South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves have turned downward for the first time in four months. The decline reflects the first-ever transfer of assets to the U.S.-Korea Strategic Investment Corporation, as well as a reduction in the dollar-converted value of non-dollar assets due to dollar strength.
According to data released by the Bank of Korea on the 6th, foreign exchange reserves stood at $440.56 billion (approximately 590.7 trillion won) at the end of September, down $1.72 billion (approximately 2.3 trillion won) from the previous month. Reserves had surged by a record $14.33 billion in August to $442.28 billion, the highest level since May 2022, before reversing course just one month later.
The Bank of Korea attributed the decline to “a decrease in financial institutions’ foreign currency deposits, the transfer of assets to the U.S.-Korea Strategic Investment Corporation, and a decline in the U.S. dollar-converted value of foreign currency assets denominated in other currencies, despite positive investment returns.” Regarding the asset transfer to the corporation, the central bank added that “specific additional transfer amounts and timelines have not yet been determined.”
First $2.4 Billion Remittance for U.S. Investment
A notable factor in the decline was the asset transfer to the U.S.-Korea Strategic Investment Corporation as part of financing for U.S. investment. The South Korean government raised the first tranche of $2.4 billion (approximately 3.2 trillion won) using foreign currency assets held by the Bank of Korea and the Foreign Exchange Equalization Fund, and recently remitted the funds to the United States. The capital will be deployed toward project initiation and procurement for the construction of the Encinal gas combined-cycle power plant in Texas.
The funding mechanism works as follows: the Bank of Korea and the Foreign Exchange Equalization Fund entrust foreign currency assets to the U.S.-Korea Strategic Investment Fund, which then remits the funds to the account of the U.S. investment special purpose vehicle. The government expects minimal direct market impact since it utilized existing foreign currency holdings rather than purchasing dollars in the domestic foreign exchange market. However, the portion of the reserve decline attributable to the asset transfer was not separately disclosed. The total decrease of $1.72 billion reflects the combined effect of the asset transfer, foreign currency deposits, exchange rate movements, and investment returns.
The U.S.-Korea Strategic Investment Corporation is responsible for managing and executing funds for strategic investment projects agreed upon between the two countries. The two nations recently confirmed “Project Star” — a gas combined-cycle power plant with a total project cost of $22.3 billion (approximately 29.9 trillion won) that will supply power to AI data centers in Texas — as their first strategic investment project.
Dollar Strength Shrinks Converted Values
The appreciation of the dollar also contributed to the decline in reserves. Last month, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 1.7% from 99.70 to 101.37. The euro, British pound, and Australian dollar depreciated against the dollar by 2.1%, 2.3%, and 2.4%, respectively, while the yen appreciated by 1.8%. When the dollar strengthens, the dollar-converted value of foreign currency assets denominated in euros and other currencies declines.
By asset class, securities including government bonds, agency bonds, and corporate bonds totaled $386.03 billion, down $1.05 billion from the previous month, accounting for 87.6% of total reserves. Deposits, including financial institutions’ foreign currency deposits, fell by $350 million to $29.95 billion, representing 6.8% of the total.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) decreased by $290 million to $15.48 billion. The IMF reserve position, which represents claims on the IMF, declined by $40 million to $4.3 billion. Gold holdings remained unchanged from the previous month at $4.79 billion. The Bank of Korea has announced plans to resume physical gold purchases for the first time in 13 years, with buying expected to begin as early as the end of this year.
Foreign exchange reserves at the end of September were $12.51 billion higher than at the end of last year.
Arm Compatibility Debate Reignites Ahead of RTX Spark Launch
Meanwhile, in the semiconductor market, software compatibility issues for Arm-based Windows are drawing renewed attention as NVIDIA’s new system-on-chip (SoC) “RTX Spark” nears launch. NVIDIA unveiled RTX Spark at COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2026 in June, announcing a launch window of “this fall.” At IFA in Berlin in early September, Acer, ASUSTeK Computer, Lenovo, and others showcased devices featuring the chip.
RTX Spark adopts an Arm-based CPU rather than the x86 processors that have long dominated Windows PCs, raising concerns about software compatibility. However, Windows on Arm (WoA) has matured significantly over the eight to nine years since its debut in 2018. Microsoft introduced Prism, a binary translation technology that converts x86 applications to Arm instructions, from the outset. Prism caches translated code to storage upon first execution, enabling near-native speeds on subsequent runs.
Printer driver issues that plagued the platform early on have largely been resolved, with major manufacturers including HP, Epson, and Brother now offering Arm versions. Adobe’s Creative Cloud also runs on WoA for most applications except Illustrator and InDesign, both of which are available in beta versions. In gaming, graphics APIs such as DirectX and OpenGL are designed independently of CPU instruction set architecture, so game performance is largely unaffected. However, anti-cheat tools used in online multiplayer games require kernel-mode drivers, which has caused compatibility issues. This is now approaching resolution, with approximately 90% of AAA games on the market supporting Arm-version drivers.
Against this backdrop, AMD has responded by releasing benchmarks for its next-generation “Gorgon Halo” chip, a direct competitor to RTX Spark. AMD compared its flagship Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 against Intel’s Core Ultra X9 388H. The AMD product, equipped with 192GB of unified memory, processed the GLM 5.3 Flash model with 320 billion parameters at up to 20 tokens per second in a local environment, and achieved up to 42 tokens per second on the Qwen 3 model. AMD stated it has shipped more than 500,000 “agentic PCs” to date.
RTX Spark supports up to 128GB of unified memory, while AMD’s Gorgon Halo can be expanded to 192GB. Larger memory capacity enables running bigger models locally, though some observers note this does not necessarily translate to faster speeds. According to testing by Tom’s Hardware, the DGX Spark achieved up to 64 tokens per second on the GPT-OSS 120B model, while the previous-generation Ryzen AI Max+ 395 managed only 56 tokens under the same conditions.
The first Gorgon Halo devices are already on sale. Minisforum’s MS-S1 Max-P495 top-tier configuration is currently priced at approximately $7,000 (around 9.4 million won), with a wider price range expected as more devices launch.
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