SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won: “Joint production with Japan’s Kioxia is also one option.” “Kioxia is a company with many strengths.” “If SK hynix can be part of Kioxia’s future strategy, we are ready to be a partner at any time.” “If there is no longer any possibility of building further cooperation, we will end our investment in Kioxia.”

SK Hynix is preparing its first major chip fab in Japan. Hankyoreh reports the company is advancing plans for a memory semiconductor plant in Miyagi Prefecture in the Tohoku region. Investment is pegged at tens of trillions of won. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won recently visited the area. Miyagi is one of three semiconductor hubs prioritized by the Japanese government, alongside Kyushu and Hokkaido. The facility would be an additional overseas base while the company continues its much larger domestic clusters in Yongin and Honam. If it proceeds, SK Hynix would become only the third foreign company with a manufacturing plant in Japan after Micron and TSMC. Samsung has limited itself to packaging R&D in Yokohama. The move aims to expand capacity amid ongoing global memory shortages. It also carries complications. Stronger US pressure for domestic memory production could intensify, and Korean public opinion remains sensitive about strategic semiconductor investments in Japan. This would mark a notable geographic diversification for one of the top HBM suppliers.

$SNDK $SKHY $DRAM SK Hynix says it will partner with Kioxia if Kioxia wants it. Makes sense if you think the window matters more than the ownership: Kioxia has fabs running now, and new NAND capacity takes years to build. Shortage must be really bad. SK Group chairman told Asahi that joint production is "one option," and that if SK Hynix fits into Kioxia's future strategy, SK is ready any time. Scope goes past a fab: co-production, R&D, shared supply chain, with the Kioxia and SanDisk NAND JV named as the template. SK has been passive here since 2018, holding converts in the Bain vehicle that owns about 14.2% of Kioxia. This is the first time the chairman has framed it as something that could become operational.

NVIDIA AND SK GROUP JUST ANNOUNCED A $500+ BILLION PARTNERSHIP. SK Group $SKHY and Nvidia $NVDA signed letters of intent for a $500-billion-plus initiative spanning two fronts: AI factory construction and next-generation memory supply. SK Telecom will build a 2-gigawatt NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX AI Factory, first coming online in 2027, powered specifically by SK hynix HBM4. Separately, NVIDIA and SK hynix are entering a long-term AI memory partnership which secures NVIDIA a stable supply of next-generation AI memory while giving SK hynix a locked-in foundation for growth. The two companies will codevelop and optimize future HBM generations together. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang: "South Korea has all the ingredients to become a global AI powerhouse, world-class networks and data centers, leadership in chip technology and vast industrial scale."

A South Korean court ordered billionaire SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on Friday to pay his ex-wife 944 billion won ($640 million) in a case that national media dubbed the “divorce of the century.”

A South Korean court ordered SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to pay his former wife, Roh Soh-yeong, $640 million in a high-profile divorce case that has drawn attention to the billionaire's stake in the country's second-largest conglomerate. More here:

$SKHY Warns Memory Shortage Could Worsen in 2027 SK Group Chairman Tae-Won Chey says the memory shortage could peak in 2027 and persist through 2030 as AI demand continues to outpace supply • Memory shortage could peak in 2027 and persist through 2030 • SK Hynix plans $72B in global expansion, targeting a doubling of capacity within five years • New fabs will be tied to long-term customer orders to avoid overcapacity • The company is evaluating additional sites, including Indiana • HBM uses around 4x the wafer area of standard DRAM, while stacking yields remain constrained • SK Hynix is exploring customer JVs and a “Memory as a Service” model to share investment risk • Nvidia is currently its most important customer, alongside Google, Microsoft and Meta