Korea’s rising AI stock price is rapidly changing many areas of Korean society, from love to academics.
Professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and judges are traditionally the most popular in the Korean dating scene. Tastes are now changing, as the AI boom has made people working in the tipping industry, where they receive hefty bonuses, the new gem of a dating game.
A spokesperson for Gayoung, a Korean marriage agency, said, “Recently, there has been an increase in interest in semiconductor companies such as SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, and in AI-related jobs.”
Samsung and SK Hynix both joined the $1 trillion club earlier this year, and their stock prices have risen about 95% and 135%, respectively, since the start of the year.
Employees at the semiconductor giant have an advantage due to large bonus payments.
SK Hynix agreed last year to share 10% of its operating profits, which Reuters calculates would mean profits per employee of about 700 million won, or just over $500,000. This is more than 15 times the average annual salary that Koreans took home last year.
Under the wage agreement with Samsung, employees in the memory chip division will earn slightly less than their colleagues at SK Hynix.
The semiconductor giant’s workers’ new star status comes as South Korean singles increasingly see marriage as an economic advantage.
Korean media has started calling this “wedding leverage.” The idea is that pooling two incomes is the quickest way to put together a home deposit or build a meaningful investment portfolio.
That said, people in the chip space looking for partners are becoming increasingly selective, and finance is not always their top preference.
“We are also seeing a trend among our semiconductor-related customers to look at broader factors in potential partners, beyond just occupation and economics,” a Gayon spokesperson said.
Reality TV and academics
The chip giant’s growing popularity was the inspiration for YouTube channel Teo’s dating show. The reality show, which matches employees from Samsung and SK Hynix, was broadcast on August 13 and has been viewed approximately 650,000 times.
A Teo spokesperson said, “The content focuses on the busy daily lives of office workers and aims to provide intimacy and fun using the relatable theme of dating.” “The timing also coincides well with the AI-driven boom for both companies, helping them resonate with a broader audience.”
Last month, Netflix released a variety show titled “Rookie Kim’s Stock Market Mission,” which chronicles the popular comedian’s trading journey. The show began with the comedian buying a few shares of SK Hynix, which resonated with South Korea’s individual investors (a group that makes up one in four people in the country).
The AI craze is also impacting higher education, an important rite of passage in Korean society. At Seoul National University, the so-called Harvard University of South Korea, electrical and computer engineering is rapidly gaining popularity. This is because my major is closely related to AI-related work.
Nine out of 10 undeclared engineering students chose to study electrical and computer engineering this year, compared to just two in 10 in 2023, according to the university’s data.
“Korean students are not just pursuing ‘AI’ as an abstract topic, but rather concrete and visible domestic pipelines into the hardware sector like Samsung and SK Hynix,” Lim said. She said these jobs offer “more tangible and immediate rewards” of stable, regular employment at large companies than just another career.
