China's Industrial Profits Slow to 4.2% Showing The AI Boom Left It Behind

China’s industrial profits grew 4.2% in August from a year earlier, official data showed Monday. Cumulative profit growth for the year has now slowed for a fourth straight month. That cumulative pace peaked at 24.7% through April and has eased to 15.7% through August.

Meanwhile, an AI-driven profit boom is lifting rival economies far faster. The AI Boom China Missed South Korea’s audited companies posted a record operating margin of 16.9% in the second quarter. That is up nearly 12 percentage points from a year earlier.

Manufacturing margins alone leaped almost fivefold, to 24.0%, driven by chipmakers riding the artificial intelligence memory wave. Japan told a similar story. Corporate profits jumped 24.6% year-on-year in the second quarter, beating estimates comfortably.

Across the Pacific, US manufacturers saw after-tax profits climb to $370.1 billion in the second quarter. That is up from $225.8 billion a year earlier. By contrast, China’s 4.2% barely registers as growth.