Key Takeaways:
Washington is pushing South Korea's chip giants to share their windfall profits, extending semiconductor tensions from factory localization into the distribution of earnings.
The U.S. has told South Korea it is entitled to a share of the excess profits generated by SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, arguing that American procurement is the primary driver of their record earnings, according to people familiar with the discussions.
"The U.S. logic is that if Korean partners who contributed to profits are entitled to a share, then American companies deserve the same right," a person familiar with the talks said. Rick Switzer, deputy U.S. trade representative, raised the claim in a June meeting with South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Han-kyo, the people said. The U.S. Trade Representative's office did not respond to requests for comment.
South Korea's semiconductor exports hit a record $192.4 billion in the first half of 2026, up 162.5% from a year earlier, government data show. Exports to the U.S. surged 91.3% to $26.4 billion over the period. In June alone, shipments to America jumped 377.2% to $6.49 billion. The explosive growth, fueled by AI demand for high-bandwidth memory chips, has made SK Hynix and Samsung two of the biggest beneficiaries of the global AI infrastructure buildout.
The profit-sharing demand introduces a new front in U.S.-Korea semiconductor tensions that have until now focused on manufacturing localization. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last week publicly called on Samsung and SK Hynix to build advanced memory fabrication plants in America. Both companies have announced major U.S. investment plans but have no concrete projects for advanced DRAM or NAND wafer fabs. If Washington formally pursues profit-sharing, it would directly erode net income at the two memory leaders, which together control more than 70% of the global DRAM market and virtually all of the high-bandwidth memory supply critical for Nvidia's AI accelerators.
The U.S. demand arrives amid an existing controversy inside South Korea over how the chipmakers' windfall should be distributed. Lawmakers and supplier groups have argued that Samsung and SK Hynix should redirect a portion of their excess profits to subcontractors and parts suppliers who contributed to their success. Some have even suggested that taxpayers deserve a share, given that public funds supported the infrastructure underpinning the industry.
The U.S. intervention transforms what was a domestic allocation dispute into an international trade issue, complicating the response for both the Korean government and the companies. South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it was unaware of the specific claim and reiterated its position that "industry matters should proceed based on commercial rationality."
SK Hynix, which just completed a $26.5 billion U.S. share sale and began trading on Nasdaq on July 10, is the world's dominant producer of high-bandwidth memory chips essential for AI data centers. Its shares have surged 650% over the past 12 months, though they remain down a quarter from their record high hit in late June. The company trades at about 6.8 times forward earnings, roughly half the multiple of U.S. rival Micron Technology at 13 times, according to LSEG data.
Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chipmaker by revenue, has also posted record semiconductor profits this year. Any profit-sharing mechanism would set a precedent that could reshape how the global semiconductor industry allocates returns between producers and customers — a shift with implications far beyond the two Korean companies.
The last time the U.S. intervened directly in the profit structure of a foreign semiconductor industry was in the 1980s, when Washington forced Japanese chipmakers to accept minimum pricing and market share limits under the U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Agreement. That deal reshaped the global memory market for a decade. The current demand, while less formalized, signals a similar willingness to use procurement leverage to extract concessions from dominant foreign suppliers.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
