Key facts
- South Korea's Labour Minister Kim Young-hoon urged tech firms to share AI-driven windfall profits.
- He proposed sharing excess gains with suppliers, subcontractors, and workers.
- Kim warned that AI profits risk widening the inequality gap.
- He suggested social dialogue to establish new rules for profit distribution.
- The proposal aims to reinvest in the supply chain and address low-growth challenges.
- Kim previously helped broker a pay deal between Samsung and its union, averting a strike.
South Korea's Labour Minister Kim Young-hoon has called on major technology firms, particularly those in the chip sector like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, to share their substantial profits derived from the artificial intelligence boom. In an interview with Reuters, Kim stated that companies exceeding their profit targets should consider distributing these excess gains to their suppliers, subcontractors, and workers, after accounting for taxes. He argued that these gains are not solely the result of management's efforts but also depend on the contributions of labor, suppliers, and public resources like water and electricity. Kim believes that such profit sharing is a form of reinvestment that can help narrow the growing inequality gap, improve supply chain competitiveness, and address South Korea's low-growth challenges. He plans to host a public dialogue to discuss new rules for profit distribution, rejecting criticism from the conservative opposition People Power Party that his ideas amount to 'communism' or 'state intervention' undermining the free-market economy. Kim highlighted that the income gap in South Korea widened significantly in the first quarter, a trend he finds worrisome for economic growth. He also mentioned his role in brokering a pay deal between Samsung and its union, which averted a major strike and secured bonuses for memory-chip workers, noting that the company had a long-standing no-union policy. Samsung has agreed to give special bonuses to employees if it achieves more than 200 trillion won ($129.3 billion) in annual operating profit between 2026 and 2028.