The MarketWatch account frames the AI rally through South Korea's equity surge as evidence of reordered global leadership, yet primary policy instruments reveal deeper structural drivers. US CHIPS and Science Act appropriations and Bureau of Industry and Security export-control updates have redirected semiconductor capex toward allied jurisdictions while constraining Chinese access, producing sustained valuation premia for US hyperscalers and select Korean foundry suppliers. IMF balance-of-payments data through 2023Q4 document a measurable increase in cross-border tech FDI into Taiwan and Korea that coincides with these controls, not merely with earnings momentum. Sector-rotation models treating the move as another tech cycle overlook the concurrent compression of non-AI European and Japanese multiples, visible in STOXX 600 ex-tech indices versus Nasdaq-100 concentration metrics. Valuation dispersion between AI-exposed and non-exposed firms now exceeds levels recorded during the 1999-2000 period when normalized for profitability, indicating capital is pricing policy-protected scarcity rather than transitory demand. Mainstream coverage understates how export-control licensing and subsidy clawback provisions embed long-term barriers to entry that favor incumbents across multiple jurisdictions.