SEOUL: South Korea’s artificial intelligence (AI) chip boom is creating a new class of corporate elites.
Jobs at Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have long been prized for their pay and stability, but as soaring profits from AI change perceptions of the semiconductor industry, they are increasingly treated as status symbols in everything from college admissions and job hunting to love and marriage.
Online, the phenomenon is referred to as “Samjeongnix,” a combination of “Samjeong,” the Korean abbreviation for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
Once used primarily by individual investors, the term has taken on a broader meaning, reflecting how the growing wealth of semiconductor manufacturers is reshaping society’s perceptions far beyond the stock market.
This trend is most evident around SK Hynix. The company has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom through its dominance in high-bandwidth memory chips, a key component used in AI accelerators.
Samsung Electronics, long considered South Korea’s benchmark employer, remains at the center of this phenomenon.
For talented students, the contract semiconductor division in collaboration with SK Hynix is no longer seen as just an engineering course.
Comparisons are increasingly being made to medical school, drawn by full tuition assistance, scholarships, overseas training opportunities, and perhaps most importantly, job security after graduation.
The private education community even created a new expression, “Ha Wi Chi Han Yaks,” where the “Ha” refers to SK Hynix.
The phrase is an extension of traditional Korean abbreviations for elite professions such as medicine, dentistry, Korean medicine, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine.
The numbers reflect its growing appeal.
During the 2026 early admission cycle, contract departments at Korea University, Sogang University, and Hanyang University in collaboration with SK Hynix had an average number of applicants per seat of 30.98, while the semiconductor department in collaboration with Samsung Electronics had 18.33 applicants per seat.
The change is notable in a country where medical school has long been considered the pinnacle of academic and eventual career success.
Much of the industry’s newfound fame is tied to money.
As SK Hynix capitalizes on demand for AI memory chips, expectations are rising that employee profit sharing could reach unprecedented levels. — Korea Herald/ANN
