SK Choi Tae-won, “Investing in the U.S., without subsidies, is something to rethink”

[Korea Financial Times, Jeon HanSin] SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won has been traveling abroad more frequently to keep up with trends in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. Having taken the lead in the early AI era with SK hynix's preemptive investment in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the company is now looking to invest further.

Choi, who traveled to Europe late last week, is reportedly attending a three-day “Google Camp” in Sicily, Italy, starting on July 29 (local time), according to reports.

This year's Google Camp is themed around AI, and it's possible that Choi was invited because he's leading the charge to invest in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), an AI-driven industry.

Choi recently continued his global management activities to inspect the AI and semiconductor markets and explore business opportunities.

From June 22 to early July, he traveled to the U.S. and met with global big tech leaders such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, and Intel CEO Pete Gelsinger to discuss business cooperation.

In April and early June, Choi also traveled to the U.S. and Taiwan to meet with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and TSMC Chairman Wei Zhou, who are forming an “HBM alliance” with SK Hynix.

Choi is looking for the best way to invest in HBMs, considering geopolitical risks.

SK hynix is planning to build an HBM production facility in Indiana, USA, with an investment of 3.9 billion dollars (about 5.3 trillion won). “Investment in semiconductors in the U.S. is relatively small,” Choi said at a meeting with the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Nov. 19, noting that it costs 20 trillion won to build a single HBM plant.

In response to U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump's criticism of the current government's policy of subsidizing overseas companies, Choi said, “(Investment in the U.S.) hasn't been completely decided yet,” adding, “If we don't subsidize, it's a matter of rethinking.”

Jeon HanSin (pocha@fntimes.com)