Walk through any major electronics hub in Shenzhen, Seoul or Taipei right now, and the neon glare of artificial intelligence is blinding.
It’s also intensifying: order books for advanced chips are overflowing, stock tickers are melting upward and tech executives speak with a zeal that would make dot-com CEOs blush. But step behind the glittering facade, and the underlying economy looks less like a sci-fi utopia than a rust-belt hangover.
Across East Asia, the AI boom has become an economic smoke machine. In South Korea, it’s masking weak domestic spending, runaway household debt and a fast-aging workforce. In Taiwan, AI-driven double-digit growth is eclipsing a hollowing-out of manufacturing sectors like machinery, basic metals, textiles and chemicals.
