South Korea floats ‘citizen dividend’ using AI profits

SEOUL – South Korea should pay all citizens a share of AI profits, a top policymaker has urged, as a labour dispute threatens to disrupt production at Samsung Electronics’ chip division.

Presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom said in a Facebook post that a portion of the profits and tax revenue derived from the artificial intelligence boom “should be structurally returned to all citizens”.

That is because, Mr Kim argued, the economic gains from AI are based at least partly on industrial infrastructure built by the country over five decades.

Shares in Samsung and SK Hynix, which were up in the morning, reversed gains and sank as much as 5.4 per cent. That pushed the benchmark Kospi down 5.1 per cent.

Around the world, economists and politicians have increasingly called attention to how the advent of AI technology risks worsening the gap between the haves and have-nots.

In South Korea especially, that growing concern has surfaced in public calls for industry leaders from SK Hynix to Samsung to share more of the spoils of that global AI infrastructure boom.

Mr Kim’s comments come after tens of thousands of people gathered outside Samsung’s main chip hub in April to demand employees get a greater share of AI profits. The company’s labour union wants 15 per cent 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 in 2025 agreed to allocate 10 per cent 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,” Mr Kim wrote. Memory companies, core engineers and asset holders are highly likely to receive substantial benefits, while much of the middle class may experience only indirect effects. BLOOMBERG