Evening Briefing Asia

Korea’s Massive AI Boom Triggers Call for Tech Tax, Roiling Market

Get caught up.
Samsung workers chant slogans during a rally ahead of a strike, scheduled to take place from May 21.Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

There are few places where the global AI boom has manifested more strongly than South Korea.

The country’s largest company Samsung Electronics, which dominates global memory chip supply, posted a 755% increase in profit in the March quarter. Last week, the company’s market valuation topped $1 trillion after the shares more than quadrupled over the past year. South Korea’s stock benchmark has rallied 81% this year, more than any other worldwide.