TL;DR
South Korea’s vice prime minister says the wealth of AI must reach the public, citing Samsung’s near-strike and the launch of Hyundai’s Atlas robot as warnings.
Deputy Prime Minister of South Korea Bae Kyung-hoon said that the wealth created by artificial intelligence should benefit the general public.warning that the labor tensions that nearly paralyzed Samsung Electronics this week are not an isolated event but a preview of what the AI era will produce. Speaking to CNBC on Friday, Bae said that as AI generates unprecedented corporate profits, the question of how that wealth is distributed and whether the technology worsens inequality is now a national policy issue.
“In the age of AI, more of these large companies will continue to emerge,“Bae said.”In this process, conflicts between workers and companies may continue to arise and, when they arise, it will be important to resolve them wisely through dialogue.“
The reference was unequivocal. Samsung’s largest union had been preparing an 18-day strike which South Korea’s prime minister warned could cost $668 million a day. The strike was called off Wednesday after government-mediated negotiations produced a tentative agreement. Workers had demanded that 15% of Samsung’s operating profit be allocated to bonuses and formalized in labor contracts. Samsung had offered 10%. The union will vote on the proposed agreement from Friday to May 27.
The dispute was not abstract. Samsung’s operating profit in the first quarter of 2026 reached £57.2 billion, an eight-fold increase year-on-year, driven almost entirely by high-bandwidth memory chips for artificial intelligence infrastructure. The Lee family’s wealth doubled to $45.5 billion in twelve months. Samsung’s share price has risen almost 144% so far this year. SK Hynix is up almost 200%. The Kospi index has gained more than 86% in 2026, surpassing last year’s 75% gain. Wealth is real, concentrated and visible.
Bae, who also serves as South Korea’s science and technology minister, pointed to automaker Hyundai as another pressure point. The company is integrating Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robots into its manufacturing processes, an implementation that Bae says has generated “many worries and concerns” on the impact on workers. Hyundai acquired a majority stake in Boston Dynamics in 2021 and announced its AI robotics strategy at CES 2026, positioning itself to lead what it calls a “Era of human-centered robotics.“The framework is aspirational. For production line workers, the concern is more immediate.
The political context adds urgency. On May 12, South Korean presidential official Kim Yeong Beom proposed on Facebook to distribute excess tax revenue generated by Korea’s AI and semiconductor sectors directly to citizens. The publication sent markets into turmoil, with shares of Samsung and SK Hynix falling sharply before an official clarified that the proposal was Kim’s personal opinion and not a subject of formal government discussions. The fact that even a speculative post about AI wealth redistribution can move billions in market capitalization illustrates how sensitive the issue has become.
Bae framed Seoul’s goal as building a “An AI-inclusive society, a society where no one is left behind in the AI era.“The language echoes similar commitments from European and American policymakers, but South Korea’s position is unusual. The country’s economy is more dependent on semiconductor manufacturing than any other advanced nation. Chips accounted for 37% of South Korea’s total exports in April. Samsung and SK Hynix together account for a disproportionate share of the Kospi’s profits. The AI boom is not one sector among many for South Korea. It is the sector.
Asked whether the concentration of market gains in two companies represented a vulnerability, Bae argued that Samsung and SK Hynix sit at the top of a broader ecosystem of suppliers and service companies that also benefit. He said South Korea is now trying to establish a competitive advantage in physical AI, the category that encompasses robots, autonomous vehicles and industrial systems capable of sensing, reasoning and acting in real-world environments. “Semiconductors and AI infrastructure provide the fundamental foundation,“Bae said.”On top of that, Korea is trying to develop the full spectrum of AI capabilities, including various hardware, software and related services.“
The tension between AI-driven productivity and workforce displacement is global. Detroit’s Big Three automakers have cut 20,000 white-collar jobs and posted hundreds of AI positions. Salesforce cut 4,000 support employees after deploying AI agents. The pattern is consistent across industries and geographies: AI is making companies more profitable and workforces smaller, and the question of who captures the profits is becoming the defining political question of technology adoption.
The South Korean version of this question is sharper than most because the profits are so concentrated. Two companies, in one sector, in one country, have seen their combined market value increase by hundreds of billions of dollars in six months. Workers who run the manufacturing lines that produce the memory chips powering the AI boom all but walked off the job this week. Bae’s statement that “The benefits of AI must also reach the public.” is an acknowledgment that the market alone will not solve the distribution problem. Every time Samsung’s next contract cycle comes around and every time a Hyundai factory installs another Atlas robot it will be tested whether Seoul’s policy response matches the scale of its rhetoric.
