Who corners AI profits? Samsung’s labour showdown sparks debate

This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.

Samsung Electronics narrowly averted a walkout by nearly 48,000 workers in May, after executives agreed to a tentative deal over bonus payments. But the labor union’s demand for a bigger share of profits from the company’s semiconductor business has sparked questions – in South Korea and elsewhere – about who benefits from the AI industry, and whether its rewards should be shared more equitably.

Samsung, the world’s biggest memory chip maker, has reported record profits in recent months amid a global shortage of memory chips. The labor union had demanded the company allocate 15% of operating profit to bonuses for all workers, not just those at the memory chip division that supplies Tesla, Nvidia, and other big tech companies.

“As the AI industry drives record operating profits, union members are in a structure where they cannot receive the performance-based rewards they deserve,” Choi Seung-ho, head of Samsung’s union, told Rest of World. “We want to change that.”

Their demand struck a chord in the country, with a top policymaker proposing a “citizen’s dividend,” or a portion of the excess profits from the AI boom to be distributed among its 52 million people. That would ensure social stability, and...

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