. It is in this space, where failure and challenge are part of everyday life, that the large-scale language model "Exaone" was born. Founded in 2020, the LG AI Research Institute has risen to the forefront of AI research in just five years. After a period of trial and error, the institute released its first achievement, Exaone 1.0, in December 2022. The model has grown with each generation, and the 4.0 version, released in July, drew attention by scoring 94.5 points on the mathematics section of the College Scholastic Ability Test. In March of this year, the institute unveiled "Exaone Deep," Korea's first inference-b

The history and details of the technology research institutes established by Korean companies are inseparable from their leaders. As Koo Ja-kyun, chairman of the Korea Industrial Technology Association, stated in an interview with our publication, it was the long-term vision and judgment of business leaders that enabled corporate research institutes to lead the Korean industrial sector for the past 60 years. Many companies established research institutes based on the convictions of their leaders, which has brought them to where they are today. Their era was one of severe hardship, often called the "barley hump," when both capital and talent were in short supply. In such challenging industrial conditions, "technology" was the only way to overcome difficulties. The leaders believed that possessing technology ahead of others would change the atmosphere and environment. The late Lee Kun-hee, former chairman of Samsung Electronics, traveled across the United States between 1979 and 1982, w

A new era is dawning for corporate research and development (R&D) in South Korea. This is because the "Act on Support for Research and Development of Corporate Research Institutes, etc." (Corporate Research Institute Act) will take effect on February 1 next year. This law is expected to inject significant vitality into the R&D ecosystem by easing regulations?a long-standing demand from the field?and by introducing measures to boost the morale of corporate researchers who have long been overlooked. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on September 29 that it had issued a legislative notice for the subordinate statutes of the Corporate Research Institute Act. This comes about eight months after the bill passed the National Assembly in January. The most notable aspect of this legislation is the official designation of September 7 each year as "Technology Developer's Day." This commemorates September 7, 2004, when the number of corporate research institutes in South Korea surp

Ku Jakyun, Chairman of the Korea Industrial Technology Association, emphasized in an interview with Asia Economy that it is urgent to establish an industry-academia-research (R&D) ecosystem modeled after Germany's Fraunhofer Institutes in order to expand local corporate research centers. The Fraunhofer model, which is considered the world's most successful industry-academia-research cooperation framework, supports technology development by collaborating with small and medium-sized enterprises in each region through its 76 local institutes. The capabilities of South Korea's industrial R&D remain excessively concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area. Pangyo is a prime example. With top talent and infrastructure clustered in the capital region, corporate research centers naturally gravitate there as well, creating a vicious cycle that further weakens the R&D base in other regions. Chairman Ku pointed out that this imbalance "results in inefficient utilization of talent nationwide and in

Editor's NoteThere is a growing call for a new driving force to revive the Korean economy, whose growth engine is fading. Where are the corporate research institutes, once the heart of our economy, headed now? Asia Economy explores solutions in a four-part series. We will examine the conditions for a great research institute through the case of IBM, which revived after its "lost decade," and revisit the spirit of the founders who championed "technology for the nation" to propose policies for a Korean-style R&D 2.0 era. We hope this series will serve as an opportunity to find a new path for our economy to move forward once again. At a time when concerns are being raised about the loss of momentum in Korea’s technology and businesses, Asia Economy interviewed Koo Ja-kyun, Chairman of the Korea Industrial Technology Promotion Association (KITA), to hear his views on the future direction of Korean corporate research institutes. Chairman Koo is the head of KITA, representing over 50,000 cor