SK chief meets with big tech CEOs in US

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won shakes hands with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI headquarters in San Francisco in this photo he posted on his social media on Thursday. (Yonhap)

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is in the US to meet with leaders of big tech firms, including OpenAI and Microsoft, and discuss collaboration opportunities in artificial intelligence.

Via social media on Thursday, Chey posted photos of himself shaking hands with Sam Altman, the chief executive officer of OpenAI, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, taken in separate meetings in the US.

"I am traveling in San Francisco and Seattle and meeting with IT leaders every day. They are so welcoming to discuss the topics we bring up that I do not feel tired at all, and I am energized," Chey wrote in the post.

"I see unprecedented opportunities here, where the heartbeat of the massive trend of AI is beating. There is no doubt that this is a historic moment for everyone, either leap in now or forever decline."

From his meetings with the IT leaders, the chairman seeks to forge a "trilateral partnership" in the field of AI, according to the SK Supex Council, the group's top decision-making body.

In his meeting with Altman at the headquarters of OpenAI in San Francisco, Chey discussed ways to cooperate with the company and shared their opinions on the future of AI technology and the industry.

At the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, Chey met with Nadella and agreed to strengthen their partnership in their ongoing collaboration in semiconductors, data centers and AI. The two also promised to hold meetings regularly to develop their partnership.

Chey took off to the US on June 22 to personally look into global trends in AI and the semiconductor market, and to meet with other tech leaders. SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang and SK hynix President Kim Joo-sun, in charge of AI Infra, accompanied the chairman on the trip, along with other executives.

The chairman will attend the group's top executive meeting that runs for two days from Friday via video, according to the SK Supex Council.

At the meeting, some 30 chiefs leading the group's major affiliates, including SK Innovation Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won and SK Supex Council Chairman Chey Chang-won, will take part in setting the strategy for "qualitative growth" of the group and discuss new growth drivers, the council said.

"The meeting will mark a critical juncture for the group to come up with strategies and methodologies aimed at enhancing investment capability through substantive management, as underscored by Chey Tae-won, and achieving qualitative growth," an SK official said.

Among key topics on the table are measures for business restructuring to enhance efficiency and profitability, as well as efficient investment in future growth drivers, mainly AI, batteries and biotechnology, the company said.

"We expect we will need to invest a record amount of funds in our businesses linked to artificial intelligence, including (SK hynix's) High Bandwidth Memory to gear up for the coming AI in the next two to three years."

SK Group, the country's second-largest conglomerate in terms of assets, has been speeding up efforts to overhaul its 213 affiliates, which is about triple the number of affiliates for comparable conglomerates such as Samsung Group and Hyundai Motor Group.

By Jo He-rim(herim@heraldcorp.com)