75.5% of Listed Companies' New Business Plans Focus on 'Energy, Mobility, and AI'

KEF Analyzes Articles of Incorporation of Top 1,000 Listed Companies by Assets
Energy Leads New Business Purposes at 31.1%
Larger Firms Diversify; Smaller Firms Focus on Energy and Manufacturing

The expansion of Korea’s top 1,000 listed companies by assets into new industries is concentrated in a handful of fields, including renewable energy and robotics.

The Korea Enterprises Federation said on the 12th that its analysis of new business purposes listed in the articles of incorporation of the top 1,000 listed companies by assets found that energy accounted for the largest share among new-industry fields, at 31.1%. It was followed by manufacturing and mobility (19.8%), artificial intelligence (AI) (12.3%), and information and communications technology (ICT) and digital (12.3%). The top three of the nine new-industry fields accounted for 75.5% of the total.

They were followed by convergent knowledge services (7.5%), materials and components (6.6%), semiconductors and displays (3.8%), biohealth (3.8%), and the environment and smart agriculture, livestock, and fisheries (2.8%).

By subfield, renewable energy ranked first at 18.9%, followed by robotics (11.3%), software applications and cybersecurity (8.5%), knowledge services (6.6%), AI convergence services (5.7%), and data analytics and computing (5.7%). The top six subfields accounted for 56.7% of the total.

The Federation cited growing demand for renewable energy procurement as the reason for the high share of renewable energy. It said that finalization of the 2035 national greenhouse gas reduction target (NDC) and the government’s announcement of plans to establish RE100 (100% renewable energy) industrial complexes had influenced companies’ entry into related businesses.

Federation of Korean Industries sign. Yonhap News Agency.

There were also clear differences by company size. The top 500 companies had an average of 2.1 new business purposes related to new industries, about 1.6 times the average of 1.3 among the bottom 500. The top group also covered 22 subfields of new industries, about 1.5 times the 15 covered by the bottom group.

The top group had a relatively broad presence across several fields, including energy (28.4%), ICT and digital (17.9%), manufacturing and mobility (16.4%), AI (16.4%), and convergent knowledge services (10.4%). By contrast, a substantial share of the bottom group’s new business purposes was concentrated in energy (35.9%) and manufacturing and mobility (25.6%).

Among subfields, the top group ranked renewable energy first (16.4%), followed by software applications and cybersecurity (13.4%), knowledge services (10.4%), robotics (9.0%), and data analytics and computing (9.0%). Software- and service-based businesses made up a relatively large share. The bottom group had high shares in renewable energy (23.1%) and robotics (15.4%), while semiconductors and aerospace, space, and defense each accounted for 7.7%, reflecting a greater focus on hardware-based businesses.

“Our analysis found that Korean companies’ entry into and expansion in new industries are concentrated in a handful of fields, such as renewable energy and robotics, and that the scope and pattern of their expansion into new industries also differ by company size,” said Lee Sangho, head of the Federation’s Economic Division. He added, “We need to strengthen institutional support, including expanding tax incentives for research and development (R&D) and improving the effectiveness of regulatory sandboxes for new industries, so companies can venture into a wider range of new industries and build future competitiveness.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.