SK Chairman Chey Tae-won prioritizes data centers in $61.5 billion AI push

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said that data centers are one of his top priorities in his push for AI, aligning with the company's planned 82 trillion won ($61.5 billion) investment in the sector by 2028.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won speaks during the 2024 Ulsan Forum hosted in the southeastern industrial city on Thursday. [SK INNOVATION]

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said that data centers are one of his top priorities in his push for AI, aligning with the company's planned 82 trillion won ($61.5 billion) investment in the sector by 2028.

“Some [of the investment] should go to chips, developing our own AI applications and data centers. Most importantly, developing technologies for data centers is crucial,” Chey said when asked about the details of the investment plan after the 2024 Ulsan Forum, hosted in the southeastern industrial city on Thursday.

“We aim to create the most efficient and high-performance data solution that fully covers everything from energy solutions to each component within the system,” Chey said.

His remarks follow SK's June announcement of plans to invest 82 trillion won exclusively in AI-related businesses by 2026, including high bandwidth memory (HBM).

Chey also pinpointed the importance of building symbiotic infrastructure to make “smarter AI.” “In order to properly utilize AI, they must be trained by an enormous amount of well-cleansed data. But that cannot be done solely by a company in Ulsan, even if we collect all data by SK subsidiaries,” Chey said. “AI-related Infrastructure must be formed in a way that all data in the Ulsan industrial city can be shared, and [we must] apply it to suit Ulsan's manufacturing plants.” “With the corrected data, AI can show efficiency, which leads to reductions in costs and energy,” Chey added. SK Innovation has a manufacturing complex in Ulsan measuring 2.5 million pyeong (2,042 acres), which began operation in 1964 as Korea's first oil refinery. The Ulsan complex also houses several production plants run by SK Innovation’s other petroleum-related subsidiaries, such as SK geo centric, a petrochemical manufacturer, and SK Enmove, a lubricant supplier. “It's difficult to gain distinguishable competitiveness when only thinking one way how Ulsan's manufacturing industry can utilize AI,” Chey said. “We need a two-way approach to train AI based on the manufacturing and, through it, commercialize smarter AI.” After the forum, Chey also expressed optimism regarding the smooth completion of SK Innovation's merger with SK E&S, with the newly merged entity set to launch on Nov. 1. “We aim to create an energy total solution company by recombining SK Innovation and SK E&S, which were originally one company in the past,” Chey said. “The two will create synergy by cooperating in transactions, covering all areas of traditional and renewable energy.” When asked about additional plans for “rebalancing” the company's businesses, Chey added that they “will be all right.” The annual Ulsan Forum was first proposed by Chey in 2022 with a goal of making a ground to collectively discuss social issues with the regional community. This year's event was attended by Chey, SK Innovation CEO Park Sang-kyu and Ulsan Mayor Kim Doo-kyum, Ulsan University President Oh Yeon-cheon, along with some 1,300 SK employees and Ulsan citizens online and offline.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]