(Bloomberg) — A top South Korean policymaker said the nation should pay citizens a “dividend” using taxes on AI profits, underscoring growing pressure to redistribute gains from a boom that’s enriched chipmakers like Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc.
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The comments in a Facebook post by presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom fueled sharp swings in Korean stocks on Tuesday as investors struggled to parse the scope of the proposals. The benchmark Kospi sank as much as 5.1%, then pared losses after the influential policy adviser clarified he wanted to tap “excess tax revenue” generated from the AI boom, rather than roll out a new windfall levy on corporate profits. An official at the president’s office told Bloomberg News that Kim’s remarks represented his personal opinion and weren’t the subject of formal discussions.
Shares in Samsung and SK Hynix recouped much of their losses and the Kospi closed down 2.3%.
The episode is the latest example of politicians calling attention to how the advent of AI risks widening the gap between the haves and have-nots. In South Korea, that concern has surfaced in public calls for industry leaders to share more of the spoils of the global AI infrastructure rollout. While Kim’s ideas are preliminary, if they were to be rolled out it would mark one of the first concerted government efforts to share the proceeds of the boom.
Samsung is forecast to post 330 trillion won ($220 billion) in operating profit this year, which would push it past Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. to rank second only to Nvidia Corp. among the world’s most profitable companies. SK Hynix isn’t far behind, with a projected 239 trillion won of profit in 2026.
Asian economies want to provide a signal of ownership of the AI boom, Franklin Templeton Institute senior investment strategist Christy Tan told Bloomberg Television. “That concept is essentially redistributing the benefits of AI and advancements to citizens,” Tan said.
While Kim later said he wasn’t specifically describing a tax on excess corporate profits, the biggest beneficiaries globally of the AI boom remain concerned about pressure to share more of their gains. “What the Korea official is proposing right now is from excess tax, so tax residents then become quite wary about whether or not they could be the one footing the bill, instead of the government,” Tan said.
The size of any potential dividend, and other details on how Kim’s proposals might be implemented, weren’t immediately clear. Still, investors took notice.
In the time it usually takes to watch one soccer match, the Kospi index shed more than $300 billion in value. Its sudden reversal — and rebound — shows how jittery sentiment has become following a rally that lifted the benchmark index nearly 86% this year through Monday. While optimism remains strong — some Wall Street strategists project the Kospi at 10,000 — foreign investors withdrew 5.6 trillion won worth of Kospi shares on Tuesday, bringing their selling for the month to 8.8 trillion won.
“After some 80% gain this year, the market was getting sensitive to any news that can trigger investor jitters,” said Kim Dojoon, chief investment officer at Zian Investment Management. “Policy chief Kim’s post was easy to draw misunderstanding from the market at such a moment.”
Less than five months into the year, Korean stocks have already surpassed their world-beating rally of 2025. The gains were predominantly driven by Samsung and SK Hynix, whose shares have more than doubled this year.
If Samsung and SK Hynix meet estimates and post a combined profit of roughly 500 trillion won this year, for example, they could pay more than 100 trillion won in annual corporate taxes, according to Lim Jae-kyun, an analyst with KB Securities Co. That revenue could exceed the roughly 100 trillion won the government has estimated for the nation’s total 2026 corporate tax collection.
President Lee Jae Myung’s administration has emphasized “inclusive” growth, with policies aimed at boosting household income, regional development and support for small businesses and startups.
On Tuesday, Samsung and its labor union entered the final day of government-mediated wage negotiations in an effort to avert a strike that could disrupt operations at the world’s biggest memory chipmaker. Last month, tens of thousands of people gathered outside Samsung’s main chip hub to demand employees get a greater share of AI profits. The company’s labor union wants 15% of operating profit handed to chip-division employees.
The union has threatened an 18-day strike starting May 21. Workers have pointed to rising payouts at SK Hynix, which last year agreed to allocate 10% of its annual operating profit to a performance bonus pool, as evidence they deserve more pay.
“Excess profits in the AI era are, by nature, concentrated,” Kim wrote. Memory companies, core engineers and asset holders in Seoul are highly likely to receive substantial benefits, while much of the middle class may experience only indirect effects, he said.
–With assistance from Winnie Hsu.
(Updates with government comment, share movement and analyst quotes from the second paragraph.)
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