Korea has been one of the clearest winners of the global artificial intelligence (AI) boom, as U.S. hyperscalers pour hundreds of billions of dollars into data centers and computing infrastructure, driving demand for memory chips made by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Chipmakers are benefiting from those investments even without having to prove that AI itself can generate adequate returns. For now, the cycle remains firmly in Korea's favor. But the foundations of that boom are becoming more fragile, according to global market participants gathered at the KB Jefferies Korea Conference at the Fairmont Ambassador Seoul, Wednesday. Its durability increasingly depends on capital markets continuing to finance ever-greater AI spending, even as other capital-intensive sectors compete for funding and geopolitical shifts threaten to strengthen Chinese rivals. Those risks are beginning to feature more prominently in investors' calculations. "I don’t think I've ever seen a chart like that in a major market before," said Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies, referring to