South Korea just posted export numbers that look like a typo. In the first 10 days of June 2026, the country shipped $28.6 billion worth of goods abroad, an 85.9% jump compared to the same period last year.
The engine behind those numbers is exactly what you’d expect: semiconductors. Chip exports alone reached $11.1 billion in that 10-day window, a 205.8% year-over-year increase. In English: South Korea exported more than three times the semiconductors it did during the same stretch in 2025.
The AI chip machine keeps printing
Semiconductors now account for 38.7% of South Korea’s total exports in early June. South Korea happens to be home to the two companies that dominate the high-bandwidth memory market: Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
NVIDIA routed over 250,000 GPUs to South Korea in June 2026 deals, collaborating with multiple chaebol, the large family-controlled conglomerates that anchor the Korean economy. When NVIDIA’s top executives are making strategic visits to Seoul, it tells you something about where the semiconductor supply chain’s center of gravity sits.
