South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc, the world’s No. 2 memorychip maker, is to invest 103 trillion won (US$74.6 billion) through 2028 to strengthen its chips business, focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), its parent SK Group said yesterday.
SK Group also said it plans to secure 80 trillion won by 2026 to invest in AI and semiconductors as well as fund shareholder returns, while streamlining its more than 175 subsidiaries.
The sprawling conglomerate outlined the plans following a two-day strategy meeting, aiming to revive the group after SK Hynix, its main money maker, and the group’s electric vehicle battery arm suffered heavy losses.
Photo: Bloomberg
SK Group said it sought to improve its competitiveness by focusing on its AI value chain, including high bandwidth memory chips, AI data centers and AI services such as personalized AI assistants.
At a time of transition, a “preemptive and fundamental change is necessary,” SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won was quoted as saying in the statement
During the meeting, the executives also agreed to take gradual steps to adjust the number of subsidiaries in the group to a “manageable range,” without specifying the scale of the reduction.
Local media had said SK Innovation Co, which owns the country’s largest oil refiner and battery maker SK On Co, was expected to pursue a merger with profitable gas affiliate SK E&S Co.
The group expects its profit before tax to reach about 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.
South Korea, home to the world’s top memorychip makers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, has fallen behind some rivals in areas such as chip design and contract chip manufacturing.
Earlier this year, the government announced a 26 trillion won support package for its chip businesses, citing a need to keep up in areas like chip design and contract manufacturing amid ‘all-out warfare’ in the global semiconductor market.
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