SK Group Plans $58 Billion Investment In AI And Chips By 2026

The chip-to-construction conglomerate SK Group of South Korea announced on Sunday that it plans to invest 80 trillion won ($58 billion) by 2026, primarily in semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

In order to develop investment strategies for future growth, about 20 chief executives of the group’s key affiliates convened at its research facility in Icheon, 58 km southeast of Seoul, on Friday and Saturday, according to a statement from SK Group.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won attended  the meeting online as he was visiting the United States for meetings with American tech executives, reports Yonhap news agency. During the meeting, he said, “The group needs to preemptively make drastic changes in the face of the new transition era.”

The chairman focussed on integration of AI. He said that the SK Group must also strengthen “AI value chain leadership,” from AI services to AI infrastructure.

Separately, the group’s main affiliate, SK Hynix, would invest 103 trillion won by 2028 in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. These chips are utilised in AI chipsets and other AI-related companies, in order to solidify its leadership in the semiconductors sector, according to the statement.

By 2028, SK Telecom, the top supplier of cellular services in the nation, and SK Broadband, a telecommunications company, plan to invest 3.4 trillion won in building AI data centres.

The investment ambitions coincide with an ongoing divorce lawsuit conflict between Chey and his estranged wife, Roh Soh-yeong.

In May, the Seoul High Court ordered Chey to pay 1.38 trillion won in property division to Roh in the country’s most expensive divorce suit of all time. The chairman appealed the court’s ruling, citing a “critical error” in the calculation of his wife’s contribution to the growth of the country’s second-biggest conglomerate.