The argument is about who the AI boom is for. South Korea’s labour minister, Kim Young-hoon, has called on the country’s largest technology firms to share the windfall profits flowing from the AI-driven chip cycle, warning that record sector gains risk widening the gap between the conglomerates capturing them and everyone working below the top.
His proposal is specific about the mechanism. Companies such as Samsung Electronics that beat their profit targets, Kim said, should consider sharing the excess, after tax, with the suppliers, subcontractors, and workers who contributed to that growth.
He first floated a public dialogue on what to do with excess corporate profits in late May, and has since said he plans to host a forum on it, with ideas including adjustments to the prices paid to suppliers.
The concern underneath is inequality, and Kim ties it directly to the AI cycle. As workers at the biggest companies collect hefty performance bonuses driven by the boom, the divide between large conglomerates and the smaller firms in their supply chains is set to widen.
Worsening inequality, he argued, would itself drag on growth in Asia’s fourth-largest economy, framing profit-sharing not as charity but as a brake on a problem that compounds.
