SK Hynix, the world no.2 memory chip maker, will invest 103 trillion won ($74.6 billion) through 2028 to strengthen its chips business, focusing on AI, Yonhap news agency report said.
South Korea’s SK Group, the parent company of SK Hynix, will secure 80 trillion won by 2026 to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors as well as fund shareholder returns, while streamlining its more than 175 subsidiaries.
SK Hynix has led the HBM chip market as it is the sole supplier of the version currently used — the HBM3 — to Nvidia, which controls about 80 percent of the high-end AI chip market.
SK Telecom, the leading wireless services provider, and telecommunications firm SK Broadband will invest 3.4 trillion won in establishing AI data centers by 2028.
SK Group outlined the plans following a two-day strategy meeting at its research center in Icheon, 58 kilometers southeast of Seoul, aiming to revive the group after SK Hynix, its main money maker, and the group’s electric vehicle battery arm suffered heavy losses.
SK Group, as part of its Back to the Basics strategy, sought to improve its competitiveness by focusing on its AI value chain, including high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, AI data centres and AI services such as personalised AI assistants.
“The group needs to preemptively make drastic changes in the face of the new transition era,” SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said in the meeting. He attended online as he was visiting the United States for meetings with American tech executives.
During the meeting, the executives agreed to take gradual steps to reduce the number of subsidiaries in the group.
SK Group expects its profit before tax to reach around 22 trillion won this year, turning around from a loss last year, with the goal of hitting 40 trillion won in profit before tax by 2026.
Earlier this year, the government announced a 26 trillion won ($19 billion) support package for its chip businesses, citing a need to keep up in areas like chip design and contract manufacturing in the global semiconductor market, Reuters news report said.