Jul 10, 2026 – 12.00pmBy 9am each day, Jaehoon Bae has settled into his living room in Seoul’s south-west suburbs, three monitors glowing as South Korea’s sharemarket opens for another day of violent swings.For the last year, the 37-year-old day trader has made what he describes as “very good money” riding the artificial intelligence boom, darting in and out of chip giants SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics as billions of dollars flowed into the companies powering the world’s data centre buildout.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Jessica SierNorth Asia correspondentJessica Sier is the North Asia correspondent for The Australian Financial Review. She is based in Tokyo, Japan. Jessica has previously written on technology, global capital markets and economics.Fetching latest articles
How South Korea’s chip stars supercharged the market and the economy
Demand for SK Hynix and Samsung’s chips has set the sharemarket alight, fired up consumers and made South Korea one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
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