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Delayed 15 min · 13:30 GMT

FLASH

Germany’s gas storage hits a record low of 61% as winter arrives Korea’s chip exports jump 259% as October shipments hit $115.3B Oil at $110: will talks, the status quo or strikes set the next move? The 49.3 Problem: China’s factories shrink as its carmakers sell abroad Week ahead: US midterms, two rate hikes, jobs data and AI’s next earnings test Weekend Wrap part 2: Record profits, Falling Stocks - and Nervous AI Investors Weekend Wrap 1: The AI bill nobody fully counted: Bangladesh, World's no.2 apparel exporter, forms garment wage board after protests shut 43 factories FBI pins $6.3B Binance heist on North Korea; withdrawals restart Exxon earns $15.4B, Chevron $9.9B as refining boom lifts Big Oil

Germany’s gas storage hits a record low of 61% as winter arrives Korea’s chip exports jump 259% as October shipments hit $115.3B Oil at $110: will talks, the status quo or strikes set the next move? The 49.3 Problem: China’s factories shrink as its carmakers sell abroad Week ahead: US midterms, two rate hikes, jobs data and AI’s next earnings test Weekend Wrap part 2: Record profits, Falling Stocks - and Nervous AI Investors Weekend Wrap 1: The AI bill nobody fully counted: Bangladesh, World's no.2 apparel exporter, forms garment wage board after protests shut 43 factories FBI pins $6.3B Binance heist on North Korea; withdrawals restart Exxon earns $15.4B, Chevron $9.9B as refining boom lifts Big Oil

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Korea’s chip exports jump 259% as October shipments hit $115.3B

South Korea’s exports nearly doubled in October on AI-driven chip demand. That lifted the Kospi 2.24% today even as tech stocks sold off on Wall Street.

News | 2 November 2026

Korea’s chip exports jump 259% as October shipments hit $115.3B

Key details: October exports were $115.3B, up 93.7% YoY, and above $110B for a second month in a row. Chip exports were $56.4B, up 259%, a record 48.9% share of all exports. Chip shipments to the US rose 497%, the tenth straight month of triple-digit growth. January–October exports passed $900B for the first time. The Kospi recovered from an early drop to close up 2.24% at 5,859.07, with SK Hynix up 3.8% and Samsung Electronics up 1.7%.
Wall Street had an AI wobble on Friday. Seoul answered with a trade print.

South Korea shipped $115.3 billion of goods in October, almost double a year ago, and chips made up nearly half of it at $56.4 billion, up 259%.

Sales to the US alone rose almost sixfold. Chip shipments to the US rose 497%, the tenth straight month of triple-digit growth. January–October exports passed $900B for the first time. The Kospi opened lower, then turned around to close up 2.24% as investors bought SK Hynix and Samsung.

The risk is concentration: when one product line is half your exports, Korea’s growth story is now an AI-capex story.