The Kospi tumbled more than 5 percent at one point and foreign media outlets led with the story after Kim Yong-beom, chief of the Presidential Office's Policy Office, floated the idea of an "artificial intelligence (AI) national dividend." Analysts said the market treated the remarks as a provocative proposition. The index gradually stabilized as it became clear that Kim's comments were focused more on the use of excess tax revenue than on clawing back corporate excess profits.
The Kospi, which had climbed as high as 7,999.67 on Wednesday and appeared set to breach the 8,000 mark, later plunged more than 5 percent. Bloomberg, in an article headlined "Korean Stocks Swing on Plan to Share AI Profits With the Public," reported that "Korean stocks swung sharply after a senior Korean policy official argued that tax revenue from the AI industry should be used to pay dividends to the public."
In a Facebook post late the previous night, Kim wrote, "If Korea's strategic position in the AI infrastructure supply chain creates a structural boom and translates into record excess tax revenue, how to use that money is not a matter of choice but a question we are bound to consider." He added, "These fruits were produced on a foundation built by the entire nation over half a century," and argued that "a portion of the fruits must be structurally returned to the people."
The issue arose because Kim used the terms corporate "excess profits" and "excess tax revenue" interchangeably, leading foreign media to interpret the remarks differently. Foreign outlets read Kim's argument as pressure to redistribute excess profits at semiconductor firms such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, triggering the Kospi's sharp decline. The index, which had been testing the 8,000 level early in the session, tumbled 5.12 percent shortly after Bloomberg's report to slide as low as the 7,400 range.
The Kospi began trimming its losses as word spread that the core of Kim's message lay in "national-level use of excess tax revenue" rather than the direct clawback of corporate excess profits.
Kim said, "The AI era may transform the very structure of the Korean economy." The national dividend is interpreted as a proposal to ease the "K-shaped polarization" that could emerge in that process. Kim's reference to Norway's sovereign wealth fund also drew attention. Just as Norway has accumulated oil revenues in a sovereign wealth fund and returned them to society as a whole, Korea too should consider a structure to share excess tax revenue arising from its edge in the AI and semiconductor supply chain with the public over the long term, Kim suggested.
Separately, President Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday reiterated his expansionary fiscal stance. At a Cabinet meeting held jointly with an emergency economic review meeting at the Presidential Office, Lee said, "We must not fall into the trap of populist austerity fiscal theories that deceive the public." Putting revival of the economic cycle through consumption and investment at the forefront, Lee ordered an expansionary fiscal approach for the second-half economic growth strategy and next year's budget. Attention is accordingly turning to the possibility that next year's budget could exceed 800 trillion won for the first time.
"Multiple research findings confirm that bold fiscal injections inject vitality into the overall economy," Lee said. "The livelihood recovery consumption coupons distributed last year were also analyzed to have generated an additional economic effect of 430,000 won per 1 million won."
Lee also praised Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan, who returned from the United States after talks on investment projects with Washington, while urging him to "consult in advance on specific details with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidential Office's National Security Office, and coordinate well with other ministries beforehand." He added, "When there are cross-ministry issues, if they are not autonomously coordinated, it ends up with me having to step in to coordinate them," before telling officials to "pay special attention and get along well with one another." A senior Presidential Office official explained that Lee was "calling for cooperation that can generate synergy, along with competition among ministries to produce results."
