SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won and other executives attend a meeting to discuss future investment plans at a research facility in Icheon, 58 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on June 29. Photo provided by the company. Yonhap News
SK Group, the South Korean conglomerate whose businesses range from semiconductors to construction, said on Sunday it would set aside 80 trillion won ($58 billion) through 2026 for investments mainly in artificial intelligence and semiconductors.
SK Group said in a statement that about 20 CEOs of the group’s major affiliates met at a research institute in Icheon, 58 kilometers southeast of Seoul, from Friday to Saturday to draw up investment plans for future growth.
“We are entering a new era of change, and the group needs to take the initiative and carry out fundamental reforms,” ​​SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won said at the meeting. The chairman attended the meeting online as he was in the United States to meet with executives of American tech companies.
SK Group also needs to strengthen its “leadership in the AI ​​value chain,” from AI services to AI infrastructure, the chairman said.
The group’s core subsidiary, SK Hynix, also said in a statement that it will invest 103 trillion won by 2028 in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to be used in AI chipsets and other AI-related businesses to solidify its leadership in the semiconductor industry.
South Korea’s leading wireless communication service provider SK Telecom and telecommunications company SK Broadband have announced that they will invest 3.4 trillion won in establishing AI data centers by 2028.
The investment plan was announced amid an ongoing legal battle between Choi and his estranged wife, Noh So-young, over their divorce proceedings.
In May, the Seoul High Court ordered Choi to pay 1.38 trillion won in property division to President Roh in the most expensive divorce case in South Korea’s history. President Roh appealed the court’s decision, citing “serious errors” in calculating his wife’s contributions to the growth of South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate. (Yonhap News Agency)
