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Before dreaming of a Korean Nvidia

Published: 11 Apr. 2025, 00:01

Kim Won-bae

The author is an editorial writer at the JoongAng Ilbo.

By all appearances, Lee Jae-myung’s recent declaration to run again for president is a return to form. The former Democratic Party leader pledged a pragmatic platform anchored in state-led investments for new industries. But one remark, in particular, stood out: his suggestion that Korea could one day nurture a company like Nvidia, with roughly 30 percent national ownership, reducing reliance on taxation and public funding.

It’s an ambitious vision, one rooted in his earlier comments that such national stakes in tech giants could transform the country’s economic model. A sovereign wealth fund to seed such ventures is reportedly under discussion. But long before we consider who owns the next Nvidia, we should ask the harder question: Can Korea even produce one?

Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks during the Hon Hai Tech Day in Taipei on October 18, 2023. Nvidia, the chipmaker at the center of an expected AI boom, sank nearly 17 percent, slicing some $589 billion in market value on Jan. 27, 2025. [YONHAP]

The roadblocks suggest the answer, for now, is no.

Start with the labor environment. Nvidia is not only a world leader in artificial intelligence but also a company known for its intense work culture. Employees have likened it to a pressure cooker, with reports of engineers working until 2 a.m., seven days a week. This grueling pace is not unique to the United States. China’s AI firms, now producing competitive models like DeepSeek, often follow the “996” work schedule — 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.

Korea, in contrast, enforces a 52-hour workweek with little flexibility, even for highly paid professionals in critical sectors like semiconductors. Discussions about transitioning to a four-day workweek are gaining traction. But one must ask: can innovation thrive under constraints that rival economies ignore?

Meanwhile, a shrinking population and declining student enrollment pose long-term risks. The nation’s brightest students increasingly opt for careers in medicine, drawn by stability and income, rather than the uncertainties of tech entrepreneurship. The funnel of top talent into engineering and computer science — a prerequisite for building world-class tech firms — is narrowing.

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung speaks during a four-way discussion on a special law for semiconductors, an extra budget and other pending issues at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Feb. 20. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Yet innovation is not solely a function of hours worked. A reimagined education system can achieve more with less. Consider Estonia, which will soon introduce a specialized version of ChatGPT, called ChatGPT Edu, to every high school student and teacher in the country. It is a bold embrace of AI-enhanced learning, aimed at making education more adaptive and individualized.

Korea had similar plans. AI-based textbooks were slated for national rollout this year. But late last year, the Democratic Party pushed through an amendment that downgraded them to supplementary materials. The government used its veto power to restore their status, but regional education offices remain divided, and the powerful Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union opposes their implementation, citing fears of digital dependency.

What the next administration does is anyone’s guess. But the underlying truth is unchanging: AI is evolving rapidly. It offers the possibility of one-on-one instruction, the replacement of inefficient private tutoring, and the globalization of Korea’s education market. These gains are no longer speculative — they are already visible in other countries. Korea must either lead this transformation or be forced to rely on foreign tools, be they from OpenAI or Chinese tech firms.

Then there are Korea’s legal and regulatory frameworks, which often punish risk-taking rather than reward it. Last year, a fatal workplace accident at Tesla’s Texas plant prompted an investigation and unspecified penalties. In Korea, a similar incident could trigger the Severe Accidents Punishment Act, holding top executives criminally liable. By that logic, Elon Musk himself would face prosecution here.

A recent ruling by the Busan District Court referred the constitutionality of the law to the Constitutional Court, accepting a petition from a construction firm executive indicted after the death of a subcontracted worker. The court questioned whether the law’s blanket imposition of criminal responsibility on general contractors — even when specialized work is delegated — was excessively punitive.

No one disputes that industrial safety must be a priority. Every life matters. But policies that enforce safety through fear and disproportionate liability may ultimately deter the kind of entrepreneurship the country so desperately needs.

This photograph shows the logo of the Chinese app DeepSeek, left, and U.S. app ChatGPT displayed on a mobile phone, in Paris, on Jan. 28. [AFP/YONHAP]

This regulatory excess has already cost Korea a budding industry. Four years after Lee Jae-woong, former CEO of mobility startup Socar, was indicted for allegedly running an illegal taxi service, he was acquitted. But his company’s pioneering service, Tada, had long since vanished — killed by legislation pushed through in 2020 to protect existing taxi interests.

New industries will not thrive unless the country is prepared to confront the vested interests that dominate legacy sectors. Creative destruction — a process long understood to drive economic progress — requires not just courage from entrepreneurs but political will from lawmakers. So far, the political class seems reluctant to offer either.

Lee Jae-myung speaks of building a Korean Nvidia through national ownership. But unless these structural barriers are acknowledged and addressed, such talk is premature at best and misleading at worst. His opponents, meanwhile, offer little beyond opposition to Lee himself. The conservative camp has yet to propose any serious road map for economic renewal.

The current administration, too, must engage in honest reflection. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failure to push through meaningful structural reform — and his administration’s deep cuts to research and development budgets — represent not just missed opportunities but active setbacks.

The geopolitical winds are not favorable. With the U.S.–China economic standoff showing no signs of abating since former President Donald Trump’s tariffs first escalated tensions, Korea faces potential shocks from multiple directions. The only protection is preparation.

A Korean Nvidia will not appear through ambition alone. It will require regulatory reform, educational overhaul, labor flexibility and a government that knows when to lead — and when to get out of the way. Until those conditions are met, talk of national ownership and tech sovereignty remains little more than wishful thinking.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.