The Day a Semiconductor Company Surpassed Toyota

I found myself thinking for a while after seeing the news.

A Japanese semiconductor-related company had apparently surpassed Toyota in market capitalization.

Of course, market capitalization is not the real economy itself. It includes expectations, and sometimes bubble-like elements as well. It does not directly represent a company’s actual strength or sales scale.

Even so, I think it was a symbolic event.

The main character of the era has changed.

AI Demand Is Moving the Market

The reason is easy to understand.

AI.

As generative AI became popular, a global race to build data centers began.

To build those data centers, GPUs are needed. And to manufacture those GPUs, cutting-edge semiconductors are needed.

So market money flows into semiconductors.

In a sense, it is a very simple story.

And the fact that Japanese companies still have some presence in that flow is honestly a source of relief.

At the very least, Japan is not completely outside the arena.

But It Will Not Create as Much Employment as the Auto Industry

Still, I also find myself looking at this with a slightly colder eye.

Will the AI industry really create jobs?

Semiconductor factories will certainly be built.

More people will work in those factories.

But compared with the automobile industry, the scale is different.

The automobile industry is not only about finished-car manufacturers.

Parts suppliers, repair shops, dealerships, logistics companies, gas stations, insurance companies.

It has created countless surrounding industries.

What about AI?

It builds massive data centers.

But beyond that, everything happens inside the cloud.

Users simply access services through a browser.

It requires surprisingly little human labor.

Wealth Will Become Even More Concentrated

Even in the age of the computer industry, the base was still broad.

There were PC manufacturers, peripheral device makers, software companies, and retail stores.

But AI is different.

Profits tend to concentrate in companies that possess enormous computing resources.

Companies that can own data centers.

Companies that can manufacture semiconductors.

Companies that can develop global-scale AI models.

It has a strong winner-takes-all nature.

So the uneven distribution of wealth will probably go even further.

Then Comes the Question of Taxes

When that happens, politics will naturally respond.

There will be calls to collect more taxes from companies that are making large profits.

I can understand the logic.

But companies are not foolish.

If taxes are high, they will move to more favorable countries.

Then tax revenue falls.

Tax rates are raised.

Companies move away even more.

That kind of negative loop is entirely possible.

Honestly, this is an area I can only leave to politicians and economists.

I do not have an answer.

Thinking as Someone Who Needs to Survive

But there is one thing I know for certain.

I am not a politician.

Nor am I in a position to design national systems.

Even if I debate whether the trend in front of me is right or wrong, the world probably will not change.

Then there is only one thing I should think about.

How do I survive inside this flow?

Will AI reduce jobs or create more of them?

Honestly, I do not know.

But at the very least, I can see where the market is sending money.

It is flowing into semiconductors.

It is flowing into AI.

Then I have no choice but to become someone who can create value around that area.

Before I Realized It, I Was Already a Resident

A semiconductor company surpassed Toyota.

AI is changing the world.

Wealth will concentrate.

Tax systems will become a source of conflict.

All of that is probably true.

But while thinking about these things, I still spend my day moving back and forth between Claude and ChatGPT.

Will AI take jobs away, or will AI create a new industry?

While that debate continues in the background, I am already asking AI to check my English, review my code, and even help me structure my blog posts.

In the end, before I finished analyzing the era, I had already become a resident of the AI economy myself.