The use of AI is never a purely technical matter: when it enters processes that affect people’s lives, it touches on rights, opportunities, status and freedom"
—Pope Leo XIV
According to the ministry, citing Wiseapp Retail data from April 2026, ChatGPT had an estimated 23.45 million monthly active users (MAU) in South Korea, followed by Gemini with 8.45 million and Claude with 2.41 million.
Samsung and SK Hynix emerged as key players at the San Francisco AI Summit, with NVIDIA, Anthropic, and Broadcom deepening America’s reliance on South Korea’s HBM and semiconductor supply to fuel its AI buildout.
South Korea’s presidential policy chief Yongbeom Kim has proposed a ‘Citizen Dividend’ to redistribute AI-era excess tax revenue, warning the boom risks a K-shaped split.
Trade ministers from South Korea and Qatar agreed to expand cooperation in manufacturing AI, semiconductors, and biohealth, with talks covering the M.AX Alliance, robotics, and AI chipmakers, South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said.
