About 80 percent, or 82 trillion won, will be invested in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, SK Hynix's HBM chips are optimized for use with Nvidia's AI accelerators, SK Group said in a statement on June 30. In addition, SK Group's two subsidiaries, SK Telecom and SK Broadband, will invest 3.4 trillion won in the data center business.

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SK Group Chairman Chey Tae Won speaks at the group's strategy meeting on June 28. Photo: SK Hynix

The plan was announced after SK Group Chairman Chey Tae Won and about 20 senior executives held an annual strategy meeting to discuss the direction of South Korea’s second-largest chaebol. They discussed for 20 hours over two days and debated solutions to “overhaul” the group. SK Group also has businesses in energy, chemicals and batteries.

Notably, Chairman Chey has just closed a billion-dollar divorce with his wife and needs money to settle.

The directors decided that SK Group will target 80 trillion won in revenue by 2026 from this “overhaul”. The targets also include securing 30 trillion won in free cash flow within three years, to maintain the debt-to-equity ratio below 100%.

SK Group posted a loss of 10 trillion won in 2023, but is expected to post a pre-tax profit of 22 trillion won this year. The group hopes to increase that to 40 trillion won by 2026.

While this is the first time SK Group has revealed its business plans through 2028, SK Hynix has announced several investments for 2024, including 3.87 billion won to build an advanced packaging plant and AI product research center in Indiana (USA). At home, the company will spend 14.6 billion USD to build a new memory chip complex to meet the growing demand for semiconductors in AI development.

(According to Bloomberg)