The industrial restructuring sparked by generative AI is emerging as a new growth engine for the global economy. As Big Tech (large information technology corporations) pours massive funds into expanding AI data centers, the resulting investment boom is becoming a growth backstop for the global economy, where downside risks have increased due to the Iran war.
The recovery in U.S. growth is a leading example. The U.S. Department of Commerce said on Apr. 30 (local time) that U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first quarter of 2026 rebounded to 2.0% (annualized quarter over quarter) from 0.5% in the previous quarter. While the growth rate of personal consumption, which accounts for 70% of U.S. GDP, slowed (1.9% in the fourth quarter of 2025 → 1.6% in the first quarter of 2026), a sharp rise in the growth rate of private investment (2.3% → 8.7%) led the expansion.
The U.S. investment boom is driving economic upswings in East Asian semiconductor powerhouses such as Korea and Taiwan. According to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) on Apr. 30, Taiwan's real GDP in the first quarter of 2026 rose 13.69% year over year. Growth accelerated from the fourth quarter of 2025 (12.65%). Riding the strongest growth in 39 years since 1987, Taiwan's economy has established itself as the biggest beneficiary of the AI-driven investment cycle. This trend is also shaking Korea's economy awake. According to the Bank of Korea on Apr. 23, Korea's real GDP in the first quarter of 2026 increased 3.6% year over year. In particular, it grew 1.7% quarter over quarter, marking the highest growth rate in five years and six months since the third quarter of 2020 (2.2%). It more than doubled the Bank of Korea's forecast (0.9%). Although the growth rate of private consumption slowed, a rebound in facility and construction investment led to an economic turnaround. Like the United States, an "investment-led growth" pattern played out.
Global division of labor strengthened by the AI investment boom
In the last first quarter, the growth rate of U.S. corporate investment was 10.4%, the fastest in three years. The growth rates of equipment and intellectual property (IP) investment, which were each in the 4–5% range in the fourth quarter of 2025, expanded to 17.2% and 13.0%. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said, "The surge in corporate investment in information technology (IT) equipment and IP shows that AI has become the core growth engine of the U.S. economy."
The expansion of IT equipment and IP investment pushed the U.S. import growth rate up to 21.4% from -1.0% in the fourth quarter of 2025. In the United States, where the manufacturing base is weak, increased investment to build production infrastructure translates directly into higher imports of industrial equipment.
The results of U.S. equipment investment, which has a high dependence on imports, are spreading to East Asia along the global semiconductor supply chain. Taiwan, which supplies AI Semiconductor chips and servers to the United States, saw first-quarter 2026 exports increase 33.25% (year over year). About 70% of Taiwan's first-quarter GDP growth was generated by exports. Korea, a powerhouse in memory semiconductors (hereafter memory), also posted a 10.3% increase in first-quarter exports, contributing more than 40% to GDP growth. The global division-of-labor structure in which U.S. AI investment drives "export-led growth" in countries such as Korea and Taiwan has strengthened. Although U.S. President Donald Trump is pursuing protectionist policies such as the tariff, the AI investment boom is instead further solidifying the global growth mechanism through specialization.
Korea's "semiconductor-skewed growth"
The AI investment boom is giving breathing room to Korea's economy, which had been stuck in low growth of 1–2% for three years. With first-quarter growth far exceeding expectations, projections that the annual growth rate for 2026 will top 3% are spreading, led by global investment banks (IBs).
Semiconductors are at the center of growth. First-quarter semiconductor exports were $69.5 billion (about 102.5125 trillion won), up 140% from a year earlier. A surge in memory prices of up to nearly 10 times is driving export growth and investment expansion. To respond to AI-driven memory shortages, Samsung Electronics resumed expansion of the Pyeongtaek P4 and P5 fabs, which had been halted in 2023, and SK hynix is also speeding up construction of the Yongin cluster. As a result, gross capital formation, including facility and construction investment, broke a seven-quarter streak of declines and turned to growth.
However, the semiconductor boom has not spread to the entire economy. Although manufacturing output in the last first quarter rose 3.0% quarter over quarter, the largest increase in about five years since 2020, the growth rate drops to 0.2% excluding semiconductors. The growth rate of private consumption, directly tied to domestic demand, stayed at 0.5%, and production in food and lodging and leisure services also fell. With about 15% of people in their 20s and 30s unable to find jobs, the youth unemployment rate has surged into the 7% range.
Taiwan spreads growth through a "platform economy"
If Korea posted "surprise growth" on the halo of soaring semiconductor prices, Taiwan is sustaining an unprecedented double-digit growth rate for an advanced economy through a structure that dominates the AI supply chain. Taiwan's high growth is the result of knitting together the supply chain—from AI Semiconductor design, manufacturing, and packaging to server production—into a single ecosystem. Centered on TSMC, MediaTek, ASE, Foxconn, and Quanta are organically linked, seizing the global AI supply chain. This contrasts with Korea, where only Samsung Electronics and SK hynix stand out on the global stage.
This structure is linking the effects of global AI investment to Taiwan's domestic demand. Big Tech investment boosts domestic demand through the sales of Taiwanese corporations. In fact, Taiwan's jobless rate in March fell to 3.34%, the lowest since 2010, and wage growth has stayed in the 4–5% range. As a result, the growth rate of private consumption, which was 3.45% year over year in the fourth quarter of last year, expanded to 4.89% in the last first quarter. The AI boom is creating a virtuous cycle of wage increases and consumption expansion.
The "ecosystem" determines success or failure in AI
Korea has a diverse manufacturing portfolio, but there are not many areas where it holds an overwhelming technological edge like memory semiconductors. By contrast, Taiwan, concentrated in the IT industry, has "platformized" this concentration to take control of supply chains in advanced industries such as AI.
Taiwan's rise as the biggest beneficiary of the AI investment boom is a structural outcome created by the accumulated capabilities of large and small corporations that have step by step seized core processes in the supply chain. Unlike Korea, which relies on the "price cycle," Taiwan is building growth potential through "structure and ecosystem." As long as Korea remains centered on commodity memory production, the benefits of the AI investment boom will inevitably be limited. An economy that controls the supply chain achieves a virtuous cycle of growth that connects investment and production to employment and consumption. In the AI era, success or failure depends on what kind of economic ecosystem is built.