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🌏 Korea's record chip exports just handed the AI capex story its paper trail

🌏 Korea's record chip exports just handed the AI capex story its paper trail

South Korea's chip exports jumped 209% to a record $46.65bn in August, the clearest evidence yet that AI data-center spending is hitting the trade data. Brazil, Turkey and Korea's own sticky inflation show tight money is still biting everywhere else.

Line chart of seasonally adjusted US$ export indices (Dec 2019=100) for chips, non-chip tech, energy, autos, and others from 2019 through 2026.
Paradis Labs notes Korean semiconductor shipments accounted for all of August’s sequential tech-export increase as AI hyperscaler demand kept memory volumes climbing. Source

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