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According to South Korean media ZDNet Korea, Samsung Electronics is adjusting the original purpose of its NRD-K Line 2 at the Giheung campus from a research and development facility to a wafer foundry line, with the main target product being the 2nm base chips required for NVIDIA's HBM. This production line is expected to be operational in the second half of 2028, adopting a "Send-Fab" model, which involves receiving wafers from other mass production lines and performing specific processes.NRD-K is the most advanced composite research and development campus built by Samsung Electronics to seize future semiconductor technology, with a total investment of approximately 20 trillion won, planning for three production lines, of which the first line is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024. This adjustment aims to proactively respond to the expansion of HBM demand driven by investments in AI infrastructure. Samsung plans to first apply the 2nm process to custom HBM and HBM5 to maintain performance advantages.Industry insiders point out that the scale of NRD-K Line 2 is relatively small, making it suitable for operation in the Send-Fab format. However, there are still about two years until the production line is operational, and the final purpose may be adjusted again based on market conditions. Samsung had previously considered using this production line for DRAM production, but after modifications to the relevant plans this month, DRAM capacity will be more concentrated in the Pyeongtaek campus. Equipment procurement orders have not yet been officially issued.

The founder of Strategy, Michael Saylor, proposed the concept of the "Digital Assets Monetary Spectrum," categorizing different types of digital assets based on volatility, potential returns, and trading functions.Saylor stated that the digital asset system can be divided into four levels: Bitcoin (BTC): Digital Capital (Digital Capital) STRC: Digital Credit (Digital Credit) SR-strcUSX: Digital Money (Digital Money) USDT: Digital Currency (Digital Currency).He believes that from left to right, asset volatility and potential returns gradually decrease, while stability and trading utility continuously increase. Saylor stated that Bitcoin is the "ultimate value storage asset," possessing high volatility, high potential returns, and the attributes of a digital asset that does not require third-party credit endorsement; whereas stablecoins are the "ultimate medium of exchange," emphasizing stability and payment functionality. In between the two, digital credit and digital currency serve as a bridge connecting capital and currency. Among them, STRC is defined by Saylor as "digital credit," characterized by relative stability, high fixed returns, and certain value storage attributes.He further stated that digital currency combines digital currency technology with digital capital economic attributes, possessing stability, earning capacity, trading convenience, and value storage functions. Saylor noted that digital capital belongs to bearer assets, while assets such as digital credit, digital currency, and digital cash are created and managed by digital financial companies, with their ownership layer corresponding to "Digital Equity." These components together form the future "Digital Finance Stack."

According to Gate market data, the South Korean KOSPI index rose 3.38% in early trading, Samsung Electronics rose 4%, and SK Hynix rose 5%.

The Bitcoin wallet Electrum has released version 4.8.1, with the official statement claiming that this update includes "important security fixes" and urging users to upgrade as soon as possible.Developers involved in reproducible builds have provided independent signatures for the binary packages on the download page to verify the consistency between the release package and the source code.

According to Gate market data, the Nikkei 225 index closed up 553.84 points on August 12, an increase of 0.83%, reporting at 67,524.06 points.The South Korean KOSPI index also closed up 233.51 points on the same day, an increase of 3.68%, reporting at 6,579.04 points.Chip stocks surged significantly, with Samsung Electronics rising 6.68% and SK Hynix rising 5.54%.

According to a report by South Korea's Asia Economy, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek has decided to invest in the South Korean stock market for the first time, having selected Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as investment targets, and is in contact with the South Korean government to discuss the timing of fund execution. Temasek manages assets of approximately 518 billion Singapore dollars (about 572 trillion Korean won), and this investment will be managed internally rather than through external asset management.Temasek believes that the storage semiconductor sector in the AI value chain is undervalued by the market. Recently, it has been increasing its investments in AI-related fields and already holds shares in semiconductor giants such as Nvidia, TSMC, and ASML, and is also one of the major institutional investors in OpenAI and Anthropic. Temasek plans to increase the proportion of AI-related investments from the current 6% to a maximum of 15% over the next five years. If executed smoothly, this will be Temasek's first direct entry into the South Korean stock market.

According to The Elec, Samsung Electro-Mechanics' investment schedule for semiconductor glass substrates has been delayed due to bottlenecks in the reliability assessment of customer prototypes. As a result, the construction schedule for the production line of GlaSSEM, the glass core joint venture between Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Dongyu Fine Chem, has also been postponed, and the timeline for ordering related equipment has become uncertain.The report states that GlaSSEM has failed to communicate the equipment order schedule to its partner manufacturers. Previous orders have been postponed from December last year to March and June this year, and this has happened more than three times. After June, no further schedule guidance has been provided. Industry insiders believe that the main reason is that global communication semiconductor customers have not passed the reliability assessment certification for glass substrate prototypes. Samsung Electro-Mechanics is still producing prototypes at its Sejong plant, and most of the suppliers for key processes required for building the mass production line, such as deposition, etching, laser drilling, and inspection, have already been selected.Since the prototypes need to be remade and resubmitted, the originally planned investment schedule will inevitably be further delayed. Samsung Electro-Mechanics had set a target for mass production in the second half of 2027 when establishing GlaSSEM earlier last month, but during last month's financial report meeting, this timeline was adjusted to 2028, and now the mass production time is expected to be further postponed.

According to ChosunBiz, Samsung Electronics' System LSI Division has introduced Anthropic's AI programming tool Claude Code for semiconductor design and verification work, with some task cycles shortened to less than one-tenth of the original time. In the verification of data connection structures for customer-customized SoCs, work that was originally expected to take over a month was completed in two days; an engineer with two years of experience completed USB device model development and Android driver adaptation in one day using Claude Code, whereas similar work typically required a month.Samsung opened Claude Code to software developers in May this year and later expanded it to the semiconductor professional development field. The System LSI Division has about 6,000 employees, while its main competitor Qualcomm has about 52,000 employees. Samsung is trying to bridge the manpower gap with AI tools. Meanwhile, Samsung's DS Division is promoting an "AI transformation," extending generative AI from research and development to the entire business process, including production, marketing, and support. The report also pointed out that Claude has exhibited behavior in some verification tasks where it disguised erroneous information as ordinary messages or modified design code without authorization. Samsung emphasized the need for strict control and manual review of the scope and results of AI tasks.

The South Korean semiconductor sector experienced fluctuations during the trading session, with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics' stock prices slightly retreating, but the related contract market remained active. According to Gate market data, SK Hynix (000660) reported $1002.56 during the session, down 0.21%; Samsung Electronics (005930) reported $162.15 during the session, down 0.64%. According to CoinGlass data, the SKHYNIX contract open interest reached $693 million, of which the SKHYNIX contract open interest on the Gate platform reached $131 million, ranking second in the entire network; the SAMSUNG contract open interest reached $45.2207 million, of which the SAMSUNG contract open interest on the Gate platform reached $6.19 million, also ranking second in the entire network.

According to Digital Asset, Samsung Electronics plans to introduce stablecoin account opening, overseas remittance, and payment functions in Samsung Wallet in some countries within this year.Subsequent global service expansion will be gradually promoted based on the regulations and market environment of each country.

According to Gate market data, Southern Double Long Hynix (07709) has fallen more than 14%, and Southern Double Long Samsung Electronics (07747) has fallen more than 10%.

Cryptocurrency platform Bybit announced that its local subsidiary Bybit Payments GmbH has been granted an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), allowing it to provide regulated electronic money and payment services in Europe through Bybit.eu.Bybit EU GmbH has been authorized as a crypto asset service provider under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) since May 2025. Bybit stated that Bybit Payments will be responsible for fiat and electronic money operations, while Bybit EU GmbH will handle digital asset operations. Bybit Payments plans to launch peer-to-peer transfers, open banking features, merchant solutions, card programs, and strong customer authentication tools based on the EMI framework. Company representatives indicated that this license will support its direct collaboration with European financial institutions and payment processors.

Goldman Sachs published a research report stating that Samsung Electronics' operating profit for the second quarter met expectations. The firm raised its earnings per share forecast for 2026 to 2028 by about 2% and increased the 12-month target price from 480,000 won to 490,000 won. The firm expects that demand for memory will significantly exceed supply, with the gap widening in 2027 and supply remaining tight in 2028.Goldman Sachs pointed out that the company has signed long-term agreements with major data center customers, which will provide better profit visibility and downside protection.In addition, the company aims to become a leader in the AI memory market, with HBM4 expected to account for over 60% of HBM revenue in the second half of 2026, and anticipates significant upside potential for shareholder returns. The stock is currently trading at a forecasted price-to-earnings ratio of 3.1 times and a price-to-book ratio of 1.2 times, with a shareholder return rate close to 50%.

According to Gate market data, the South Korean KOSPI index's decline expanded to 5% in the morning session, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix's declines widening to 8%.

This week, the American ETF management firm Roundhill made significant adjustments to its DRAM-themed fund. In addition to previously reported inclusion of CXMT (Changxin Technology) in its holdings with a weight of 2.52%, it also reduced its position in Samsung Electronics.From Monday to Wednesday, the Roundhill DRAM-themed fund sold approximately 1 million shares of Samsung Electronics each day, totaling 3 million shares over three days, worth about $432 million.The top three holdings of the Roundhill DRAM-themed fund are currently Samsung Electronics, Micron Technology, and SK Hynix, with weights of 26.39%, 24.54%, and 22.77%, respectively. Other major holdings include Seagate Technology, Western Digital, SanDisk, Kioxia, Nanya Technology, and Zhaoyi Innovation.

AI Agent Security Tool V12 announces the completion of a $10 million seed round financing, led by Electric Capital, with participation from ZachXBT, samczsun, Walden Yan, and others.Previously, V12 independently discovered a major vulnerability in a primary blockchain, which involved a risk of over $100 million in funds. The team thus received a $2.5 million bug bounty, the largest single bounty obtained by an AI agent. The team stated that their goal is to build a "cyber nuclear weapon"—an AI system capable of finding all vulnerabilities in a system, focusing on white-box code audits rather than black-box penetration testing, believing that the bug bounty system will disappear in the AI era, and the only solution is to eliminate vulnerabilities before the code goes live.V12 stated that the cryptocurrency industry is one of its key application scenarios. The team previously established the blockchain security company Zellic, completing over 1,500 security reviews and participating in multiple vulnerability research projects.

Samsung Electronics released its Q2 2026 financial report, with revenue of 171.5 trillion Korean won (approximately $118.8 billion), a year-on-year increase of 130%, and a quarter-on-quarter increase of 28%, setting a new record for a single quarter; operating profit was 89.5 trillion Korean won (approximately $62 billion), a year-on-year increase of 1813.8%, and a quarter-on-quarter increase of 56.4%, exceeding market expectations by about 5%; net profit was 71.62 trillion Korean won (approximately $49.6 billion), a staggering year-on-year increase of 1299.9%. Earnings per share were 10,849 won, a year-on-year increase of 52%.The Device Solutions (DS) division reported revenue of 127.5 trillion Korean won, with operating profit of 89.2 trillion Korean won, a quarter-on-quarter increase of 56%, driven by demand for AI server memory, with both revenue and profit reaching historical highs. HBM4 has been mass-produced and shipped, and HBM4E samples have been delivered to major customers. The Device Experience (DX) division saw a quarter-on-quarter revenue decline of 9%, with the MX business affected by component cost pressures, reporting revenue of 33.2 trillion Korean won and an operating loss of 0.7 trillion Korean won.Samsung expects strong demand for server DRAM, eSSD, and HBM to continue in the second half of the year, with a tight market supply situation persisting, although demand in the mobile and PC sectors may see some slowdown. The company plans to expand sales of high-value-added products such as HBM4, DDR5, and SOCAMM2, and to mass-produce new mobile products using the second-generation 2nm process, aiming for double-digit revenue growth in its foundry business.

According to Jinshi reports, Samsung Electronics' semiconductor division reported that its profits have increased by more than 250 times due to the reliance of artificial intelligence on memory. The division's operating profit for the second quarter was 89.2 trillion won (approximately 62 billion USD), exceeding analysts' average expectation of 79.3 trillion won.The group's overall net profit was 71.3 trillion won, also surpassing market expectations.

According to Jinshi reports, Samsung Electronics stated that the depreciation of the Korean won had a positive impact of 3.1 trillion won in the second quarter.