With rivals racing to market to raise ‘eye-popping sums’, the spotlight is now on the AI sector’s one-time ‘poster child’

A year is a long time in AI. Just 12 months ago, Sam Altman was predicting his company OpenAI would build a super intelligence and fundamentally remake society. Now the boss of the ChatGPT developer is walking back those ideas after failing to make money from ads and erotic chatbots.

Meanwhile, rivals are storming ahead with plans to expand and go public on the stock market, in what is widely expected to be a season of record-setting initial public offerings (IPOs).

South Korea’s Kospi stock market has hit record highs thanks to AI, but experts urge caution over boom-bust cycles and a heavy reliance on two chipmakers

South Korea has leapfrogged India to become the world’s sixth largest share market, leaving equity markets in the UK, Germany and France trailing in its dust. But despite the runaway success, some are raising concerns that the Kospi index is too dependent on two freshly minted trillion-dollar chipmaking companies.

Chip company SK Hynix last week claimed a seat in Asia’s trillion-dollar company club, alongside South Korean compatriot Samsung Electronics and Taiwan’s TSMC. Explosive demand for chips used in AI has propelled the trio past the valuation threshold.