00:00Here is one number to start with.
00:01Korea's largest chipmaker just announced a shareholder return plan worth $100 trillion.
00:06That is a decision a board would need to see, not just read about.
00:09It's Thursday, October 29th.
00:11Let's look at a business story shaping corporate Korea.
00:14Two of the world's biggest tech companies reported earnings within a day of each other.
00:18Microsoft rents much of its AI data center capacity, while Amazon builds its own.
00:23The results will show which approach is paying off.
00:25Amazon is spending heavily on its own data centers,
00:27and its free cash flow for the year has turned into a $7.6 billion deficit.
00:32Here's what the numbers show.
00:32Skop Hynix reported record third-quarter revenue above $104 trillion
00:37and says memory supply will keep lagging demand through 2030.
00:40Its HBM orders exceed what it can supply, and its HBM4 chips are now the main product.
00:45On the same day, the company announced a $100 trillion shareholder return plan for this year,
00:51including $30 trillion in cash dividends.
00:53Next year's return could top $130 trillion if the company keeps paying out half its free cash flow.
00:59LG Chem will sell about $2.5 trillion of its LG Energy Solution stake through a two-year swap deal.
01:05About $4,000 billion of that will go to share buybacks and dividends.
01:09Google's TPU chips will also go into Oracle's data centers next year,
01:13which challenges NVIDIA's grip on the AI server market.
01:15So what does this mean for executives weighing their own capital and supply chain decisions this year?
01:19Three things stand out. First, the builders and the renters are now diverging on cash flow,
01:24and boards will need to decide how much of their own infrastructure to own.
01:28Second, memory supply tightness looks structural, not cyclical.
01:32So long-term supply agreements now matter as much as chip performance.
01:35Third, shareholder payouts are getting larger and more frequent,
01:38which signals that capital discipline is becoming a board-level priority.
01:42Earlier, we said that memory supply would keep lagging demand through 2030.
01:46Here's what that actually means for you. Capacity planning and supplier contracts need to be
01:50locked in now, not after the next cycle begins.
01:53That's today's AI Prism. CEO, this episode was produced with AI assistants based on Seoul Economic
01:59Daily Reporting. AI Prism is a Juan IFRA award-winning series. We'll be back tomorrow.
