South Korea's semiconductor exports surged 259.4 per cent in October to $56.44 billion, official trade figures show, as AI demand pushed memory prices sharply higher. Chips made up almost half of everything the country sold abroad during the month.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said on 1 November that total exports rose 93.7 per cent from a year earlier to $115.28 billion, the second-highest monthly total on record and the strongest annual growth since January 1974. Semiconductors accounted for about 73 per cent of the increase in total exports. Memory chips did most of the work, with exports jumping 360.5 per cent to $50.14 billion, while computer exports rose 496.6 per cent to $5.85 billion on demand for AI servers and storage.

Prices, not just volumes, drove the surge. The trade ministry put the October contract price for a standard DDR5 memory chip at $50, up 475 per cent in a year, and the figures show export values growing far faster than the volume of goods shipped. It was the second month in a row above $50 billion, behind only September's $60.3 billion.

The figures are preliminary and can be revised until annual statistics are finalised in February 2027. The calendar also flattered the comparison: October 2026 had 22 working days against 20 a year earlier, because Chuseok fell in September this time. Adjusted for working days, total export growth was 76.1 per cent, still an exceptional rate.

The boom underlines how central memory chips have become to the global AI buildout, led by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Total exports for the first ten months of 2026 reached $930 billion, and the government expects the annual figure to pass $1 trillion during November. The full October trade breakdown is reported by SOTKN.