South Korea’s AI stock rally is rapidly transforming different corners of the country’s society ranging all the way from romance to academics.<\/p>\n
In Korea’s dating scene, professionals such as physicians, lawyers and judges, have traditionally been the most sought-after. Now the preferences are changing, as the AI boom makes those working in the chip sector \u2014 flush with hefty bonuses \u2014 the new gems of the dating pool.<\/p>\n
“Recently, we’ve seen increased preference for people working in semiconductor companies such as SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, as well as AI-related occupations,” said a spokesperson for Korean matchmaking company Gayeon.<\/p>\n
Samsung and SK Hynix both joined the trillion-dollar club earlier this year, and their share prices have each surged around 95% and around 135% so far this year.<\/p>\n
Big bonus payouts have given employees at the chip giants an edge.<\/p>\n
Last year, SK Hynix agreed to share 10% of its operating profit, which comes to roughly 700 million won per employee, or a little over half a million dollars, according to Reuters calculations. That is more than 15 times the average annual salary Koreans took home last year.<\/p>\n
Under Samsung’s wage deal, employees in the memory chip division will take home a little less than their peers at SK Hynix.<\/p>\n
The newfound stardom of workers at chip giants comes against the backdrop of Korean singles increasingly seeing marriage as a financial advantage.<\/p>\n
Korean media has even started calling this “wedding leverage,” the idea that pooling two incomes is the fastest way to afford a home deposit or build a meaningful investment portfolio. <\/p>\n
That being said, those in the chip sector looking for partners are getting increasingly picky, with finance not always among their top preferences. <\/p>\n
“Our clients who work in semiconductor-related jobs are now also showing a tendency to look at a wider range of factors in a potential partner, not just occupation or finances,” the Gayeon spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Reality shows and academics<\/p>\n
The rise in popularity of the chip giants was the source of inspiration for a dating show on YouTube channel Teo. The reality show matching Samsung and SK Hynix employees aired on Aug. 13, racking up around 650,000 views.<\/p>\n
“The content was intended to focus on the hectic daily lives of office workers, using dating, a relatable topic, to offer familiarity and fun,” a spokesperson for Teo said. “The timing also aligned well with the two companies’ boom driven by AI, which helped resonate with a broader audience.” <\/p>\n
Netflix released a variety show last month titled “Rookie Kim’s Stock Market Mission,” documenting a popular comedian’s trading journey. The program starts with the comedian buying a few shares in SK Hynix, resonating with Korean retail investors \u2014 a group that accounts for one in four of the population.<\/p>\n
The AI fervor is even impacting high-level education, an important rite of passage in Korean society. At Seoul National University \u2014 the so-called Harvard of Korea \u2014 electrical and computer engineering has surged in popularity, as the major is closely associated with AI-related jobs.<\/p>\n
Nine in 10 undeclared-major students at the College of Engineering chose to study electrical and computer engineering this year, compared to just two in 10 in 2023, according to data from the university.<\/p>\n
“Korean students aren’t simply chasing ‘AI’ as an abstract theme \u2014 they’re chasing a specific, visible, domestic pipeline into hardware divisions like Samsung’s and SK Hynix’s,” Lim said. These jobs offer “clearer and more immediate rewards” of having a stable, regular positions at large companies than just another career, she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korea’s AI stock rally is rapidly transforming different corners of the country’s society ranging all the way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,289,290,4055,860,207,2597,18,19,17,3255,31681,88271,2428,82],"class_list":["post-671449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-asia-economy","tag-breaking-news-technology","tag-business-news","tag-education","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-life","tag-netflix-inc","tag-sk-hynix-inc","tag-south-korea","tag-technology"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117210293638356210","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}