Author: openjargon

• Daniel Rizea has over 15 years of experience working in global tech companies.
• He says the rush for AI advancements is increasing the need for more data engineers.
• Rizea says data engineers should know compliance rules and enjoy business research. 

I'm a Google engineering director who has led engineering teams in consumer technology startups and big companies. In all instances, data engineering teams played a critical role in the business.

When I entered the industry over 12 years ago, organizations focused mostly on becoming cloud-native. This transition created new opportunities, and companies moved faster, more efficiently, and generated more data. The field of data engineering started getting more attention.

The latest AI developments put data at the forefront since the quality of the data sets determines the quality of AI models. In other words, the rush for AI advancements is increasing the need for more data engineering jobs.

Every organization has tons of unstructured data that hide valuable insights. One of those insights can quickly boost profits, reduce operating costs, or improve well-being. The issue is that it's buried under a lot of noise. Your job as a data engineer is to remove the noise by structuring and processing large amounts of data.

But before you enter this industry, consider these four things.

1. If you don't enjoy diving into businesses, you might not like data engineering

If you enjoy writing code but don't enjoy the business side as much, you might find data engineering both exciting and disappointing.

It will be exciting because you'll need to build large systems at scale, but before you can write any code, you must understand the organization's business context and its products.

You need to partner very closely with product managers and business analysts. Sometimes, you must partner with many to understand all business units. Even if the company has multiple units, the data system you build should serve all of them.

Before writing a line of code, you must figure out:

• What data needs to be collected?
• How is the organization planning to use the data?
• How fresh should the data be?

All of these questions have technical, architectural, and efficiency implications. A good data engineer delivers the best system that balances the organization's needs, costs, and timelines.

The best data engineers consider future needs and designs with them in mind.

2. It's a fast-paced job that continuously evolves

If you don't like to be challenged constantly, then data engineering may not be for you.

Data engineering is a field that evolves very fast, and you need to keep up with it. Data is growing exponentially, and new systems and techniques are needed to manage vast amounts of data. Yesterday's systems are obsolete, and this may seem overwhelming due to the speed of change.

It happened to me in the early stages of my career. There was so much to learn and so little time. I was working at a startup and had to hit the ground running. Early on, I read and learned at night and developed during the day. This helped me get a better understanding of software engineering than my peers.

Now, I set aside a couple of hours a week to browse and read about the latest developments in my field. I know I don't cover everything, but I try to stay updated as much as possible.

The latest trends in the AI space have brought Generative AI and technologies like Vector Databases and Retrieval-Augmented Generation techniques. These unlock new possibilities but also bring new challenges.

You won't be able to keep up with everything, but this shouldn't make you give up. Register for tech newsletters. You can get a weekly or monthly digest of the new trends in your area. Be open to experimenting and trying new things. This will give you and your organization a competitive edge.

3. Knowing compliance rules is a must

As a data engineer, you must consider data privacy and build internal systems that satisfy legal and compliance requirements without putting the company at risk. You must familiarize yourself with GDPR, CCPA, HIPPA, and other regulations the business may need to follow.

I remember when the GDPR deadline kicked in, in 2018. There was a rush for all companies to stop what they were doing and become compliant. Engineering teams worked around the clock to make their systems compliant. The most considerable burden was on the data and feature teams to build in the corresponding functionalities.

Ensuring that user data is secure and that all processing and policies are transparent to users is crucial for building and maintaining customer trust. The easiest way to lose customers' trust is not to manage their data well.

Data engineers must partner with legal and product managers to ensure all data flows respect data privacy regulations and update those flows when regulations change.

4. Consumers won't see your work

You're most likely mistaken if you think data engineering involves building consumer-facing features.

The products that data engineers work most of the time on are data platform systems and capabilities. Those systems support the organization's business needs. In most companies, the data team is a horizontal team that builds systems and pipelines to structure and process the data.

The nature of the horizontal work involves data engineers having various internal customers, ranging from other software teams to product managers, analysts, and executives, who need valuable information on how to run the business.

Data engineers will only work on features and functionality indirectly for consumers. Still, their actions will influence where the product is headed by providing analytics and insights into the market and how customers use it.

Data engineering is an exciting field that is rapidly evolving

The rapid evolution of data engineering is key to making better AI models. But before jumping into the field, keep in mind the four points that were presented. This way, you will have your expectations set, and you will know what you signed up for.

Data engineering is a job that will allow you to interact with various stakeholders, from engineering teams to product managers, legal, and executives. It's a foundational role for any modern organization.

If you are a data engineer with an interesting story to share about the job, please email Manseen Logan at mlogan@businessinsider.com.

• Google's very bad AI-generated answers were a viral story two weeks ago.
• Now that story seems to have disappeared. Did Google's AI answers get better? Or did it stop showing them to us?
• Maybe both.

Two weeks ago, lots of people in the tech world — and even some people who weren't in tech — were chatting about Google's AI-generated answers. And how they sometimes told you to do things like eat rocks or make pizza using glue.

This week, I'm still seeing, and hearing, some discussion about Google's Bad AI Answers. (Thank you (?) for the shout-out, Defector.)

But I'm seeing, and hearing, a lot less of it. And I definitely haven't seen a viral social media post about a Bad AI Answer in some time.

So. Did Google fix its AI answers — which it calls "AI Overviews" — already? Or did it stop showing AI answers as often, so people are less likely to find bad ones?

Google, which referred me back to the blog post it published a week ago, where it explained why it had generated some Bad AI Answers, insisted there weren't many of them — and also said it was restricting its use of them. Like "for hard news topics, where freshness and factuality are important."

And Google PR also offered an updated statement: "We designed AI Overviews to appear for queries where they're helpful and provide value beyond existing features on the results page, and they continue to show for a large number of searches. We're continuing to refine when and how we show AI Overviews so they're as useful as possible, including a number of technical updates in past weeks to improve response quality."

But here are two more data points that suggest that … something has happened.

First off: People really do seem to have moved on from grousing about this stuff on social media.

Here's data from Brandwatch, a social media monitoring company, which shows that people who use X (the company I still call Twitter) started paying attention to Google's AI Overviews the day after Google's May 14 I/O event. And then things really took off a week later —presumably as people saw examples of Very Bad Answers Google was handing out. (Some of those Bad Answers, as Google points out, were actually fakes — note the correction at the end of this New York Times report.)

It's possible, of course, that Google is generating just as many Bad Answers as it was before. And that X/Twitter users have moved on to some other shiny object.

But it's also very likely that they're simply not seeing as many of them. For starters, Google has already said it has been working to fix some of its problems, including "limit[ing] the inclusion of satire and humor content" in answers, and simply not using AI answers in some cases.

And another argument in favor of "there's less to see" comes from BrightEdge, a search optimization company. BrightEdge says it has been tracking Google's AI Overviews since Google first started testing them last fall, initially with people who signed up to try them out via its experimental Google Labs.

At one point, says BrightEdge founder Jim Yu, some keywords were generating AI answers 84% of the time. But by the time of Google I/O, when the company announced that AI answers were going to roll out to most users, that number had dropped to around 30%. And within a week of the announcement, that number had dropped again — this time to around 11%. (Google PR says it takes issue with BrightEdge's methodology, and says its results are inaccurate; Google didn't offer its own statistics.)

None of which is conclusive! But it does look, for now, like Google might have weathered the worst of a storm it created for itself.

• Baby naming consultants are increasingly popular, offering tailored services to parents.
• These experts use social media platforms to attract clients and earn significant income.
• Unique baby names are becoming more accepted, influenced by celebrity trends and social media.

Baby naming isn't what it used to be.

Gone are the days of picking a name for your new baby from an index in a book.

Now, there are baby naming consultants who rifle through popularity lists, analyze trends, and recommend the right fit for families. They can charge up to $10,000 for their services.

What was once deemed a quirk of the super-rich and famous is now becoming commonplace, with parents wanting their children to stand out and have their own unique identities.

Normalizing the unusual

In May, influencer Francesca Farago, who became famous for appearing on various Netflix reality shows, shared some of the baby names she and her partner were considering for the twins they are expecting.

They were all unusual, including Heart, Orca, Afternoon, Lyrics, and Baby.

The response was mixed, with some thinking the names were too "out there" and that Farago was stretching the definition of what names should be.

Unusual names are for everyone now, not just celebrities. When Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter Apple in 2004, many considered it bizarre. Now, there are plenty of children with names that are nouns or adverbs and once considered "just words."

The consultants who spoke with Business Insider agreed that there's been a shift in the last few years that has both widened the criteria for what a name can be and helped boost their businesses.

"There are things that are even too extreme for me," Steph Coffield, aka Names With Steph, told BI. "But I also listen to the client, and if they're like, I want ancient Greek mythology-inspired names, I want super uncommon word names, I get so excited about that."

Embracing originality

Morgan Timm, from Illinois, started her baby naming consultancy in 2022, finding her way there through her interest in collecting vintage yearbooks, spending time on the subreddit Name Nerds, and scrolling through baby name forums.

She said many of her clients had popular names in the 80s or 90s and didn't want their child to be known as "Jessica L," "Matthew R," or "Hannah S."

"I think that's where a lot of people got their interest in having a more uncommon name," she said. "Just with their experience of having a common one."

Jessie Paquette, another consultant, was also always fascinated by names, watching YouTubers talk about popularity lists and speaking to her friends at school about what the No. 1 names for boys and girls were that year.

Unusual names were more of a "luxury" 20 years ago, said Paquette, for the rich and famous who "care about appearance and care about status."

"As TikTok and social media came into the picture, it became more for the common person," she said.

Colleen Slagen, who helps parents find their babies' names through her consultancy Naming Bebe, told BI there is a "cultural trend towards embracing individuality."

As well as out of the ordinary names, she has also noticed that parents are leaning towards names that are "traditional but uncommon," such as Margaret, Ingrid, Eugene, and Bernard.

She also considers the names of any other children and surnames to avoid awkward rhyming disasters.

"People really want to get it right," Slagen said. "They want to choose a name that represents them but also sets their kid up for a lifetime of success."

A lucrative career

Baby naming is an "extremely lucrative" career path, Paquette said, but if you go into it to make money, you won't be successful.

"It has to happen organically," she said.

Making content on TikTok also provides income, Paquette said. She has just over 100,000 followers on the platform, while some of her peers have 200,000-300,000.

"Certain creators in this niche are making upwards of thousands of dollars a month just off of views," Paquette said. "It's become a multilevel stream of income for people."

Slagen's consultations start at $250. During these, she has couples fill out a detailed questionnaire about the kinds of names they like and how popular or rare they want the name to be.

Some of the better-known baby namers can charge hefty fees. One consultant, Taylor A. Humphrey, has services that range from $1,500 for a list of names to $10,000 for something more bespoke, The New Yorker reported.

Humphrey also offers a "baby name branding" service for $30,000, according to Vox, which "helps people in the public eye choose a name that reflects their personal brand."(Humphrey didn't respond to BI's request for comment.)

There are companies that specialize in baby names, too. Nameberry, for example, offers a naming session with resident baby name expert Sophie Kihm for $350 or a package called "the name concierge," which comes with "nine months of on-call name advice, with unlimited meetings and name suggestions." That'll set parents back $10,000.

Coffield said she knew she could make a living from baby names when she started talking about it on TikTok. She had previously focused on educating women about how to be empowered while giving birth and casually spoke about baby names a few times.

That "really took off," and her inbox was soon full of people wanting her advice.

Coffield, who is from Minnesota, started by charging $60 for 10 names on Fiverr. She has since moved off that platform to her own website, where a personalized list costs $140, a list plus a video costs $200, and a luxury service, which includes three phone calls with her to help with the decision, costs $700.

The biggest way to build success in the baby naming business is to make sure people find you credible, Coffield said. There are some accounts that use ChatGPT and other AI software to come up with lists, but these aren't likely to find as good a match as a consultant can.

Consultants aren't an algorithm, so they are limited by how many clients they can take on, Coffield added.

Timm said she "severely undercharged" her clients when she started but has since figured out her worth.

She said that while she thinks there is "less pushback overall" with unconventional names, there is still some sort of exclusivity gap when it comes to celebrities.

One recent client of Timm's made her sign an NDA so she couldn't share their name, or even the fact that they had hired her at all.

"That was a really cool moment," she said.

• A sexually transmitted fungal infection, TMVII, has been reported in the US for the first time.
• The infection, which resembles eczema, often affects men who have sex with other men.
• TMVII responds to terbinafine, but another fungus, T. indotineae, shows resistance to this treatment.

Researchers in New York are warning that a sexually transmitted fungal infection that can take months to resolve has been reported for the first time in the US.

In a report published on Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Dermatology, medical experts highlighted the case of a man in his 30s who had just arrived in New York City.

He suffered a fungal infection on his penis, buttocks, and limbs after arriving from a trip to England, Greece, and California, wrote the researchers from New York University and the New York State Department of Health in Albany.

These rashes were found to have been caused by a ringworm called the Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII, or TMVII, according to the study.

One of their concerns is that the infection can be confused as lesions from eczema and can go untreated.

The infection appears to often affect men who have sex with other men, researchers said, citing 13 cases reported in France last year.

The male patient in the newly published study reported engaging in sex with multiple male partners on his travels, they added.

They warned that even if treated, infections like these can take months to clear up and are highly contagious.

"Healthcare providers should watch out for new and highly contagious forms of ringworm or jock itch, which are emerging as a potential public health threat," read an NYU press release about the report.

John Zampella, a senior author of the paper and an associate professor of dermatology at NYU's Grossman School of Medicine, encouraged doctors to check on rashes they see around their patients' groin and buttocks.

The researchers said the infection can often be difficult to treat but seems to respond well to terbinafine, an antifungal medicine that can be administered orally or as a gel on the skin.

Meanwhile, another fungus that causes contagious rashes like those from TMVII has been found to resist the medicine, the researchers said.

They highlighted T. indotineae, which they said they tested in 11 patients from May 2022 to 2023. Patients affected by the fungus didn't have their rashes improve even after 42 days of treatment with terbinafine, they added.

T. indotineae has largely affected India, but more cases have been reported globally in recent years.

Researchers wrote that itraconazole, an antifungal treatment, appears to work well. However, if used for prolonged periods, it can often interfere with other medicines or cause side effects such as diarrhea.

• Jensen Huang's 14-hour workday begins after he wakes up at 6 a.m. and exercises. 
• The Nvidia CEO has an engaged leadership style with 60 direct reports, which he says empowers others. 
• Huang often eats in the company cafeteria to connect with staff and be the "custodian of culture." 

Running a $3 trillion company comes with early morning starts — just ask Jensen Huang.

The Nvidia founder and CEO recently said that he wakes up at 6 a.m.

Huang, who's one of the longest-serving tech CEOs, starts his day by exercising before embarking on a 14-hour workday, according to The Financial Times.

Bloomberg's Billionaires Index places him as the 13th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $106 billion, up $62 billion since the start of the year.

Being that rich brings its burdens, it seems. He told last year's New York Times DealBook Summit: "I don't wake up proud and confident — I wake up worried and concerned."

That's because Nvidia almost went bankrupt in the late 1990s — a memory he says is hard to shake off.

The company hit a $3 trillion valuation for the first time this week, making it only the third to reach that milestone after Microsoft and Apple. Nvidia's stock surge since the start of 2023 has been driven by demand for its chips, which are vital for AI applications.

Huang also has very high standards. In a recent interview with "60 Minutes," Huang said the description of him being "demanding, perfectionist, not easy to work for," fitted him perfectly.

Here's a look at how Nvidia's CEO spends his time and his leadership style.

Huang works holidays but finds it relaxing

At 61 years old, Huang doesn't seem to be showing signs of slowing down anytime soon and he certainly isn't workshy.

Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, who interviewed Huang last year, said he asked him how much he works. On the "20VC" podcast in March, Tangen said Huang told him, "'Nicolai, there is hard work and then there's insanely hard work.'"

Tangen added that Huang said he works every weekday and every holiday, and that he relaxes all the time because he loves what he does.

In fact, he embraces a workaholic lifestyle.

"I work from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. I work seven days a week. When I'm not working, I'm thinking about working, and when I'm working, I'm working. I sit through movies, but I don't remember them because I'm thinking about work."

Huang's been vocal in the past about how struggle and pain is character-building and helps to achieve greatness.

At Stripe's Sessions conference in April, Huang said some people think the "best jobs are the ones that bring you happiness all the time," but he doesn't agree with that take.

Huang thinks it takes suffering and struggle to "really appreciate what you've done."

He eats in the company cafeteria to connect with employees

Huang also takes time to talk to staff: "People are surprised how much time I spend eating in the cafeteria, whether it's lunch or dinner, people are surprised how much I spend in meetings of all kinds with all the employees."

His emphasis on communication allows him to get back to what he sees as primary role — being the "custodian of the culture."

Unlike many Big Tech CEOs, Huang thinks you can't do that if you're constantly doing press interviews.

"If you want to be the custodian of the culture you can't do it through CNN or do it via Forbes magazine articles. You have to do it 1% of the time unfortunately, or large crowds at a time, so I spend my time that way."

He has 60 direct reports

Huang is known for his engaged leadership style and has about 60 direct reports, he told the Stripe Sessions conference. He also encourages people across the company to send him the five top things on their minds.

"I don't do one-on-ones, my staff is quite large, and almost everything I say, I say to everybody all at the same time."

In his view, that helps with problem-solving and allows others to learn by giving them "equal access to information" and hearing "the reasoning of the solution," which in turn "empowers people."

Huang told Stanford School of Business that CEOs should have the most people reporting directly to them in an organization because they can help to "lead other people to achieve greatness, inspire, empower other people."

He sometimes clears his calendar to get time back

Speaking to Stanford University students in 2003, the Nvidia chief said he tried to spend his time on areas he thinks will have a long-lasting influence on the company.

"As a CEO, your time is not always yours and so you need to have the discipline to make it yours," he told them.

"I'll often come into the office and tell my admin to clear my calendar so that I can have that time back and oftentimes, you also come to the conclusion that as a CEO not sleeping is a good choice. That's always a good option, it creates more time when you don't sleep."

Huang said one area he spends time on is product planning and strategy planning, which he enjoys "a great deal."

Nvidia declined to comment.

Do you work for Nvidia? Got insights into what it's like working for Jensen Huang? Reach out to this reporter from a nonwork device at jmann@businessinsider.com

• Fiona Harvey is suing Netflix for defamation over the portrayal of a stalker in 'Baby Reindeer.'
• 'Baby Reindeer' is based on Richard Gadd's real-life experiences with a stalker during his early career.
• Harvey claims the show misrepresented her, leading to public identification and reputational damage.

Fiona Harvey, the woman who says she's the real version of the semi-fictionalized stalker on Netflix hit "Baby Reindeer," is suing the streaming giant.

Harvey, a 58-year-old Scot, filed a lawsuit on Thursday in California, seeking more than $170 million and a jury trial. She's suing over defamation and intentional affliction of emotional distress, among other points.

She did not sue creator and star Richard Gadd, who plays a fictional version of himself called Donny Dunn. "Baby Reindeer" is based on his experiences with being stalked by a woman earlier in his career, when he was trying to make it as a comedian.

In the complaint, Harvey's lawyers said the show was a "brutal lie" that brought her unwanted attention, including death threats.

"Netflix and Gadd destroyed her reputation, her character and her life," the attorneys wrote.

On- and off-screen, Netflix has repeatedly said "Baby Reindeer" is a true story.

"We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd's right to tell his story," a Netflix spokesperson told Business Insider.

The company has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit.

The real Martha Scott

As the show picked up viewers, armchair sleuths raced to find the "real" stalker, named Martha Scott in the show, and the man who Gadd said abused him.

In late April, Gadd asked fans not to speculate about who the real people were behind the show's characters. He told GQ he disguised the stalker's identity in the show.

"What's been borrowed is an emotional truth, not a fact-by-fact profile of someone," Gadd said.

In the lawsuit, Harvey said she was identified days after the show's April debut. Her attorneys said people found a public 2014 tweet she sent to Gadd that used a phrase repeated in the show.

Harvey's court filing outlined similarities between the stalker character and herself: a Scottish woman about 20 years older than Gadd living in London, with similar appearance and speaking patterns. Both the character and Harvey were accused of stalking a lawyer. It's unclear if that reference is to an old colleague of Harvey's, who told BI on Thursday that Harvey harassed her from 1997 to 2002.

But unlike the fictional Martha Scott, Harvey said she is not a convicted stalker, nor has she pled guilty to any crime. Her complaint said Netflix did not check any facts central to the show, including that the stalker sexually assaulted Gadd. She said she did not have any sexual encounters with the comedian.

In an interview with Piers Morgan in early May, Harvey said that while she may have emailed Gadd, it was nowhere near the 40,000 messages he said the stalker sent him. She denied harassing Gadd and said she knew him from when she was bartending in London.

• HSBC and BlackRock have written off their investments in once-hot Indian tech company Byju.
• The Indian education tech giant is facing legal and financial troubles.
• Investors, including Prosus, are trying to remove CEO Byju Raveendran.

In another blow to education tech giant Byju's, HSBC and BlackRock have both slashed their valuations of the once-hot company down to zero in recent months.

In 2022, the education tech company said it raised $800 million at a $22 billion valuation.

BlackRock was the first investor to publicly signal the company's troubles. In a first-quarter summary for some of its funds, the asset manager valued its stake in Byju's at $0, a number that has not been previously reported. In October, BlackRock slashed its valuation of the startup to less than $1 billion, TechCrunch reported.

BlackRock invested in Byju's parent Think & Learn through various funds, all of which appear to have written off the investment in recent filings.

HSBC similarly cut its valuation to zero in late May, local outlet Business Standard reported on Thursday. Per the outlet, HSBC estimated that Dutch tech investor Prosus' stake in Byju was worth nothing. Prosus owns nearly 10% of the company and invested about $500 million in Byju's.

The valuation drops come after several legal and financial problems for the Bengaluru-based company.

Earlier this week, a group of lenders asked a US court to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against Byju's subsidiaries over a $1.2 billion loan. The company also cut the salaries of new sales hires by 90% in an attempt to cut costs, local outlet Inc42 reported on Thursday.

Byju's investors, including Prosus, are seeking the removal of its CEO, Byju Raveendran, and his family members from the board. The company's India CEO left in April, and it missed filing its 2023 financial reports.

The digital and physical tutoring company was seen as a star in the Indian startup scene and even sponsored the Indian cricket team until 2023. It is backed by the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia Capital, and Tencent, among others.

Byju's first gained popularity during the pandemic for its unique approach to learning. The company faced challenges in 2022 after students began returning to schools and expensive acquisitions affected its bottom line.

The company planned to go public through a SPAC deal in 2022, which did not ultimately pan out.

Byju's and BlackRock did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

• Once passed off as a relic that made only conventional arms, Hanwha Aerospace is returning to the spotlight.
• Bloomberg reported that the South Korean firm builds howitzers up to thrice as fast as its competitors.
• The outlet's surging arms exports underscore a global push to restart manufacturing for older arms.

A South Korean weapons manufacturer that traditionally specialized in older, less advanced armaments is seizing on demand for 155mm howitzers by producing them faster than the West.

Hanwha Aerospace can build its K9 self-propelled howitzer in about six months at $3.5 million apiece, Bloomberg reported, estimating the company to be two to three times as fast as its competitors.

By comparison, French supplier Nexter was estimated to take about 30 months to deliver its Caesar self-propelled howitzer. However, it was reported in early January to have reduced the wait time by half.

That tracks with estimated production times for other Western firms restarting howitzer manufacturing, though other factors, such as sourcing materials, may cost them additional time.

The US uses the M777 howitzer, built by British company BAE Systems. In January, the firm said it expected to reopen production of the artillery platform for new US Army orders and would deliver an initial tranche next year.

German manufacturer KNDS Deutschland is also expected to resume production of its self-propelled PzH 2000 howitzer, with parts from Rheinmetall. In June, it said it would deliver the first howitzers by mid-2025.

Bloomberg reported that Hanwha's advantage comes from a streamlined production process that it's kept running as big Western defense contractors turned to more advanced weaponry years ago.

Hanwha Aerospace CEO Son Jae-il told Bloomberg: "We focus on the middleweights, self-propelled guns, armored vehicles, tanks. In these, we're already globally competitive."

That class of weapon "is the stuff that Lockheed Martin and Boeing don't do," Yoon Sukjoon, a senior fellow at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, told the outlet.

South Korean law prohibits defense contractors from exporting weapons to active combat zones. But Hanwha is finding business outside Ukraine.

Its customers include Poland, which officiated an order for 679 of the K9 howitzers in July 2022, and Romania, which was reported in April to be looking into its first defense contract with South Korea for $725 million.

According to Bloomberg, Hanwha's annual revenue from arms exports has jumped 11 times to $1.1 billion since the war in Ukraine began.

In September, Hanwha factory workers in Changwon told Agence France-Presse that the facility had expanded production three times after Russia invaded.

That growth underscores a worldwide push to revitalize conventional arms manufacturing as global tensions worsen and major militaries send their inventory to Kyiv.

The US, for example, has begun driving up production of its 155mm shells from 10,000 rounds a month to a goal of 100,00 a month by 2025.

South Korea's defense contractors have emerged as significant industry players, making the country the world's 10th biggest arms exporter, per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

According to SIPRI, the country held a 2% share of the global defense export market from 2019 to 2023, about 12% higher than the five years prior.