South Korea's memory chip exports are booming so hard that its trade surplus is closing in on Taiwan's — great news for Korean exporters, and a sign of how much money AI demand is moving around.

• Korea's current account surplus for the first seven months of this year already ran near double all of last year's total.
• Big banks keep raising their forecasts for Korea, and the gap with Taiwan has shrunk from over 10 points last year to about 3.
• JPMorgan even expects Korea to pass Taiwan this year; if Korea nears 20% of GDP, that's roughly double its 1998 record.
• Chips are doing the heavy lifting — semiconductor exports jumped sharply and now make up over 40% of everything Korea sells abroad.
• Korea has already beaten its full-year export record with four months to spare.

Outlook: If AI chip demand holds up, Korea could top $1 trillion in exports for the first time this year.