<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Gemini on Korea Invest Insights</title><link>https://koreainvestinsights.com/tags/gemini/</link><description>Recent content in Gemini on Korea Invest Insights</description><generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator><language>en</language><lastBuildDate>Thu, 21 May 2026 09:51:42 +0900</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://koreainvestinsights.com/tags/gemini/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>After Google I/O 2026 — Search Isn't Dead. The Real Issue Is the AI Infrastructure Bottleneck Created by the Agentic OS</title><link>https://koreainvestinsights.com/post/google-io-2026-agentic-os-korea-ai-infra-2026-05-21/</link><pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2026 10:35:00 +0900</pubDate><guid>https://koreainvestinsights.com/post/google-io-2026-agentic-os-korea-ai-infra-2026-05-21/</guid><description>
 &lt;blockquote&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;📚 &lt;strong&gt;Related Series&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;a class="link" href="https://koreainvestinsights.com/post/google-io-nvidia-earnings-korea-semi-preview-2026-05-17/" &gt;Google I/O + NVIDIA Earnings Preview&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a class="link" href="https://koreainvestinsights.com/post/nvidia-q1-fy27-korea-ai-infra-supply-chain-2026-05-21/" &gt;Korea AI Infrastructure After NVIDIA Q1 FY27&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a class="link" href="https://koreainvestinsights.com/post/samsung-electronics-tsmc-rerating-thesis-2026-05-16/" &gt;Samsung Electronics TSMC-Style Rerating&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a class="link" href="https://koreainvestinsights.com/post/samsung-electro-mechanics-hybrid-challenger-2026-05-17/" &gt;Samsung Electro-Mechanics Hybrid Challenger&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a class="link" href="https://koreainvestinsights.com/post/macro-snapshot-complex-risk-off-recovery-triggers-2026-05-17/" &gt;May 17 Market Snapshot&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Google I/O 2026 was not a simple model announcement. It was an event that bundled Gemini 3.5, Gemini Omni, Gemini Spark, Antigravity, AI Search, Universal Cart, and Android XR together to reengineer Google&amp;rsquo;s entire product portfolio into an agentic OS. Search moves from a window displaying links to an interface that executes tasks; shopping becomes a cart agent; developer tools become a runtime that runs multiple agents in parallel. From an investment perspective, the key is not Alphabet itself but the infrastructure bottlenecks this transformation creates: token throughput, inference traffic, data center CapEx, HBM, packaging, power integrity, high-layer PCBs, and power equipment. Post-Google I/O, Korean alpha comes not from models but from bottlenecks.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="key-takeaways"&gt;Key Takeaways
&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Essence of Google I/O 2026&lt;/strong&gt;: Google bundled Gemini 3.5 Flash, Gemini Omni Flash, Search agents, Gemini Spark, Antigravity 2.0, Managed Agents API, Universal Cart, and Android XR into a single agentic product layer.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Search Collapse Thesis Is Not Yet Confirmed by the Numbers&lt;/strong&gt;: Alphabet&amp;rsquo;s Q1 2026 Search &amp;amp; other revenue was $60.399 billion, up approximately 19.1% year-over-year from $50.702 billion in the prior year period. So far, this looks less like AI encroaching on Search and more like Google absorbing Search into an AI interface.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Most Important Number Is Token Throughput&lt;/strong&gt;: Google disclosed that monthly processed tokens grew from 9.7 trillion in May 2024, to approximately 480 trillion at the 2025 I/O, to over 32 quadrillion in May 2026. The agentic OS shifts the unit of usage from search queries to tokens, tasks, and agent execution counts.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Alphabet Shares Confirm Defensiveness; Korea Should Track the Bottleneck&lt;/strong&gt;: Alphabet&amp;rsquo;s case as a full-stack AI company has strengthened, but its market cap in the $4 trillion range and an earnings multiple of around 30× already reflect significant expectations. Fresh alpha is more visible in HBM, packaging, power integrity, PCBs, and data center power.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Korean Priority&lt;/strong&gt;: Samsung Electro-Mechanics &amp;gt; Samsung Electronics &amp;gt; SK Hynix &amp;gt; Test/Socket/HBM Equipment &amp;gt; ISU Petasys · Daeduck Electronics · TLB · Korea Circuit &amp;gt; Power Equipment.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Strongest Single Idea&lt;/strong&gt;: Samsung Electro-Mechanics. The KRW 1.557 trillion silicon capacitor contract is evidence that power stabilization within AI packages has emerged as a distinct bottleneck.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Macro Conditions&lt;/strong&gt;: If the seven macro gates from the May 17 market snapshot have not been cleared, high-P/E AI infrastructure names can be shaken even with a good thesis. Scaling in after confirmation beats chasing.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="1-the-essence-of-google-io-2026--all-of-google-becomes-an-agentic-os"&gt;1. The Essence of Google I/O 2026 — All of Google Becomes an Agentic OS
&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Summarizing this I/O as &amp;ldquo;Gemini got better&amp;rdquo; understates what actually happened. What Google actually did was reengineer its entire product portfolio into an agent interface.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Google&amp;rsquo;s official I/O collection presented Gemini Omni and Gemini 3.5 as the core new models, and grouped Search agents, Gemini Spark, Universal Cart, intelligent eyewear, Workspace, and Antigravity all under agentic experiences. In other words, this was not an update to one or two features — it was a repackaging of Search, the Gemini app, YouTube, Gmail, Docs, Shopping, Android, and Cloud developer tools into a single agent layer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Reclassifying the key announcements from an investment perspective:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table&gt;
 &lt;thead&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Category&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Announcement&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Investment Significance&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/thead&gt;
 &lt;tbody&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Models&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Gemini 3.5 Flash, 3.5 Pro upcoming&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;AI competition axis shifts from one-shot responses to long-running task execution&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Multimodal Generation&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Gemini Omni Flash&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Video generation/editing, YouTube Shorts, and Flow become creative infrastructure&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Search&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;AI Mode as default model, intelligent Search box, Search agents&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Search box transforms from a query box to a task interface&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Personal Agent&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Daily Brief, Gemini Spark&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Personal OS tying Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and Gemini data together&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Developer Tools&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Antigravity 2.0, CLI, SDK, Managed Agents API&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Beyond Cursor-style coding assistance into enterprise agent runtime&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Commerce&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Universal Cart&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Reassembling the purchase funnel across Ads, Search, YouTube, and Gmail&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;XR&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Android XR, smart glasses&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Post-smartphone ambient computing form factor option&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this structure, Google&amp;rsquo;s true asset is not any single model. It is the distribution that encompasses Search, YouTube, Gmail, Android, Chrome, Workspace, Shopping, Maps, Cloud, and TPU. Even when OpenAI or Anthropic lead on model performance, Google can convert the surfaces where users already spend time into an agent layer. That is what &amp;ldquo;agentic OS operator&amp;rdquo; means, as opposed to merely a &amp;ldquo;Search defensive name.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="2-search-isnt-dead--but-the-unit-of-search-is-changing"&gt;2. Search Isn&amp;rsquo;t Dead — But the Unit of Search Is Changing
&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The market narrative over the past two years has been simple.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;"&gt;&lt;code class="language-text" data-lang="text"&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;AI answers replace search results
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;→ Users click fewer links
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;→ Google Search ad revenue erodes
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;→ Alphabet multiple contracts
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;This logic is intuitive, but current numbers tell the opposite story. In Alphabet&amp;rsquo;s Q1 2026 results, Google Search &amp;amp; other revenue was $60.399 billion, up approximately 19.1% from $50.702 billion in the prior year period.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;"&gt;&lt;code class="language-text" data-lang="text"&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Search &amp;amp; other growth rate
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;= 60.399 / 50.702 - 1
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;= approx. 19.1%
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Google Cloud revenue also came in at $20.028 billion, up approximately 63.4% from $12.260 billion in the prior year period. Cloud operating income was $6.598 billion, with an OPM of 32.9%.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;"&gt;&lt;code class="language-text" data-lang="text"&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Cloud growth rate = 20.028 / 12.260 - 1 = approx. 63.4%
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Cloud OPM = 6.598 / 20.028 = approx. 32.9%
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;The facts to date do not support &amp;ldquo;AI killed Search.&amp;rdquo; A more accurate framing is: &amp;ldquo;Google is defending usage by transforming Search into an AI interface.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That said, there is no room for complacency. The economic unit of search is changing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table&gt;
 &lt;thead&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Legacy Search&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;AI Search / Agentic Search&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/thead&gt;
 &lt;tbody&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Keyword input&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Natural language, files, images, video, tab input&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Link clicks&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Agent collects information, summarizes, and suggests actions&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;CPC-centric&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Intent/action auction potential&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Search query count&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Token throughput · agent execution count&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;SEO publisher traffic&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Task completion within Google surfaces&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Google stated that AI Mode surpassed 1 billion monthly users within a year of launch and that AI Mode queries have more than doubled quarter over quarter since launch. Google also presented a framework in which Search agents continuously monitor web, news, social, financial, shopping, and sports data in the background.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is not the destruction of search — it is the redefinition of search. But redefinition comes with costs. Search where an agent reads the web, summarizes, reasons, and sends notifications consumes far more compute than search that displays ten links. That is the critical point for Korean semiconductors and AI infrastructure.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="3-the-most-important-numbers--token-throughput-and-capex"&gt;3. The Most Important Numbers — Token Throughput and CapEx
&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The most important numbers from this I/O are not model benchmarks — they are usage figures.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Google disclosed that monthly processed tokens have grown as follows.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table&gt;
 &lt;thead&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Period&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th style="text-align: right"&gt;Monthly Processed Tokens&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Significance&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/thead&gt;
 &lt;tbody&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;May 2024&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td style="text-align: right"&gt;9.7 trillion&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Early-stage AI usage&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;2025 I/O&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td style="text-align: right"&gt;approx. 480 trillion&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Gemini, Cloud, and developer usage expansion&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;May 2026&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td style="text-align: right"&gt;32 quadrillion+&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Approx. 7× year-over-year increase&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Gemini app also grew from 400 million monthly users at the 2025 I/O to over 900 million in May 2026. Google stated that daily requests also increased more than 7× over the past year.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;More important is CapEx. Sundar Pichai stated that while Google spent $31 billion in annual CapEx in 2022, this year it expects approximately $180–190 billion. At that scale, Google I/O is not a consumer product event — it is a global AI infrastructure demand event.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;"&gt;&lt;code class="language-text" data-lang="text"&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;AI agentic OS
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;→ Search, Gemini, YouTube, Workspace, Android, Shopping usage increases
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;→ Token throughput increases
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;→ Inference cluster expansion
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;→ HBM / packaging / network / power / cooling bottlenecks widen
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;→ Korean AI infrastructure value chain benefits
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;The first-order interpretation that &amp;ldquo;Google using TPUs reduces NVIDIA&amp;rsquo;s benefit&amp;rdquo; is too shallow. Whether it&amp;rsquo;s a TPU, GPU, or ASIC, high-performance AI accelerators require HBM, advanced packaging, high-speed substrates, power stabilization components, and data center power. Korean investors should focus on shared bottlenecks rather than any specific US chip vendor.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="4-alphabet-stock--defensiveness-confirmed-fresh-alpha-limited"&gt;4. Alphabet Stock — Defensiveness Confirmed, Fresh Alpha Limited
&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Alphabet reinforced three defensive arguments through this I/O.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;First, it demonstrated that Search is not simply a platform being encroached upon by AI, but rather a platform that absorbs AI. The 19% growth in Q1 2026 Search &amp;amp; other revenue lends force to this argument.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Second, Google is a full-stack AI company with models, TPU, Cloud, Search, YouTube, Android, Workspace, and Ads all under one roof. Its monetization surface is broader than companies that have only a model API.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Third, Google Cloud demonstrated both high growth and high margins simultaneously. A Cloud revenue growth rate of 63% and Cloud OPM of 32.9% reduce concerns that &amp;ldquo;AI Cloud grows revenue but not profits.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, investment discipline demands a cold eye. Alphabet is already a company with a market cap in the $4 trillion range, and its input P/E is around 30×. Even on a simple annualized Q1 operating income basis, market cap to operating profit is approximately 30×. The Q1 2026 net income figure also includes significant other income effects such as unrealized gains on equity investments, so concluding it is cheap based on GAAP EPS alone would be a mistake.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The investment view on Alphabet is as follows.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table&gt;
 &lt;thead&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Item&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;View&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/thead&gt;
 &lt;tbody&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Business Quality&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Very high&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Search Defensiveness&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Reinforced by I/O and Q1 2026 results&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Cloud Growth&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Strong&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Valuation&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Already largely priced in&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;New Entry&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Watchlist / on correction&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Better Alpha&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;AI infra second-order beneficiaries&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Alphabet is a good company. But the better trade after Google I/O is not chasing Alphabet — it is finding the beneficiaries of the CapEx bottlenecks Google will create.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="5-korean-value-chain-mapping--from-hbm-to-power-integrity"&gt;5. Korean Value Chain Mapping — From HBM to Power Integrity
&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Korean investment implication of Google I/O is not simply &amp;ldquo;HBM demand is good.&amp;rdquo; It is that as agentic workloads increase, bottlenecks propagate in the following sequence.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;"&gt;&lt;code class="language-text" data-lang="text"&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;AI Search / Omni / Antigravity / Spark / Universal Cart
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;→ Persistent inference traffic increases
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;→ TPU/GPU/ASIC cluster expansion
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;→ HBM · DRAM · eSSD demand increases
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;→ Packaging · substrate · power stabilization component demand increases
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;→ Optical/networking · data center power demand increases
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mapping the Korean value chain by node:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table&gt;
 &lt;thead&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Node&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Bottleneck&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Korean Candidates&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;View&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/thead&gt;
 &lt;tbody&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;HBM / Memory&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Bandwidth, capacity&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Structural benefit continues; leaders are crowded&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Advanced Packaging&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;HBM stack, bonding, inspection&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Hanmi Semiconductor, Intest Plus, ISC, Leeno Industrial&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Beneficiary thesis is valid but pricing and customers need confirmation&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Power Integrity&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Silicon capacitors, MLCC&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Samsung Electro-Mechanics&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Clearest new alpha&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Substrate / PCB&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;FC-BGA, high-layer PCB, memory module PCB&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Samsung Electro-Mechanics, ISU Petasys, Daeduck Electronics, Simmtech, TLB, Korea Circuit&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Earnings confirmation needed over theme-chasing&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Power Infrastructure&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Transformers, distribution, power quality&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;HD Hyundai Electric, LS ELECTRIC, Hyosung Heavy Industries, Iljin Electric&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Demand is clear; valuation discipline required&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Optical / Network&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Optical, SerDes, interconnect&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;OESOLUTION etc.&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Potential beneficiary; direct revenue verification needed&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The key here is not finding &amp;ldquo;direct Google suppliers.&amp;rdquo; Even if it cannot be confirmed whether Korean companies directly supply Google TPUs, the bottlenecks commonly consumed by Google, NVIDIA, AWS, Meta, and Microsoft&amp;rsquo;s AI infrastructure expansion exist. Alpha lies in identifying where those bottlenecks accrue.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="6-samsung-electro-mechanics--the-clearest-korean-ai-infrastructure-alpha-after-google-io"&gt;6. Samsung Electro-Mechanics — The Clearest Korean AI Infrastructure Alpha After Google I/O
&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The most important Korean name after this I/O is Samsung Electro-Mechanics. The reason is simple: the fact that AI infrastructure bottlenecks are shifting from HBM to power stabilization within the package has been confirmed through a real order.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Samsung Electro-Mechanics disclosed on May 20, 2026, that it had entered into a silicon capacitor supply agreement worth KRW 1.5570 trillion with a major global company. The contract period runs from January 1, 2027 to December 31, 2028.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;"&gt;&lt;code class="language-text" data-lang="text"&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Annualized contract value = KRW 1.5570tn / 2 years = KRW 778.5bn
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Total contract value as % of recent revenue per disclosure = 13.8%
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Annualized revenue contribution = 13.8% / 2 = approx. 6.9%/year
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;More important than the revenue figure itself is the classification shift this contract represents. Samsung Electro-Mechanics was previously classified as an MLCC, camera module, and substrate company. However, silicon capacitors are components placed inside or close to AI semiconductor packages to reduce power noise and stabilize power delivery. In other words, Samsung Electro-Mechanics is entering the AI server package BOM.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Samsung Electro-Mechanics&amp;rsquo; official technical documentation also explains that MLCC-centric power architectures are expanding due to growing power demands from AI servers and GPU modules. AI GPUs have large instantaneous power fluctuations, making low ESR/ESL, high-frequency ripple response, and space efficiency critical. This is not a simple MLCC cycle — it is a power integrity cycle.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Samsung Electro-Mechanics&amp;rsquo; P×Q×C framework can be viewed as follows.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table&gt;
 &lt;thead&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Axis&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Variable&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Significance&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/thead&gt;
 &lt;tbody&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;P&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Silicon capacitor, AI MLCC, FC-BGA ASP&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Higher value-add mix versus legacy IT components&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Q&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;GPU/TPU/ASIC package count, HBM stack count, AI server board count&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Directly linked to AI CapEx&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;C&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Yield, material costs, expansion depreciation&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Early ramp risk&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Why this may not yet be fully priced in.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The market still strongly tends to view Samsung Electro-Mechanics as a smartphone MLCC and camera module company.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Silicon capacitors are a separate category, and it takes time for them to be incorporated into sell-side models.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Contract revenue recognition begins in 2027–2028, so it feeds into near-term EPS with a lag.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The customer is undisclosed, so it cannot be determined whether the order is from NVIDIA, Google, or a Broadcom/Marvell ASIC.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The conclusion is therefore not &amp;ldquo;chase the move&amp;rdquo; but rather &amp;ldquo;pullback buy.&amp;rdquo; Samsung Electro-Mechanics is the clearest reclassification candidate in Korean AI infrastructure following this I/O and NVIDIA&amp;rsquo;s results, but chasing a sharp spike is inefficient when the macro gates from the May 17 market snapshot have not yet opened.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="7-samsung-electronics-and-sk-hynix--the-other-implication-of-google-tpu-multipolarity"&gt;7. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix — The Other Implication of Google TPU Multipolarity
&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Google I/O might appear to be an event that weakens NVIDIA&amp;rsquo;s monopoly. Google has its own TPUs, and the ASIC ecosystem is broadening to include Broadcom, Marvell, and even MediaTek. But from a Korean memory perspective, the conclusion is different.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;TPUs consume HBM. ASICs consume HBM. Even as inference TPUs multiply, memory bandwidth and data movement bottlenecks do not disappear.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id="sk-hynix"&gt;SK Hynix
&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;SK Hynix remains the highest-quality beta to HBM. Google I/O&amp;rsquo;s growing agentic workloads, NVIDIA Rubin ramp, and hyperscaler CapEx expansion are all positive for HBM demand.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, the alpha has diminished. The market already views SK Hynix as the lead HBM name. Being a good company and offering a good entry price right now are different things.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;"&gt;&lt;code class="language-text" data-lang="text"&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;View: Hold / Buy on pullback
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Positives: HBM pure beta, customer trust, profitability
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Watch: crowding, elevated expectations, intensifying HBM4 competition
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h3 id="samsung-electronics"&gt;Samsung Electronics
&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;Samsung Electronics is more interesting. The market tends to view Samsung Electronics solely as a &amp;ldquo;late HBM follower to NVIDIA.&amp;rdquo; However, as Google/Broadcom/Marvell/ASIC multipolarity advances, the HBM customer structure also moves away from a single-NVIDIA frame. This dynamic is favorable for a variant perception on Samsung Electronics.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Samsung Electronics is an integrated IDM with HBM, DRAM, eSSD, base die, foundry, and advanced packaging all under one roof. The issue is execution. HBM4 customer qualification, base die, foundry profitability, and customer diversification must be confirmed in actual numbers before it can escape its approximately 5× P/E discount.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;"&gt;&lt;code class="language-text" data-lang="text"&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;View: Watchlist / Conditional Buy
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Positives: HBM4, base die, eSSD, foundry optionality
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="display:flex;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Watch: execution discount, foundry losses, HBM qualification delays
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is the same conclusion as the prior Samsung Electronics rerating piece. Samsung Electronics is not cheap because the market doesn&amp;rsquo;t understand it. The market is demanding proof of downcycle defensibility and customer neutrality. Google I/O showed one path to meeting that demand: not through the NVIDIA single-chain, but through TPU/ASIC multipolarity in which Samsung&amp;rsquo;s HBM and foundry optionality can come alive.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="8-broadcom-vs-marvell--korean-investors-should-not-be-looking-for-a-winner"&gt;8. Broadcom vs. Marvell — Korean Investors Should Not Be Looking for a Winner
&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the US, the relative performance of Broadcom and Marvell post-Google I/O was also read as significant. The key is not whether Google is abandoning Broadcom. It is a signal that Google intends to multi-source its AI ASIC supply chain.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Broadcom is Google&amp;rsquo;s core TPU partner, and there are reports of a long-term agreement with Google. Marvell drew attention from reports of discussions with Google on a new AI chip, memory processing unit, and inference TPU. This movement does not mean &amp;ldquo;Google TPU demand is weak&amp;rdquo; — it means &amp;ldquo;Google is expanding its supply chain leverage.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What matters to Korean investors is not which US ASIC vendor wins. It is the bottlenecks that are needed in common regardless of whether Broadcom or Marvell prevails.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table&gt;
 &lt;thead&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;US ASIC Shift&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Korean Common Bottleneck&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/thead&gt;
 &lt;tbody&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;TPU generation increases&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;HBM, base die, advanced packaging&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Inference TPU expansion&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;HBM/LPDDR, eSSD, networking&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Memory processing unit&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Memory bandwidth, substrate, test socket&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;AI rack growth&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;High-layer PCB, optical, power equipment&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Multi-sourcing&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Value increase for companies with customer qualifications&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Korean priority is therefore not any specific US chip designer but vendor-agnostic bottlenecks. The order should be: Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, test/socket, high-layer PCB, power infrastructure.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="9-practical-trading-strategy"&gt;9. Practical Trading Strategy
&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;h3 id="priority"&gt;Priority
&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;table&gt;
 &lt;thead&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;th style="text-align: right"&gt;Rank&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Stock / Group&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;View&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;th&gt;Rationale&lt;/th&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/thead&gt;
 &lt;tbody&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td style="text-align: right"&gt;1&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Samsung Electro-Mechanics&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Buy on pullback&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Silicon capacitor contract confirms AI package power integrity bottleneck via real order&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td style="text-align: right"&gt;2&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Samsung Electronics&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Watchlist / Conditional Buy&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;TPU/ASIC multipolarity can narrow the late-HBM discount&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td style="text-align: right"&gt;3&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;SK Hynix&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Hold / Buy on pullback&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;HBM direction is right but consensus is crowded&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td style="text-align: right"&gt;4&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Hanmi Semiconductor · ISC · Leeno Industrial · Intest Plus&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Watchlist&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Benefit from growing HBM/ASIC SKUs and test/packaging complexity&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td style="text-align: right"&gt;5&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;ISU Petasys · Daeduck Electronics · Simmtech · TLB · Korea Circuit&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Watchlist&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;AI server PCB beneficiary potential, but customer/product/margin confirmation needed&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr&gt;
 &lt;td style="text-align: right"&gt;6&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;HD Hyundai Electric · LS ELECTRIC · Hyosung Heavy Industries · Iljin Electric&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;Wait&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;td&gt;AI data center power demand is clear, but valuation may be stretched&lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h3 id="entry-conditions"&gt;Entry Conditions
&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samsung Electro-Mechanics&lt;/strong&gt;: Confirmation of follow-on silicon capacitor customers, expansion plans, and potential disaggregation of AI MLCC/FC-BGA revenue.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samsung Electronics&lt;/strong&gt;: HBM4 customer qualification, HBM4 base die, volume toward Google/Broadcom/ASIC customers, or signs of foundry recovery.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SK Hynix&lt;/strong&gt;: HBM4 pricing holds, NVIDIA Rubin ramp, 10–15% correction, or easing of supply-demand overheating.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PCB / Substrates&lt;/strong&gt;: When AI-oriented revenue mix, ASP premium, and OPM maintenance are confirmed in quarterly results.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Test / Socket&lt;/strong&gt;: Confirmation of TPU/ASIC/HBM customer references and new socket revenue.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Power Equipment&lt;/strong&gt;: When North American data center order backlog growth and OPM maintenance are confirmed simultaneously.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3 id="catalyst"&gt;Catalyst
&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Gemini 3.5 Pro launch and AI Mode/Search agent adoption.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Google Cloud next-quarter revenue, backlog, and CapEx update.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Broadcom and Marvell earnings commentary on Google/ASIC pipeline.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;NVIDIA Rubin / Vera Rubin NVL72 ramp.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Samsung Electro-Mechanics follow-on silicon capacitor disclosure.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Samsung Electronics HBM4 qualification, base die, and foundry customer commentary.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Korean PCB/substrate companies disaggregating AI server-oriented revenue in Q2–Q3.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3 id="invalidation"&gt;Invalidation
&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Google Search &amp;amp; other growth rate decelerates sharply after AI Mode expansion.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Google Cloud growth remains high but OPM falls below the low-20% range.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;AI CapEx increases translate into depreciation, power costs, and networking costs that erode Alphabet margins.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;HBM ASP declines or HBM4 oversupply signals emerge.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Samsung Electro-Mechanics&amp;rsquo; silicon capacitor contract is confirmed to be low-margin or a single-customer event.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;PCB/substrate names where AI revenue increases but OPM declines.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;May 17 macro gates remain uncrossed, compressing high-P/E AI infrastructure multiples.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="10-frequently-asked-questions"&gt;10. Frequently Asked Questions
&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;h3 id="is-google-io-negative-for-nvidia"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Is Google I/O Negative for NVIDIA?&amp;rdquo;
&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the near term, some negative interpretation is possible. If Google expands its TPU footprint and the Broadcom/Marvell ASIC ecosystem grows, NVIDIA&amp;rsquo;s monopoly premium could compress somewhat. But from a Korean supply chain perspective, multipolarity is actually positive. Whether it is a GPU, TPU, or ASIC, HBM, packaging, PCBs, and power infrastructure are all required.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id="wouldnt-it-be-better-to-just-buy-alphabet"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Wouldn&amp;rsquo;t It Be Better to Just Buy Alphabet?&amp;rdquo;
&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;Alphabet is a good company. Search defensiveness, Cloud growth, and its full-stack AI structure are all strong. However, the current market cap and earnings multiple already reflect much of the winner premium. The conclusion of this piece is not that Alphabet is a bad investment, but that immediately after Google I/O, fresh alpha is larger in Korean AI infrastructure bottlenecks than in Alphabet itself.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id="why-is-samsung-electro-mechanics-the-top-pick"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Why Is Samsung Electro-Mechanics the Top Pick?&amp;rdquo;
&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;HBM is already well known to the market. By contrast, the power integrity thesis — covering power stabilization within AI packages, silicon capacitors, AI MLCC, and FC-BGA — is still not finely classified by the market. To that, a real order of KRW 1.557 trillion is attached. This is a rare moment when both the story and the numbers are present simultaneously.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id="can-i-buy-all-the-pcbsubstrate-names"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Can I Buy All the PCB/Substrate Names?&amp;rdquo;
&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;No. This is the segment with the greatest risk of theme excess. The &amp;ldquo;AI server-oriented&amp;rdquo; label is easy to apply, but without confirmed customers, products, ASP premium, and OPM, it can end as a short-term trading theme. From here, only companies that simultaneously show &amp;ldquo;AI-oriented revenue growth + margin maintenance&amp;rdquo; should remain in the portfolio.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="11-the-final-word"&gt;11. The Final Word
&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Google I/O 2026 was not an event that declared search dead. On the contrary, it was an event in which Google declared its intention to convert search, mail, documents, shopping, developer tools, video, and even eyewear into agent interfaces. The search box moves from a query box to a task box; developer tools move from an IDE to an agent runtime; and shopping moves from a keyword funnel to Universal Cart.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Alphabet&amp;rsquo;s Q1 2026 numbers show that this transition has not yet damaged Search. Search &amp;amp; other revenue grew approximately 19% year-over-year; Cloud revenue grew approximately 63%; and Cloud OPM rose to 32.9%. So far, &amp;ldquo;Google absorbs AI into its existing distribution&amp;rdquo; is a more accurate frame than &amp;ldquo;AI kills Google.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But the real investment point is the AI infrastructure bottleneck, not Alphabet itself. Google disclosed that monthly processed tokens grew from 9.7 trillion in May 2024 to over 32 quadrillion in May 2026. It also indicated that CapEx could expand from $31 billion in 2022 to approximately $180–190 billion this year. This shift is a demand function for HBM, packaging, power integrity, PCBs, and power infrastructure.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Korean priorities are clear. &lt;strong&gt;Samsung Electro-Mechanics&lt;/strong&gt; has confirmed the AI package power integrity bottleneck through a real large-scale silicon capacitor contract. &lt;strong&gt;Samsung Electronics&lt;/strong&gt; is an option where TPU/ASIC multipolarity can narrow the late-HBM discount. &lt;strong&gt;SK Hynix&lt;/strong&gt; remains the strongest HBM name but is already a crowded trade. &lt;strong&gt;PCB/substrates, test, and power equipment&lt;/strong&gt; have significant beneficiary potential but require earnings confirmation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The conclusion is simple. Post-Google I/O alpha comes not from &amp;ldquo;which model is smarter&amp;rdquo; but from &amp;ldquo;where does growing agent usage force spending on bottlenecks.&amp;rdquo; The answer is not Alphabet alone. It is HBM, packaging, silicon capacitors, high-layer PCBs, and data center power. Of these, the freshest Korean alpha right now is Samsung Electro-Mechanics. But until the macro gates open, scaling in after confirmation beats chasing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article is for research and commentary purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Google I/O 2026 announcements (Gemini Omni, Gemini 3.5, Search agents, Gemini Spark, Universal Cart, Antigravity, Android XR) are based on the official Google I/O collection and Google&amp;rsquo;s official blog. Alphabet Q1 2026 results (revenue $109.896 billion, operating income $39.696 billion, Search &amp;amp; other $60.399 billion, Google Cloud $20.028 billion, Cloud operating income $6.598 billion) are based on Alphabet&amp;rsquo;s Q1 2026 SEC filings. Monthly processed tokens of 32 quadrillion+, Gemini app monthly users of 900 million+, and CapEx guidance of $180–190 billion are based on Sundar Pichai&amp;rsquo;s statements at Google I/O 2026. Samsung Electro-Mechanics&amp;rsquo; KRW 1.5570 trillion silicon capacitor supply agreement (term: 2027/01/01–2028/12/31; 13.8% of recent revenue) is based on the company&amp;rsquo;s May 20, 2026 regulatory disclosure and major domestic news coverage. Statements related to Samsung Electro-Mechanics&amp;rsquo; AI server power architecture are based on Samsung Electro-Mechanics&amp;rsquo; official technical documentation. Information on Broadcom, Marvell, and Google ASIC is based on reporting by Reuters and other foreign media; confirmed contracts and negotiation reports are mixed and should be distinguished accordingly. Stock priorities, value chain mapping, entry conditions, and invalidation conditions represent the analyst&amp;rsquo;s current framework and may differ from actual outcomes. Global macro conditions (interest rates, oil prices, exchange rates, VIX, foreign investor flows) may have additional impact on stock prices. This analysis may be wrong. Data as of May 21, 2026 KST.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Disclaimer: For research and information purposes only. Not investment advice. Names cited are for analytical illustration; readers should perform their own due diligence and consult licensed advisors before any investment decision.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description></item></channel></rss>