South Korea has asked to postpone a parliamentary briefing on its planned investment in the United States, delaying a key step in negotiations over a $350 billion package that could include a minority stake in Westinghouse and a major expansion of U.S. nuclear power capacity.

The country’s Industry Ministry said Wednesday that it had requested the postponement of a briefing scheduled for Thursday before a parliamentary committee. The ministry gave no further explanation.

The briefing had been viewed by lawmakers as one of the final steps before Seoul and Washington establish the terms governing South Korea’s large-scale investment commitment in the United States.

The two countries are still working through details of the package agreed by U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung in October. Under the trade agreement, South Korea committed to invest $350 billion in U.S. manufacturing in exchange for Washington capping tariffs on Korean imports at 15%.

Of that amount, $150 billion has been earmarked for shipbuilding. Seoul and Washington are negotiating how to allocate the remaining $200 billion among projects under consideration.

The delay comes as nuclear power emerges as a potentially important component of those negotiations, with South Korean media reporting that Seoul is considering taking a minority stake in Westinghouse, the U.S. nuclear reactor technology company.

Westinghouse Stake Tied To Wider Nuclear Expansion

Reports in several South Korean outlets, including the Korea Economic Daily, said Seoul is considering financing a minority investment in Westinghouse through its broader U.S. strategic investment fund.

The proposal is reportedly linked to a package that could result in as many as eight new nuclear reactors being built in the United States. Six would use Westinghouse’s reactor design, while two would be based on a South Korean model.

Under the reported structure, South Korea would seek more than a purely financial interest in Westinghouse. Seoul wants a seat on the company’s board and a role in corporate decision-making, according to the reports.

Washington has been more cautious about those demands, particularly over whether South Korea should receive board representation or voting rights. That difference could be one reason negotiations have yet to produce a finalized structure, although neither government has directly linked the postponement of Thursday’s briefing to the Westinghouse discussions.

South Korea’s Industry Ministry said the two countries were holding consultations on investment in a U.S. nuclear power project but stressed that no specific details had been finalized.

The potential Westinghouse investment would place nuclear power alongside shipbuilding and other manufacturing projects at the center of South Korea’s effort to fulfill its U.S. investment commitment. It would also deepen industrial ties between two countries seeking to expand domestic supply chains for strategically important technologies.

Participation in the U.S. nuclear industry, for Seoul, could provide an opportunity to combine Korean nuclear engineering and manufacturing capabilities with Westinghouse’s established reactor technology and position in the American market. For Washington, the proposed investment could support plans to expand nuclear generation in the United States while bringing additional Korean capital and industrial capacity into the sector.

But ownership and governance rights are a more sensitive issue. A minority financial stake does not necessarily provide the influence Seoul appears to be seeking, while board representation and voting rights would give South Korea a more direct role in the company’s decisions.

Investment Talks Ahead Of High-Level Meeting

The negotiations are taking place shortly before broader discussions between South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, scheduled for Friday in the United States. The meeting provides an opportunity for the two governments to address unresolved issues surrounding the investment package as well as their wider economic relationship.

The postponement of the parliamentary briefing does not by itself indicate that the broader $350 billion commitment is in jeopardy. It does, however, show that important details remain unsettled even as Seoul and Washington approach a series of high-level diplomatic and economic discussions.

The October trade agreement created the headline size of the investment commitment, but allocating the money among specific projects has proved more complicated. The $150 billion shipbuilding component has been identified, leaving $200 billion for other investments that must satisfy both South Korea’s commercial interests and Washington’s industrial priorities.

The reported Westinghouse proposal illustrates the complexity of that process. The potential deal combines capital investment, nuclear technology, reactor construction and corporate governance, meaning that the negotiations extend well beyond a conventional investment transaction.

Until the two governments finalize the terms, the precise size, structure and governance arrangements of any South Korean investment in Westinghouse remain uncertain. Currently, Seoul’s decision to postpone the parliamentary briefing leaves the investment package without the expected final procedural step, while negotiations continue ahead of Friday’s meeting between the two countries’ top diplomats.

ByteDance has raised $290 million for its artificial intelligence drug-discovery business after spinning the unit out of the Chinese internet giant, giving the fledgling company a $1.5 billion valuation and providing fresh capital for its expansion.

Shanghai-based Anew Labs completed its first external fundraising round, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The financing was led by HSG, formerly known as Sequoia China, IDG Capital and Hillhouse Investment, alongside 5Y Capital as a co-lead investor.

Other investors included Gaorong Ventures, Primavera Venture Partners and Boyu Capital, as well as strategic investor SBP Group and the state-backed Shanghai Future Industries Fund, the sources said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the information has not been made public.

The financing marks a significant step for a company that was only recently separated from one of China’s largest technology groups. Anew Labs uses AI in drug discovery, a field where technology companies and investors are increasingly betting that machine learning can accelerate the identification of drug candidates and reduce some of the time and cost associated with conventional pharmaceutical research.

Anew Labs’ $1.5 billion valuation gives the business a substantial standalone market value despite its short history as an externally financed company. The fundraising also provides a new ownership structure under which ByteDance will retain a 56% stake, according to one of the sources.

The decision to spin out the unit reflects the different economics and operating requirements of AI drug discovery compared with ByteDance’s core internet businesses.

One source said ByteDance separated the AI drugmaker to better support its long-term development because AI-driven drug discovery follows a different industry logic and requires a different management approach from the group’s core operations.

Consumer internet businesses can often scale software products rapidly once they gain users, while drug discovery operates on a much longer development cycle and requires significant investment before commercial returns can emerge.

AI drug discovery also sits at the intersection of two capital-intensive industries. The technology requires substantial computing resources and specialized scientific talent, while successful drug development ultimately requires laboratory research, validation and, depending on the program, lengthy clinical development.

The new funding therefore gives Anew Labs the financial runway to develop its technology independently while retaining ByteDance as a majority shareholder.

ByteDance Builds an AI Portfolio Beyond Consumer Internet

The deal illustrates how Chinese technology companies are increasingly exploring AI applications outside the consumer products that made them global businesses.

ByteDance remains best known for TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin, but the company has invested heavily in artificial intelligence across areas including foundation models, applications and infrastructure. Spinning out Anew Labs allows it to maintain exposure to another potentially valuable AI market while giving the drug-discovery business access to outside investors with expertise and capital specific to the sector.

The investor lineup is notable because it combines major Chinese venture and private-equity firms with a state-backed fund and a strategic investor.

That mix could provide Anew Labs with access to both financial resources and industry networks as it develops its technology. It also highlights the broader interest in AI as China seeks applications that extend beyond consumer-facing chatbots and into scientific research and industrial sectors.

The $1.5 billion valuation, however, should not be interpreted as evidence that AI has already transformed the economics of drug development. Drug discovery remains a high-risk business in which technical advances do not necessarily translate into successful medicines.

The value of an AI drug-discovery company ultimately depends on whether its models can identify promising compounds more efficiently, improve the probability of successful development, and translate those discoveries into commercially viable treatments. That makes the distinction between AI capability and pharmaceutical outcomes particularly important.

Anew Labs is entering a market where the potential payoff from successful drug candidates can be substantial, but where timelines are measured in years rather than the rapid product cycles common in consumer technology. The company’s ability to turn its AI capabilities into validated drug candidates will therefore matter more than the size of its initial funding round.

For ByteDance, retaining 56% means the company continues to have significant exposure to that upside while sharing the financing burden and bringing external investors into the business.

The structure could also give Anew Labs greater independence in attracting talent and capital. AI drug discovery requires expertise spanning machine learning, computational biology, chemistry, and pharmaceutical development, making it different from the engineering and product-management structures associated with ByteDance’s core platforms.

The fundraising is therefore as much about corporate structure as it is about capital.

ByteDance has effectively created a standalone vehicle through which investors can finance an AI application with a distinct development cycle, while the parent company preserves majority control.

For the wider Chinese AI industry, the deal adds to evidence that investment is moving beyond general-purpose models toward specialized applications where AI can potentially create value in sectors with high research costs.