AI-fueled rally at Samsung, SK hynix faces sustainability test: Harvard economist
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have led Korea’s recent stock market rally on the back of surging global demand for advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but the broader AI industry must ultimately prove it can translate technological promise into scalable and sustainable profit models for current lofty valuations to hold over the long term, according to a Harvard economist. In a recent exclusive interview with The Korea Times and its sister publication, the Hankook Ilbo, at the Korea Capital Market Institute in Seoul, John Y. Campbell, a professor of economics at Harvard University, noted that earlier waves of the tech economy justified massive valuations because dominant platforms — Google in search, Amazon in e-commerce and Meta’s social media empire — captured highly lucrative markets through powerful network effects, effectively securing near-monopolistic positions. The AI industry, however, may not follow the same trajectory, as relatively low switching costs and the rapid emergence of competing models raise uncertainty over whether sustainable market dominance ca
