The artificial intelligence boom has reshaped South Korea’s wealth rankings, placing the founding family of Samsung Electronics at the very top. The demand for advanced memory chips powering AI systems is accelerating globally, four members of the Lee family now occupy the country’s top four billionaire spots for the first time.
As reported by Forbes, The reason behind the surge is that Lee Jae-yong, better known internationally as Jay Y. Lee, fortune has soared alongside Samsung Electronics’ rising stock price. According to Forbes’ real-time billionaire rankings, his net worth now stands at $34 billion.
AI memory chips and Samsung’s rally
According to Forbes, Investor enthusiasm around AI infrastructure has pushed Samsung Electronics shares sharply higher, with the stock gaining around 40% in recent weeks and multiplying several times over the past year. The rally has been driven largely by booming demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a critical component used in AI accelerators and advanced graphics processors.
Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chipmaker by revenue, supplies memory products to leading AI companies including Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Alphabet. Its NAND flash products, widely used in data centers and solid-state drives, are also benefiting from the explosive growth of AI computing workloads.
The company’s market capitalisation recently crossed the $1 trillion mark, making it only the second Asian company after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to achieve the milestone.
The Lee family dominates the billionaire rankings
Forbes reported that the wealth surge has elevated the entire Lee family into South Korea’s billionaire elite. Lee Jae-yong’s younger sister, Lee Boo-jin, ranks as the country’s second-richest person with a fortune estimated at $12.4 billion. She currently serves as president and chief executive of Hotel Shilla.
Another sister, Lee Seo-hyun, is now worth around $12 billion. She oversees strategic planning at Samsung C&T, widely viewed as the de facto holding company of the Samsung empire.
Their mother, Hong Ra-hee, whose fortune is estimated at $11.2 billion, previously led the Samsung Museum of Art, known as Leeum, and the Ho-Am Art Museum before stepping down in 2017.
Record profits strengthen Samsung’s AI bet
Samsung’s financial performance has mirrored investor optimism around AI-related demand. The company recently reported record quarterly earnings, powered largely by its semiconductor business.
First-quarter revenue jumped 69% year-on-year to 133.9 trillion won, while operating profit surged 756% to 57.2 trillion won. Analysts expect the company’s HBM business to continue expanding rapidly as global tech firms race to build larger and more powerful AI systems.
Barclays analysts recently projected that Samsung could triple its HBM revenue this year, noting that the supply-demand imbalance in advanced memory chips is unlikely to ease anytime soon as AI infrastructure spending accelerates globally.
The Lee family’s dominance traces back to Lee Byung-chul, who founded Samsung in 1938 as a trading company before transforming it into one of the world’s largest conglomerates spanning electronics, construction, finance and consumer goods.
Following the death of former chairman Lee Kun-hee in 2020, the family inherited one of the largest estate tax burdens in South Korean history. Earlier this month, the family completed a record inheritance tax payment of 12 trillion won, or roughly $8 billion, linked to his estate.
Even after that massive payout, the family’s wealth has continued to climb as Samsung cements its position at the heart of the global AI boom.