The AI trade is remaking the global stock-market order

An AI-driven rally in semiconductor and hardware stocks is reshaping global equity leadership and lifting the U.S. market. While the PHLX SOX and U.S. chip names have surged in recent weeks, the biggest market impact has been in South Korea and Taiwan where a handful of AI-exposed giants (notably Samsung and SK Hynix) have propelled their national indices far ahead of the S&P 500. The Kospi rose ~28.5% in May versus the S&P 500’s ~5.2%, and Korean megacaps—Samsung (+191% YTD) and SK Hynix (+263% YTD)—now dominate market capitalization, concentrating gains even as the median Korean stock fell. Taiwan’s market and leading chip names (TSMC, MediaTek) have also seen outsized YTD gains. The piece highlights both bullish fundamentals—explosive memory-chip earnings and lower forward P/Es versus U.S. peers—and dispersion risks, with retail leverage and FOMO amplifying volatility. Wall Street firms have raised targets for the Kospi, but some strategists warn of parallels to late-1990s concentration episodes.