Choi Tae-won Visits SK Hynix, Urges "Need to Consider Profit Models After HBM"

Inspection of 5th Generation HBM Production Line at Icheon Campus

Choi Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, visited the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) production site at SK Hynix. He emphasized that SK Hynix, which is emerging as a leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor field with HBM, needs to consider new revenue models beyond HBM.

According to SK Group on the 5th, Chairman Choi visited the SK Hynix headquarters at the Icheon campus, toured the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) production line with key executives including SK Hynix CEO Kwak No-jung, and checked the status of the AI memory business.

Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group (left) is inspecting the HBM production site at the SK Hynix Icheon Campus on the 5th along with key executives of SK Hynix. Photo by SK

"HBM, Fiercer Competition After 6th Generation Mass Production Next Year... Need to Consider Next-Generation Revenue Models"

The HBM production line that Chairman Choi inspected this time is a production facility equipped with state-of-the-art back-end process equipment. SK Hynix has been mass-producing the industry's highest-performance AI memory, the 5th generation HBM (HBM3E) 8-stack product, at this site since March.

To solidify its AI memory leadership, SK Hynix is accelerating preparations for the commercialization of next-generation HBM. SK Hynix plans to mass-produce the HBM3E 12-stack product in the third quarter of this year and supply it to customers starting in the fourth quarter. The 6th generation HBM (HBM4) is being developed with the goal of mass production in the second half of next year.

After inspecting the HBM production line, Chairman Choi held a lengthy discussion with key SK Hynix executives including CEO Kwak No-jung, President Song Hyun-jong, and President Kim Ju-seon about strengthening future business competitiveness to lead D-RAM and NAND technology/product leadership in the AI era and post-HBM developments.

Regarding recent concerns about an AI bubble due to global stock market volatility, Chairman Choi said, “AI is an unstoppable trend, and only companies that seize opportunities in crises can survive and lead technology. The more difficult the times, the more we must focus unwaveringly on securing technological competitiveness and think intensely about next-generation products.”

He added, “Recently, overseas big tech companies have shown great interest in SK Hynix’s HBM technology leadership. This is the result of the relentless challenges and efforts of the 32,000 SK Hynix members, as well as our own confidence. Let us quietly deepen that confidence,” encouraging the employees.

He further emphasized, “Let’s achieve early commercialization of the 6th generation HBM (HBM4) next year to maintain South Korea’s AI semiconductor leadership and contribute to the national economy.”

Choi Tae-won Strengthening AI Semiconductor Leadership

Since beginning on-site management at the SK Hynix Icheon campus on January 4 this year, Chairman Choi has been actively working to strengthen AI semiconductor leadership and build a global cooperation network through a series of meetings with global big tech CEOs.

In April, Chairman Choi met Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, at Nvidia’s headquarters in the U.S. to discuss building a global AI alliance. In June, he visited Taiwan to discuss cooperation plans with Wei Zhejia, Chairman of TSMC. From late June, he stayed in the U.S. for about two weeks, meeting consecutively with CEOs of major U.S. big tech companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft (MS), Amazon, and Intel to discuss ways to solidify partnerships between SK and AI and semiconductors.

Choi Tae-won, Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Chairman of SK Group), is speaking at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Jeju Forum press conference held at Shilla Hotel Jeju on the 19th.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Additionally, in July at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Jeju Forum, Chairman Choi met with key domestic AI leaders to discuss future strategies for the AI era, making various efforts to strengthen national-level AI leadership. Earlier, at the group management strategy meeting in June, he ordered a group-wide AI growth strategy.

An SK official said, “Chairman Choi is personally overseeing strategic directions by traveling domestically and internationally to build SK’s AI value chain. SK will focus its capabilities not only on current AI fields such as HBM and personal AI assistants but also on growing into a company that provides AI total solutions including AI data center construction.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.