SK Group chief visits Silicon Valley, Europe for global management inspo

From left SK Telecom Co. President and CEO Ryu Young-sang, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, and Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Officer Tim Höttges [Courtesy of SK]

South Korea’s SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is headed overseas again to boost the group’s global business, received reports on high bandwidth memory (HBM) from the group’s semiconductor unit SK hynix Inc. during his trip to the United States and visiting Deutsche Telekom AG and Dutch semiconductor equipment company ASML Holding NV during his stay in Europe. According to SK Group on Monday, Chey carried out on-site management activities in San Jose, California, best known as the home of Silicon Valley, on Friday and Saturday local time.

On Friday, Chey was briefed on the status of the HBM business at SK hynix America Inc. HBM is a type of high-performance dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) that increases data processing speed by stacking multiple DRAMs vertically and is considered a core component of artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Chey called for “a flexible response considering various factors such as market dynamics besides the existing business structure” after his briefing.

SK hynix recently formed an organization dedicated to AI infrastructure, under which is a business unit for HBM that brings together HBM-related capabilities and functions.

During his visit to the United States, Chey visited Gauss Labs and Lunar Energy to monitor their progress on Saturday. Gauss Labs is an AI research and development company formed under SK Group in 2020, with the group introducing Gauss Lab’s AI solutions in its semiconductor processes to improve production efficiency and yield.

Chey encouraged Gauss Labs employees to “incorporate large language models (LLM) when applying AI solutions to the chip manufacturing process and consider applying them to processes in other fields beyond chips.”

After concluding his U.S. trip, Chey headed to Europe to continue his global management in Germany and the Netherlands.

Chey met with Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Officer Tim Höttges in Germany on Monday to discuss global business cooperation, where he was accompanied by SK Telecom Co. President and CEO Ryu Young-sang. He will also accompany President Yoon Suk Yeol on a state visit to the Netherlands where he will visit the ASML headquarters.