{"id":670981,"date":"2026-07-03T03:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T03:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/670981\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T03:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T03:58:14","slug":"3000-bonuses-but-a-growing-wealth-divide-south-korea-grapples-with-its-ai-chip-boom-south-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/670981\/","title":{"rendered":"3,000% bonuses but a growing wealth divide: South Korea grapples with its AI chip boom | South Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"

When South Korea\u2019s most high-profile divorce case returned to court last month, the lawyers were arguing not just about the breakdown of a relationship, but also the exact date at which to value shares in one specific company.<\/p>\n

The judges\u2019 decision in Seoul could change the value of business tycoon Chey Tae-won\u2019s assets by billions of dollars. The shares were in the holding company behind SK Hynix, the manufacturer of chips powering AI systems around the world.<\/p>\n

South Korea is one of the world\u2019s biggest makers of these high-value chips<\/a> and the country is seeing an unprecedented wealth boom from their rise. From workers in tech firms collecting six-figure bonuses, to ordinary people seeing massive investment returns \u2013 all of it driving a surge in luxury spending.<\/p>\n

But only a small slice of the population is cashing in, sparking a wider debate about who should have a share in the profits of the country\u2019s most valuable industry. As South Korea grapples with widening inequality, calls are growing for some of the earnings \u2013 or the taxes they generate \u2013 to be spread more widely.<\/p>\n

The huge wealth surge has been driven by two companies \u2013 Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. The pair dominate the global supply of high-bandwidth memory, the specialised chips that AI systems need to run. Analysts project their combined operating profits could rise almost sevenfold this year.<\/p>\n

Their success has pushed South Korea\u2019s main stock index<\/a> \u2013 the Kospi \u2013 to record highs.<\/p>\n

The chipmakers have begun sharing those record profits with their staff on a scale the country has never seen. At Samsung, a memory-chip worker on a base salary of 80m won ($51,300) could receive<\/a> bonuses close to 600m won ($384,900) this year, most of it in stock. That is roughly 17 times the average annual salary at a small South Korean firm.<\/p>\n

SK Hynix paid its workers a bonus of nearly 3,000% of their monthly salary earlier this year. Based on forecast profits, next year\u2019s payout is projected to be several times larger.<\/p>\n

The signs of this flourishing wealth are dotted across the country. In satellite cities built around the chip factories south of Seoul luxury sales are surging.<\/p>\n

Workers celebrate as a display shows South Korea\u2019s KOSPI index at an all-time high closing price of 9,063.84. Photograph: Jintak Han\/ZUMA Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

In the first weeks of May, jewellery sales at one department store jumped 146%, while watch sales rose 85%. In Icheon, where SK Hynix has its main campus, imported car registrations surged 108% in February. Apartment prices near semiconductor company bus routes are rising at four times the wider Seoul average.<\/p>\n

Not everyone benefiting from the AI boom works in a chip factory.<\/p>\n

After watching financial videos online a few years ago, Brian Lee, a retiree in Seoul bought small amounts of SK Hynix and Samsung shares \u2013 and then forgot about them. His SK Hynix return is now 1,264%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the result of my hard work, plus luck,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel guilty, and at the same time, even though I have yet to cash it out, I tend to spend more,\u201d he said, adding he has started looking at collector watches.<\/p>\n

Who owns the profits?<\/p>\n

The explosion in wealth has driven questions about who is entitled to a share in the profits \u2013 and how to spread the wealth more evenly across society.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years, the semiconductor industry benefited enormously from government support,\u201d says Kim Yong-jin, professor of business administration at Sogang University in Seoul, pointing to decades of state investment in research and industrial policy. \u201cSo they have to think about society itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s chief policy adviser was drawn into the argument in May, floating what he called a \u201ccitizen dividend\u201d, arguing the wealth rested on foundations built by all Koreans over half a century.<\/p>\n

South Korean president Lee Jae-myung holds hands with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, right, and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won as they announced a new computer chipmaking hub on Monday. Photograph: Kim Min-Hee\/Pool KYODONEWS\/AP<\/p>\n

Though some critics saw it as a plan to hand out cash or seize company profits outright, he later framed it more narrowly as a way to channel surplus tax revenues back to the public through structured investment.<\/p>\n

Opposition politicians called his comments akin to communism and the presidential office distanced itself from the plan.<\/p>\n

The question of shared gains is not only political. Samsung\u2019s largest union nearly brought production to a halt in May, demanding a guaranteed share of profits, before a last-minute deal averted a strike. But the deal upset some in the company, as those in the phone and appliance division were set to receive only a fraction of what those working in chip making did.<\/p>\n

South Korea has long grappled with inequality. It has one of the highest rates of elderly poverty in the developed world, while rising housing and living costs have deepened pressure on many households.<\/p>\n

More Koreans feel their living standards have worsened than improved, despite the wealth piling up elsewhere. Manufacturing employment has fallen year on year for nearly two years. Nearly a million small businesses closed in 2025, with many owners left carrying huge debts. The income gap between the richest and poorest households hit a six-year high.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is talking about the boom, but most Koreans can\u2019t feel it,\u201d says Kyusuk Cho, a graduate student in information studies. \u201cLife is getting more expensive and jobs are harder to find.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strip out the two chipmakers \u2013 who make up more than 50% of the Kospi index \u2013 and the rest of the economy is barely moving.<\/p>\n

Kim Yong-jin says the gains should be shared between those who invested, those who worked, and the society that made it possible, in a way that strengthens the country over the long run, but that South Korea has yet to build a framework for how.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a consensus on how to share these profits,\u201d he says. \u201cThat is the most important part.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When South Korea\u2019s most high-profile divorce case returned to court last month, the lawyers were arguing not just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-670981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}