[International] AI Boom Drives Asian Stocks Soaring, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan's Public Frenzy in Stock Trading Attracts US Media Attention

The artificial intelligence (AI) boom continues to escalate, leading to a surge in wealth for tech giants in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. The astonishing returns on investment in these companies have also sparked a nationwide frenzy in stock trading. In South Korea, even children are being drawn into the market. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that despite recent pullbacks, the market capitalization of Taiwan's stock market has doubled in the past year, with TSMC driving most of the gains. TSMC is currently the seventh-largest company in the world by market value, exceeding $2.2 trillion, higher than Tesla and Facebook's parent company, Meta. The report noted that in Taipei, even taxi drivers are busy trading stocks. Saying one works at TSMC has become an unbeatable pickup line. Yeh Lun-hao, a 37-year-old insurance agent earning about $2,100 a month, invests over half his salary in Taiwanese AI and chip-related companies, with his stock holdings tripling in value. He recently spent about $440,000 to buy a four-bedroom apartment in Taichung. Now, friends frequently seek his advice on investment targets. Yeh Lun-hao said that without semiconductors, none of this would be possible; investing has transformed him from a purely survival mode to enjoying the beauty of the world. Wang Wei-wen, who holds an engineering degree from Taiwan and is now a graduate student at the University of Michigan, has received a job offer from TSMC. Although he has reservations about the demanding nature of the work, becoming a TSMC engineer offers a certain social status, which is highly attractive to Taiwanese parents who are picky about suitors for their daughters. It's not just Taiwan's stock market performing brilliantly; South Korea's market capitalization has doubled, and Japan's Nikkei index has surged over 80%, with returns three times that of the S&P 500. Since January of this year, Na Se-bin, a 24-year-old software developer in South Korea, has invested about $47,000 in the stock market, nearly all her savings. She said that when the market fluctuates violently, the profit or loss in a single second can be equivalent to a month's salary. Despite the huge risks, she finds it hard to resist the temptation when seeing some of her stock prices double. Choi Sung-ho, a 35-year-old elementary school teacher, has seen his Korean stock investment portfolio grow about fivefold in the past year to over $300,000. At the school where he teaches, students also say their parents are very happy about making money from stock trading. Lim Chae-hoon, a sales manager at a BMW dealership in Seoul, said that customers frequently mention their windfall profits from the stock market. "There are clearly more people with ample funds now." In the first three months of this year, Toss Securities, a South Korean brokerage, opened over 180,000 trading accounts for minors under 18. These accounts require parental consent and allow children to trade independently. Ryoki Nao, a 21-year-old student pursuing a degree in semiconductor engineering at a university in Kumamoto, Japan, said that almost all his classmates are following the trend and investing. He is also closely watching the market but plans to consider entering after graduation and finding a job. "I want to wait until I can earn a decent income," he said. (Editor: Liu Xiang-hua)