South Korea in June 2026: the most important developments in economy
South Korea's economy in June 2026 was shaped by the artificial intelligence boom and its chipmakers. Nvidia chief Jensen Huang visited on 5 June, clearing three memory suppliers for the next-generation Vera Rubin HBM4 supply amid a memory chip shortage, and named robotics as the country's next major industry. On 8 June Nvidia announced partnerships with SK Hynix, Naver and Doosan on AI infrastructure, plus work with LG on physical AI and with Hyundai on robotics, and Huang predicted $360 billion in Korean AI investment. On 22 June SK Hynix overtook Samsung Electronics as South Korea's most valuable company for the first time. SK Hynix planned a $29 billion US listing and Samsung a $59 billion share buyback. On 29 June the government, Samsung and SK Hynix announced a decade-long chip and AI investment plan, with reported totals between $520 billion and $880 billion.
Markets swung sharply. The won fell past 1,560 per dollar on 6 June, the first time since 2009. Stocks tumbled 8% on 8 June in an Asia-wide rout and rose 8% the next day. The KOSPI topped 9,000 for the first time on 18 June. On 23 June it fell between 4% and nearly 10% after regulators cautioned on leveraged ETFs, foreign ownership of Samsung Electronics dropped to a 13-year low of 47.52%, and stocks fell 6% again on 26 June. The same day 24-hour trading began.
The Middle East shaped the wider outlook. A US-Iran peace deal lifted Seoul stocks on 15 June, and the deal included a $300 billion private fund with commitments from South Korean firms. On 30 June South Korea eased its crude oil crisis status to caution. Inflation reached a two-year high at the start of the month and the OECD raised its 2026 growth forecast to 2.6% from 1.7%.
Among companies, Coupang was fined $410 million for data-law breaches, Hyundai workers voted to strike over fears of robots replacing them, and Hyundai planned to buy SoftBank's remaining Boston Dynamics stake for $325 million.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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