Lee Jae-myung's Chaebol Regime Doubles Assets in 8 Months, 'Moving to the US', AI Water Consumption Fivefold

Lee Jae-myung's Chaebol Regime Doubles Assets in 8 Months, 'Moving to the US', AI Water Consumption Fivefold

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Lee Jae-myung's chaebol regime has more than doubled its market capitalization in eight months due to a surge in stock prices, pledging $650 billion in US investment. The AI investment boom has also led to a more than fivefold surge in water consumption, even more than the surge in electricity consumption.

The Korea CXO Institute reported on the 27th that the market capitalization of Korea's top 30 conglomerates has more than doubled, from 1,600 trillion won to 3,400 trillion won, in the eight months since the Lee Jae-myung administration took office.

These chaebol companies accompanied President Lee to the White House summit in July of last year and, following the summit, signed a $200 billion investment agreement in the US, formalizing the transfer of US assets.

President Lee agreed to a total of $450 billion in direct US investment in the US, including $200 billion in shipbuilding, $150 billion in natural gas purchases, and $100 billion in investments. Furthermore, the chaebols, the biggest beneficiaries of rising stock prices, pledged to transfer $650 billion, including $200 billion in US investment, leading to the successful conclusion of the South Korea-US summit.

According to a survey by the CXO Research Institute, the market capitalization of the top 30 conglomerates stood at 1,680 trillion won as of June 4th of last year, the day President Lee took office. By January 27th of this year, it had more than doubled to 3,404 trillion won, representing a 202.6% increase and a total of 1,724 trillion won, 2.5 times South Korea's annual GDP of approximately 780 trillion won.

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Under the Lee Jae-myung-Blackrock system established by President Lee Myung-bak's inauguration, the market capitalization of Samsung Group, controlled by Samsung Electronics, where Blackrock is the second-largest shareholder, soared from 592 trillion won to 1,368 trillion won, exceeding the national economic system by over 775 trillion won, equivalent to the annual GDP. SK Group saw the largest surge, driven by a surge in SK Hynix, of which Blackrock holds a 5.7% stake.

The total market capitalization soared 206.8%, from 238.8072 trillion won eight months ago to over 732.7195 trillion won.

SK Group, relying on Blackrock for its US asset transfer strategy, established a new AI investment corporation and transferred 10 trillion won of overseas investment to the US, marking the first breakthrough in US asset transfers as the largest beneficiary of the Lee Jae-myung administration. The ranking of growth rates was Samsung (131%), Doosan (97.9%), Mirae Asset (95.2%), and Hyundai Motor (95%).

value of SK (KRW 732 trillion) was up from KRW 238 trillion on June 4th of last year, followed by Hyundai Motor (KRW 291 trillion) (KRW 149 trillion), LG (KRW 184 trillion) (KRW 130 trillion), and HD Hyundai (KRW 160 trillion) (KRW 105 trillion). Hanwha Group, the largest beneficiary of the defense industry, led by Hanwha Ocean, of which Blackrock owns more than 5%, surged from KRW 95 trillion to KRW 150 trillion.

The group also spearheaded the transfer of assets to the US due to the US weapons cloning industry.

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Microsoft's Water Use Report, "2025 Environmental Sustainability Report Accelerating Progress to 2030," projects that the annual water demand for approximately 100 data center complexes worldwide will more than triple by 2030, reaching 28 billion liters.

The New York Times reported on the 28th about Microsoft's report on the surge in water use, saying, "That's 7.9 billion liters used in 2020 and 10.4 billion liters used in 2024." "In the United States, which accounts for more than half of the world's data center capacity, researchers estimate that the artificial intelligence boom will cause water demand to increase from about 60 billion liters in 2022 to 150 billion tons to 275 billion liters by 2028, a nearly fivefold increase in six years."

The NYT said, "When Microsoft CEO Smith made his water pledge in 2020, ChatGPT didn't exist." "The chatbot arrived two years later, sparking a data center construction frenzy as Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI competed to dominate the artificial intelligence market, which in turn led to a surge in water demand to keep the data centers' hot computers cool." Microsoft's water usage has become a national crisis, a significant risk that was anticipated as it builds a data center in Jakarta, Indonesia, a region already experiencing a water crisis.

In the Indonesian metropolis near Jakarta, a city that is sinking into the Java Sea due to a partially drained aquifer, Microsoft last year estimated that water use would more than quadruple to 1.9 billion liters by 2030, up from 380 million liters this year.

The New York Times reported, "Microsoft subsequently revised that figure to 664 million liters by 2030 and said it no longer had estimates for any region for 2026."

The report added, "In the Phoenix area, which has been experiencing a 20-year drought, Microsoft last year projected water flow of 3.3 billion liters by 2030, up from this year's estimate of 2.9 billion liters. Microsoft then reduced that estimate to 2 billion liters by 2030 because its data facilities operate at higher temperatures, requiring less water for cooling."

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Microsoft's water use estimates continue to fluctuate, and overall water use across the IT industry continues to increase. The rise of artificial intelligence has rapidly transformed tech giants into resource-intensive industrial enterprises.

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According to the report <Global Data Center Outlook 2026> (subtitled, Exploring AI Demand, Power Constraints, and Global Opportunities in 2026) by JLL, an American commercial real estate company, global data center capacity is expected to double by 2030 to meet computing demand. The report stated, "About 100 gigawatts of new data centers will be added between 2026 and 2030, doubling global capacity."

The report also stated, "As of 2025, AI accounted for only about a quarter of all data center workloads, with education driving most of the demand; by 2030, AI could account for half of all workloads." The report also stated, "Experience an infrastructure investment supercycle requiring up to $3 trillion by 2030." It also stated, "About 100 gigawatts of new capacity will come online between 2026 and 2030," "creating $1.2 trillion in real estate asset value," and "tenants could spend an additional $1 trillion to $2 trillion installing IT equipment in their spaces."

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The New York Times stated, "This makes it difficult to balance lofty sustainability promises with growing computing demands," and "the lack of reporting mandates further complicates assessing the true environmental impact of the AI industry." Water shortages have already become a problem for other tech giants.

Amazon recently abandoned construction of a planned Arizona complex due to water concerns, local officials told the New York Times.

Google withdrew plans for a data center in Chile in 2024.

After Meta broke ground on a $750 million data center outside Newton County, Georgia, the New York Times reported on July 14th of last year that water taps in the homes of local residents were cut off. The New York Times reported at the time, "As tech giants like Meta build data centers in the area, local wells are damaged, municipal water costs are skyrocketing, and the county water board could face shortages of this critical resource." A report last year (2024) predicted that Newton County could face water shortages by 2030, and residents could be forced to ration water if the local water authority fails to upgrade its facilities. Newton County Mayor Blair Rhodes said water rates are expected to rise 33% over the next two years, exceeding the typical 2% annual increase."

Microsoft's forecast last year included nearly all of its data centers, including those it owns and leases.

Microsoft operates more than 400 data centers worldwide, organized into about 100 regional clusters.

In South Korea, SK is pursuing a large-scale data center project in Ulsan with the Lee Jae-myung administration, and competition is ongoing across the country.

 

Ulsan and Yongin, data centers of Lee Jae-myung's chaebol regime, are typical water-scarce regions, requiring massive social overhead capital investments for large-scale irrigation projects.
Ulsan's water intake from the nearby Nakdong River is fragmented and stretches across mountains, making large-scale construction projects, including the installation of long-distance pipelines from at least seven dams, inevitable.
Yongin's daily consumption is projected to reach 764,000 tons by 2035. Phase 1 will increase this to 310,000 tons by 2031, and Phase 2 will increase this to 760,000 tons by 2035. Construction of a 46.9km pipeline is scheduled to begin this year on one section. Both sectors saw their stock prices soar due to the burden of taxpayer money, and those assets will eventually be transferred to the chaebols' US holdings through President Lee's investments.

 

The Lee Jae-myung-led chaebol-controlled economy saw a sharp decline of -0.3% in the fourth quarter of last year. However, the president himself declared a "rapid economic recovery," expanded the money supply by injecting consumer funds, and attempted to bolster stocks by encouraging investment. Foreign investors, while ensuring a weak won, secured an asset market structure that increased their stock investment by approximately 7%, devising a KOSPI 5000 strategy.
Lee Jae-myung's KOSPI 5000 strategy aimed to increase the foreign ownership from 30% to 40% by securing North Korea-specific and retail investors through the packaging of North Korea investment. This strategy also allowed for sustained foreign investment in chaebol companies tied to overseas investments in AI, semiconductors, and defense, creating a scenario for a rapid stock price surge. Black Rock, the largest shareholder in these stocks, appears to have collaborated with the South Korean government to achieve a "short-term V-rebound."

President Lee, in response to the North Korea crisis and the strengthening of the Trump administration, used the promise of $650 billion in US investment as a "payment guarantee" to attract public investment by creating a 150 trillion won domestic fund for large-scale infrastructure investments, such as securing distribution pipelines for water and electricity. He also protected the free movement of capital by conglomerates, while US private equity funds and institutional investors, such as Black Rock, became connected to a high-inflation, high-yield network that relies on a high exchange rate and rising stock prices, the most stable short-term high returns in Korea.

The Korean people are facing a high exchange rate regime, a money supply expansion and debt-driven economy that has led to skyrocketing real estate prices and pressures on homeownership costs. Furthermore, the expanding fiscal deficit and interest-driven pressures stemming from AI investments and investments in infrastructure, such as water and electricity, which are supplementary industries to AI investments, have led to a high inflation rate. Furthermore, the high inflation caused by soaring stock prices has led to a widening economic volatility. This, coupled with the fiscal deficit from the military buildup, has exposed them to the risk of heightened social tensions due to rapidly rising rigid spending.

It appears that the attempt to encourage ordinary people to invest in stocks by boosting stock prices by depriving the lower classes and concentrating wealth at the top was foreshadowed from the beginning, leading to a concentration of wealth in the hands of conglomerates and foreign blacks. The experiment of 'short-term surge in the suppressed stock market', in which US private equity funds invested in the 'V short-term surge' developed by US strategic groups and created a 'circular investment chain with mutual guarantees' to achieve short-term stock price support in the system of the collapse of the socialist regime, was successful as 'shock therapy' in Eastern Europe, and as 'guarantee of the investment payment amount' became the key, the Lee Jae-myung administration made 'the White House summit demand <350 billion + 100 billion + 200 billion additional from conglomerates>' a condition for the summit, and there was a conflict over 'all cash' in the payment, and '20 billion installment' clashed again with 'payment guarantee', so Korea inserted 'National Assembly legislation' as its own stabilization device as a 'delaying tactic', and the Trump administration belatedly moved to break this, and the Lee Jae-myung administration is showing 'conflicts over responsibility for the response'.

It reveals the side effect of shock therapy: the loss of political self-determination.

 

Bloomberg reported that as of the 28th, the Korean stock market had a market capitalization of $3.25 trillion, while Germany's was $3.22 trillion, surpassing it to become the world's 10th largest, behind Taiwan. 

The Korean stock market has surged by approximately $1.7 trillion since early last year. 

The KOSPI soared 76% last year and has already risen by over 20% this year. Germany's DAX, a manufacturing powerhouse that has strengthened its political autonomy in the face of the Trump administration, has risen by just over 1% this year, creating a stark contrast.
SK Hynix, which has been at the forefront of the Korean stock market's rally, surged 4% on the 27th.
Conversely, SK Hynix's chronic low yield (defect rate) has not been resolved despite its sales growth, and no official announcement has been made regarding the situation.

Amid the controversy surrounding the "US investment" agreement at the South Korea-US summit, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok met with Vice President Vance after receiving a US letter from the South Korean government. He concealed the letter and told South Korean reporters in the US that "Vice President Vance asked what help he could provide for North Korea and requested the dispatch of a special envoy to North Korea."

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Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, who received a US State Department letter from the US embassy but did not disclose it, stated on the 28th in the National Assembly regarding President Trump's announcement of a 25% tariff hike, "It is clear that he did not express such a position because he did not have National Assembly ratification."

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Meanwhile, Kim Yong-beom, the chief of staff for policy, told reporters on the 28th, "It can be interpreted that the US was dissatisfied with the delay in implementing the tariff agreement because the National Assembly wasn't passing the bill quickly enough," adding, "It seems they thought the bill's progress was slower than expected."

Minister Cho then responded to the controversy over the National Assembly's ratification by saying, "It has no direct connection to the Coupang situation."

​The president announced a "rapid economic recovery" starting in the third quarter of last year, but in reality, industrial production rose only 0.5% last year, and despite cash injections and consumer stimulus, consumption rose only 0.5% (year-over-year), plummeting to its lowest level in four years. However, the KOSPI doubled in the stock market, demonstrating an asset-based economy system where the stock market is separated from the industrial economy.

 

See <Trump Tariff Retaliation Strikes Lee Jae-myung's Black Rock Regime, 'Canceling' North Korea-US Summit, January 27, 2026>

<K Economy: Scraping the Bottom and Pushing the Top Up: Stock-Driven High-Income Wealth Growth, December 2, 2025>

<Chile Withdrawal of AI Data Center from Island, Clashes at 'Graveyard' Against Global Water and Power Shortages, October 22, 2025>