South Korea exports hit record $120.9bn in September on AI chip demand

October 1, 2026 at 09:08 AM2 min

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South Korea's exports jumped 83.5 percent year-on-year to a record $120.9 billion in September, driven by explosive demand for AI chips. Chip shipments soared more than 260 percent to $60.3 billion, nearly half of total exports. The country's January-September exports reached $814.5 billion, already exceeding the full-year record of $709.7 billion set in 2025.

Key Facts

September exports reached $120.9 billion, up 83.5 percent year-on-year and surpassing the previous monthly record of $102.25 billion set in June.
Chip shipments accounted for nearly half of exports, soaring more than 260 percent to $60.3 billion.
Total exports from January through September hit $814.5 billion, exceeding the full-year 2025 record of $709.7 billion.
South Korea recorded a trade surplus of $49.85 billion in the first nine months of the year.
SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics together control roughly 80 percent of the global high-bandwidth memory market and 60 percent of the dynamic random-access memory market, according to Counterpoint Research.

Record Export Surge

South Korea's exports jumped 83.5 percent year-on-year to $120.9 billion in September, eclipsing the previous monthly record of $102.25 billion set in June, according to preliminary customs figures released on Thursday. Chip shipments accounted for nearly half of exports, soaring more than 260 percent to $60.3 billion, according to data from the Korea Customs Service. Total exports from January through September hit $814.5 billion, exceeding those for all of 2025, when exports reached a record $709.7 billion. During the first nine months of the year, the country recorded a trade surplus of $49.85 billion.

AI Chip Dominance

South Korea's economy has been running red-hot this year amid a global shortage of memory chips used in AI. Asia's fourth-largest economy is home to one of the world's largest semiconductor industries, led by top memory chip makers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics. SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics together control roughly 80 percent of the global market for high-bandwidth memory and 60 percent of the market for dynamic random-access memory, according to Counterpoint Research. South Korea's nominal gross domestic product growth hit a five-decade high in the April-June quarter, skyrocketing 26.4 percent year-on-year.

Economic Outlook

South Korea's Ministry of Finance and Economy has forecast real GDP to grow 3 percent in 2026, which would be the strongest performance since 2017, excluding the outlier years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The AI boom has also propelled the country's stock market into the ranks of the best-performing bourses this year, with the benchmark Kospi rising nearly 60 percent. Trade Minister Kim Jeong-kwan said the government expects to achieve $1 trillion in annual exports, while noting that strengthening global protectionism and tensions in the Middle East remain major variables.