SEOUL, May 6 : An AI-powered surge in semiconductor shares sent South Korea's benchmark KOSPI index above 7,000 points in a historic first on Wednesday, with Samsung Electronics breaking the $1 trillion market-cap barrier. The gains underscore how global demand for artificial intelligence hardware has become the dominant force reshaping equity markets, turning South Korea's chip-heavy benchmark into one of the world's best performing major markets. The KOSPI jumped 6.9 per cent to a record 7,