[Weekly M&A] M&A 'Big Deals' Lined Up Amid Intensifying Global AI Competition... Active Investment in Promising Sectors

[Weekly Pitch: VC & M&A]

Here is this week's core briefing on venture investment and M&A brought to you by News Epoch. (2026.02.13 ~ 2026.02.20)

In the third week of February, the venture investment and M&A market saw active movements in large-scale capital attraction and corporate acquisitions, coupled with the intensifying global AI technology competition. Major domestic and foreign companies appeared to focus on strategic choices to secure future growth engines. In particular, a number of 'big deals' ranging from hundreds of billions to trillions of won were completed, drawing the market's attention. Meanwhile, although the stock market continued to boom with the KOSPI breaking through the 5,600 mark, news of the suspension of redemptions by a large US private credit fund stimulated risk aversion sentiment in the financial market.

Overwhelming Scale of Big Deals, Acceleration of Global Competition

This week, the market paid attention to the movements of OpenAI, foreshadowing an unprecedented capital war for global AI technology leadership. The company is pushing for an additional funding of 100 billion dollars (about 130 trillion won), eyeing a corporate value of 850 billion dollars (about 1,100 trillion won). With the participation of Amazon, MS, and NVIDIA, this clearly shows that the AI competition has entered the stage of an infrastructure and capital-centric industrial war.

In the M&A market, a mega-deal was also concluded to secure young consumers. eBay took an unconventional step by acquiring the secondhand fashion platform Depop for about 1.7436 trillion won. Domestically, Taekwang Group drew attention as it reached a dramatic agreement to acquire AEKYUNG INDUSTRIAL for 447.5 billion won. This is evaluated as a deal driven by a compromise between the two parties to resolve Aekyung's financial structure.

In the virtual asset market, the moves of the traditional financial sector were also prominent. Mirae Asset Consulting decided to acquire a 92.06% stake in the virtual asset exchange Korbit for 133.5 billion won, accelerating the entry of traditional financial companies into the virtual asset market. KOSDAQ-listed company Sungho Electronics continued its aggressive M&A streak by acquiring the optical communication equipment company ADS TECH for 280 billion won. This is interpreted as the main driver of the 2,000% surge in its stock price over the past six months. In the food and beverage (F&B) franchise market, the Philippines' largest fast-food company Jollibee Foods and the Elevation PE Consortium expanded their portfolio by acquiring a 100% stake in Alldayfresh, the operator of 'Shabu Allday', for about 120 billion won.

Hot Sectors Leading the Market: 'Lump Sums' of Money into AI, Robotics, and Energy

The investment fervor for the AI, robotics, and energy sectors, considered future growth engines, remained hot. In the artificial intelligence sector, NVIDIA accelerated 'tokenomics' innovation by lowering AI inference costs to one-tenth through Blackwell, and China's ByteDance is stepping up to build an AI team in the US, launching full-scale competition with global big tech companies. Korea's top three medical AI companies, Lunit, Seers Technology, and VUNO, are waging an all-out effort to make this year their first year of turning a profit.

Amidst this trend, AI and big data software company DIQUEST raised 15.2 billion won in its pre-IPO round and set out to strengthen its ontology and search engines. Industrial humanoid robot developer Index Robotics secured a 1.5 billion won seed investment from FuturePlay and others, proving the growth potential of the robotics industry.

Energy and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) related companies have also emerged as major investment destinations. Carbon and energy management solution company SYNERGY received market attention by securing a 10 billion won lead investment from STIC Investments. Secondary battery equipment company Youil Energy Tech also underwent a change in major shareholders worth 11 billion won, representing the steady growth of the energy sector. Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics showed moves to secure leadership in next-generation communication technology by successfully verifying 6G core technologies in collaboration with KT and Keysight Technologies, and Google is also known to be positively considering building a data center in South Korea, raising expectations for the domestic tech infrastructure market. Hyundai Motor Company and Kakao Mobility joined the future technology competition in the mobility field by participating in the Gwangju autonomous driving demonstration city creation project.

M&A, Restructuring, or Other Notable Deals

News of notable small-scale M&A and early-stage investments also continued. Brothers Keeper, which supports youth independence and operates a plant landscaping business, was acquired by Macho's Puberty, seeking to expand its nature-based social business. In addition, LEESOL, which provides diagnosis and treatment solutions for cranial nerve system diseases, attracted a 3 billion won Series A2 bridge investment, and Q-Stem, a developer of hair loss solutions based on human induced pluripotent stem cells, received a 2.2 billion won seed investment. Pavement, the operator of the K-pop fandom tour platform 'Seletrip', was selected for Global TIPS, gaining recognition for its potential in the Korean wave tourism sector.

[Epoch Point]

This week's VC and M&A market was characterized by the restructuring of traditional industries alongside intensifying global AI competition, as well as steady investments in promising tech startups. In particular, large-scale deals crossing the trillion-won mark breathed vitality into the market, clearly showing that companies are deploying aggressive strategies to secure future revenue streams. The growth of core technology sectors such as AI, robotics, and energy is expected to continue for the time being.