How South Korea's silicon belt is changing its society
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KUHN: While workers and managers fight over chip profits, the government is debating what to do with the tax windfall. Skeptics fear the boom could go bust. They suggest strengthening the social safety net and paying down the national debt. Optimists see AI and chips as part of a new industrial structure that will keep demand strong. They call for reinvesting the surplus in more chip factories.

Last week, South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung announced that Samsung and SK Hynix will build a new half-trillion-dollar semiconductor manufacturing base with government support in the country's southwest. But Lee has also expressed deep concerns.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT LEE JAE MYUNG: (Through interpreter) The government must painfully acknowledge the sense of alienation felt by young people, who look at record-shattering corporate bonuses and an all-time high KOSPI index and feel it's a story from a completely different world.

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