South Korea’s growing appetite for artificial intelligence and other foreign digital services is opening a new front for U.S. technology companies—and highlighting a widening dependence on overseas software that could reshape the country’s services economy.
The trend accelerated in the first half of 2026. South Korea ran a $6.44 billion deficit in knowledge-service trade, the second-largest half-year shortfall on record, as payments for foreign software, intellectual property and online services rose faster than revenues from the country’s booming K-pop and television exports, the Bank of Korea said Friday.
For U.S. technology and digital-service companies, the figures point to a growing pool of spending in one of Asia’s most digitally connected economies. They also illustrate the other side of South Korea’s cultural-export success: While Korean entertainment is generating record sales overseas, businesses and consumers are sending more money abroad for the software, AI tools and digital platforms they use at home.
The deficit widened by $1.0 billion from the second half of 2025. Payments for intellectual-property rights were the biggest driver, with the deficit in that category increasing to $4.9 billion from $4.0 billion.
Software was at the center of the shift. The deficit in copyrights for computer and mobile software, a category that includes AI-related services, reached a record $2.84 billion, up from $2.31 billion in the previous six months.
The Bank of Korea said higher payments for industrial software used in the semiconductor industry, as well as games and other digital services, contributed to the increase. Spending on AI-related services is still relatively small in absolute terms, but is growing rapidly. Park Seong-gon, an official on the central bank’s balance-of-payments team, said card spending in categories that include AI had roughly doubled from a year earlier.
Streaming services are also adding to the outflow. The balance for multimedia copyrights, which includes subscriptions to overseas online-video platforms, swung to a $40 million deficit in the first half from a $290 million surplus in the second half of 2025.
The shift is occurring alongside record growth in South Korea’s cultural exports. Cultural and recreational services generated a record $720 million surplus in the first half, up from $530 million in the previous six months.
Revenue from performance and exhibition services, including K-pop concerts, produced a $330 million surplus, compared with $240 million previously. Multimedia production services, which include Korean dramas supplied to overseas streaming platforms, generated a $380 million surplus, up from $290 million.
The contrast is increasingly important for investors assessing South Korea’s position in the global digital economy. The country is exporting intellectual property and entertainment at record levels while simultaneously becoming a larger customer of foreign-owned software and online platforms.
Information and communications services remained a major source of export earnings, although its surplus narrowed to $2.42 billion from $2.87 billion. The figure was still the second-largest half-year surplus on record.
Professional and business services remained in deficit, with the shortfall narrowing slightly to $4.67 billion from $4.84 billion.
Geographically, South Korea recorded a $2.62 billion surplus with Asia, while running deficits of $3.32 billion with North America and $2.25 billion with Europe.
For global technology companies, the numbers suggest that South Korea’s next phase of digital growth may be less about exporting devices and entertainment and more about importing the software and AI capabilities needed to power them.
