Core Insights - The global semiconductor industry generated a total economic profit of $1,470 billion last year, with the top 5% of companies, including NVIDIA, TSMC, SK Hynix, and Broadcom, capturing $159 billion of this profit, while the middle 90% only earned $5 billion, and the bottom 5% incurred losses of $37 billion [1][2] Group 1 - The shift in market structure occurred rapidly within two to three years, with the average annual profit for the middle 90% of companies dropping from over $30 billion during the pandemic to just $3.8 billion in 2023, and further declining to $1.7 billion last year, representing an 88% decrease [1][2] - AI-related semiconductor companies are projected to grow at an annual rate of 18% to 29% until 2030, while traditional semiconductor firms are expected to see growth rates of only 2% to 3% [2][3] - The "winner-takes-all" phenomenon is attributed to leading companies establishing new semiconductor product standards, which limits the entry of later competitors [2][3] Group 2 - Despite holding over 50% of the global memory chip market, the South Korean semiconductor industry is being marginalized in the AI core chip sectors like GPUs and ASICs, with few local companies able to enter NVIDIA's AI value chain [3][4] - South Korea's semiconductor firms need to build an AI semiconductor ecosystem starting from the storage sector, focusing on new technologies such as CXL, PIM, and LPCAMM to remain competitive [3][4] - To survive in the "winner-takes-all" structure of the AI semiconductor field, South Korean companies require multi-layered financial support and ecosystem development, similar to Taiwan's strategic cultivation of its semiconductor industry over the past 40 years [4]