Trade
AI Demand Helps Korean Chip Export Prices to Record Jump in May
- Price index for chips soared 42% from a year earlier in May
- Samsung, SK Hynix compete to expand ties with AI chipmakers
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The price of South Korea’s semiconductor exports rose at a record pace in May, underscoring the strength of an AI rally powering the country’s economic momentum.
The notoriously cyclical memory industry, led by Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc., is bouncing back from a downturn rapidly, with the nation’s semiconductor export-price index jumping 42.1% from a year earlier in dollar terms, according to Bank of Korea data released on Friday. Most of the country’s chip exports are memory, and the surge is partly down to high-bandwidth memory designed to pair with artificial intelligence accelerators like those made by Nvidia Corp.