'On the verge of shutting down': SK hynix CEO praises company's bet on 'future growth' at forum

In the early 2000s, Hynix was a company on the brink. Employees removed fluorescent bulbs to cut electricity bills. They were told to carry handkerchiefs to reduce napkin use. For workers, it felt like a place collapsing under austerity.

SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung speaks at SK Group’s Icheon Forum, an annual gathering of executives and academics in Seoul, which kicked off at Seoul Walkerhill Hotel in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul, on Aug. 18. The forum continues for three days. [SK GROUP]

In the early 2000s, Hynix was a company on the brink. Employees removed fluorescent bulbs to cut electricity bills. They were told to carry handkerchiefs to reduce napkin use. For workers, it felt like a place collapsing under the weight of austerity — raising what Koreans now call “toesa gak,” referring to the feeling of wanting to quit.

Few could have imagined then that Hynix would one day surpass Samsung Electronics, the undisputed giant of the memory chip industry. Twenty years have gone by and in the first quarter of this year, SK hynix captured the largest share of the global DRAM market, driven by surging demand for high bandwidth memory, or HBM, a chip crucial to artificial intelligence.

SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung described that unlikely rise during the opening address of SK Group’s Icheon Forum, an annual gathering of executives and academics in Seoul, held at Seoul Walkerhill Hotel in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul.

“Hynix was on the verge of shutting down,” he said. “But after joining SK in 2012, we achieved the world’s first HBM development. You could call it luck, but there was something more fundamental.”

Betting on the future Kwak argued that Hynix’s survival — and eventual dominance — came down to two things: SK’s willingness to invest for the long term and the company’s own tenacity.

“When competitors focused on short-term results, SK hynix worked on both immediate performance and future growth,” he said. He called it a reflection of SK’s culture: to place strategic bets on technologies capable of changing the world.

That approach diverged sharply from Samsung’s. During the peak of DRAM demand, Samsung prioritized quarterly results and has since faced criticism for underestimating HBM’s potential. SK, meanwhile, poured resources into the chip, ensuring it would be positioned to ride the wave of AI.

Kwak also pointed to the spirit of collaboration.

“The HBM story would not have been possible without teamwork,” he said. For Hynix, forged in the crucible of near-bankruptcy, that teamwork meant engineers and managers working across departments with relentless intensity.

A CEO shaped by crisis Kwak’s own career mirrors the company’s turbulent path. He joined Hyundai Electronics, Hynix’s predecessor, as a researcher in 1994. He lived through the financial crisis that placed the firm under creditor control from 2001 to 2005. When SK acquired Hynix in 2012, he quickly rose into management and, by 2022, became chief executive.

In the first half of this year, SK hynix posted 16.65 trillion won ($12 billion) in operating profit, eclipsing Samsung’s 11.36 trillion won. The reason: HBM accounted for a growing share of DRAM revenue, positioning Hynix at the center of the AI revolution.

Kwak warned that the memory business itself is no longer what it once was.

“Disruptive innovation is reshaping the industry,” he said. “Memory is moving away from being a commodity to being customized.”

In this new landscape, competitiveness depends on how companies integrate AI — from predicting market demand to optimizing manufacturing.

“What matters is not how much you know, but how you act,” he said. “And SK has the mindset and the experience to move forward.”

A forum for strategy

The Icheon Forum began in 2017 at the suggestion of SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, who saw the need for a platform to debate fast-moving global changes. Now in its ninth year, the conference assembles executives, scholars and policymakers to explore business challenges and technological frontiers.

This year’s theme is “AI and Digital Transformation.” Over three days, participants will discuss strategies for building an AI ecosystem, driving industrial innovation and reshaping how organizations work.

Monday was its first day and it featured a session on the U.S.-led reordering of the global economy, with keynote speeches by Victor Cha of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Jing Qian of the Asia Society Policy Institute.

Speaking with reporters at the forum, Chey emphasized the stakes of what he called “sovereign AI,” the idea that nations must build their own AI data, infrastructure and services.

“This is not something confined to one country,” he said. “It’s a global war. We must build a sovereign AI that can win in the world market.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY SHIM SEO-HYUN [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]