AI Infrastructure Bottleneck: Even Google Falls Short on Contracted Capacity

*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an "AI-based customized news recommendation and summarization service" developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news articles by reader type.

1. Google Also Hits AI Infrastructure Bottleneck...Could Failure to Meet Contracted Capacity Hold Back Growth?

- Key Summary: When Google notified Meta in March this year that it could not supply as much computing capacity for its AI model "Gemini" as contracted, it confirmed that the AI infrastructure bottleneck is a problem across Big Tech as a whole. Alphabet's cloud revenue surpassed $20 billion for the first time in the first quarter, but it carries a demand backlog with an unfilled order amount of $460 billion, nearly double the previous quarter. Meanwhile, the BIS warned in its annual report that the current AI investment frenzy, at 4.5 times over three years, far exceeds the 1990s dot-com bubble (1.9 times over five years), cautioning that it could lead to a prolonged slump. Following Google's restriction, Meta is now advising employees to use tokens, the unit of AI usage, more efficiently.

2. Europe's "Big Player" DWS: "AI-Driven KOSPI Rally to Continue...MSCI Developed Index Inclusion Is a Matter of Time"

- Key Summary: DWS Group, a leading European asset manager (1.093 trillion euros in assets under management, or about 1,900 trillion won), released an analysis that Korea's stock market has room to continue its rally. Johannes Müller, head of global research at DWS, said, "Korea's 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio (PER) is at about 8 times, which cannot be called expensive," noting that whether the current rally continues depends on how long the capital expenditure (CAPEX) "super cycle" driven by AI infrastructure investment lasts. DWS said it currently maintains an "Overweight" strategy on Asian emerging markets and holds a particularly positive view on the Korean market. Regarding the recently failed inclusion in the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) developed markets index, it also offered an optimistic outlook, calling it "a matter of time."

3. Choi Tae-won: "AIDC Is a Factory That Produces Intelligence"...550 Trillion Won Drive in Ulsan, Donghae and Sejong

- Key Summary: The government, joined by SK Group, GS Group and Naver, has decided to build AI data centers (AIDC) totaling 8.4GW by 2029 at regional hubs including Ulsan, Donghae and Sejong. Total investment amounts to 550 trillion won, and once the second-phase expansion is completed in 2035, Korea's AIDC capacity will reach a total of 18.4GW, expected to account for about 25% of the entire Asia-Pacific region. The AIDC that GS Group is building in Donghae, Gangwon, is the largest in Asia, with total investment costs alone reaching 30 trillion won, and projected to reach around 120 trillion won when GPUs and memory are included. SK Group Chairman Tae-won Choi defined the AIDC as "a factory that produces intelligence," announcing plans to expand into high-value-added platform businesses such as GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS).

4. China's IPO-Bound CXMT to Supply Tencent with 4.5 Trillion Won in DRAM Over Five Years

- Key Summary: Chinese memory chipmaker Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) signed a server DRAM supply contract worth up to 20 billion yuan (about 4.5 trillion won) with Tencent Holdings over up to five years. CXMT is the world's fourth-largest DRAM manufacturer as of 2025, recording first-quarter revenue of 50.8 billion yuan, a 700% surge from a year earlier, and successfully turning to a net profit of 25 billion yuan from a loss of 1.6 billion yuan. In addition, its initial public offering (IPO) targeting 29.5 billion yuan (about 6.7 trillion won) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market (Sci-Tech Innovation Board) has been approved, and interest in the IPO is rising following the large-scale long-term supply contract. However, Reuters assessed that CXMT's production yield for DDR5-standard DRAM is still relatively low and that a technology gap with top global competitors still exists.

5. Samsung, SK hynix, Micron Sued in U.S. on Memory Price-Fixing Allegations

- Key Summary: Fourteen U.S. consumers and three small and medium-sized businesses filed a DRAM price-fixing lawsuit against Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron at a California federal court. The plaintiffs alleged the three companies cut DRAM supply volumes under the pretext of shifting to high-bandwidth memory (HBM, an essential component of high-performance AI chips) starting in 2022, driving up prices by about 700% over four years. The price-fixing specialist law firm Bartlit aims for a class action representing all consumers and businesses that purchased DRAM-equipped products, so if it expands into a class action in the future, the sued companies would have to pay triple the amount of damages. However, industry players including investment bank Jefferies forecast that this lawsuit will not affect memory prices at least until the end of this year.

6. Park Hyeon-joo: "We Expect Global Investment Platform MAPS to Boost Foreign Investment in Korean Stocks"

- Key Summary: Mirae Asset Securities (006800) officially unveiled its global investment platform "MAPS (Mirae Asset Portfolio Service)" in Hong Kong, introducing a service that integrates traditional financial assets and digital assets into a single mobile platform. MAPS is the first global investment platform under Mirae Asset's next-generation growth strategy, the "Mirae Asset 3.0" vision, and Mirae Asset Securities' Hong Kong subsidiary established its service foundation by securing a digital asset retail license from Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in April this year. Mirae Asset Securities plans to expand its trading and investment services to major global markets including the U.S., Korea, China and Singapore through MAPS. Park Hyeon-joo, chairman and global strategy officer (GSO) of Mirae Asset Group, said, "We will work to invest 50 billion yuan in Chinese venture capital (VC) and secondaries and to build client assets to 1 trillion yuan."