Park Jung-ho, Hynix Vice Chairman, Discusses Expanding Semiconductor Collaboration with Qualcomm at CES (Comprehensive)

[Las Vegas=Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] Park Jung-ho, Vice Chairman and CEO of SK Hynix, visited CES 2023, the world's largest electronics and IT exhibition held in Las Vegas, USA, on the 5th (local time), expressing his determination to overcome the challenging semiconductor market by expanding cooperation with customers such as Qualcomm.

On the morning of the same day, after holding an internal meeting at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), Vice Chairman Park told reporters that he would take this CES as an opportunity to have many meetings with customers to find a breakthrough in the gloomy semiconductor market. He said, "I am having many customer meetings," and added, "I have a schedule to meet not only Solidigm but also customers such as AMD and Qualcomm." He further explained, "Our major customers who purchase a lot of our semiconductors are Dell and HP, but as future partners, AMD and Qualcomm are important," adding, "I judged that it is necessary to have many such meetings."

Vice Chairman Park met with Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm, the previous day to discuss cooperation plans between the two companies. It is reported that CEO Amon and he had extensive discussions about the overall future industries related to semiconductors. SK Hynix President Kwak No-jung and other executives from both companies also attended the meeting. Qualcomm, the world's number one smartphone AP manufacturer, has recently been expanding its business scope to automotive semiconductors and IoT.

Within SK Hynix, there is a sentiment that the very fact that a meeting between top executives took place in line with Qualcomm's business expansion trend is meaningful. This could serve as a turning point to further activate global cooperation, such as SK Hynix supplying memory solutions with world-class competitiveness.

Vice Chairman Park stated, "We will continue to cooperate with global big tech companies beyond borders and industries," adding, "We will discover technology-based future growth engines in various fields with leading companies that will drive the market in the future."

Meanwhile, he also revealed that he expects additional price declines in the semiconductor market for the time being. Vice Chairman Park said, "The average price of memory semiconductors this year is expected to be slightly lower than the lowest price at the end of last year," but added, "However, customers' investment mindset will quickly revive, so the downturn will not last very long."

Regarding the merger rumors between Japan's Kioxia and the US's Western Digital, he said a cautious approach is necessary. He explained, "We are carefully watching (Japan's approval)," and added, "We are monitoring how the Japanese government will approach the fact that SK Hynix has already invested in Kioxia. This is a key point to watch."