Expanding AI Territory... Chey Tae-won Meets Amazon and Intel CEOs

Discussion on Enhancing Semiconductor Competitiveness Using AI
Relay Meetings with Big Tech CEOs Starting in April

Choi Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, met with CEOs of major U.S. companies Amazon and Intel to explore ways to expand AI businesses such as large language models (LLM) and industrial AI.

According to SK Group on the 1st, Chairman Choi met with Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, last week at Amazon's headquarters in Seattle to discuss cooperation in AI and semiconductors. CEO Jassy, an expert in AI and cloud, has served as CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and has been Amazon's CEO since 2021.

Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group (right) met with Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, at Amazon's headquarters in Seattle to discuss cooperation in AI (artificial intelligence) and semiconductors. (Provided by SK Group)

Amazon is expanding its business across the entire AI spectrum, from semiconductor design to services, by developing its own AI semiconductors specialized for machine learning (ML) training and inference, called 'Trainium' and 'Inferentia.' These semiconductors, developed specifically for AI, require high-performance high-bandwidth memory (HBM). SK Hynix began mass production and customer delivery of the world's first 5th generation HBM, 'HBM3E,' in March this year, leading the AI memory semiconductor market.

Chairman Choi also met with Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, at Intel's headquarters in San Jose to discuss cooperation in the semiconductor field. They highly valued the long-standing semiconductor partnership between SK Hynix and Intel and explored ways to expand advanced semiconductor manufacturing cooperation in the AI era.

SK Hynix, in collaboration with Intel, developed the world's first server DRAM 'DDR5 MCR DIMM' capable of speeds exceeding 8 gigabits per second in December 2022. In January last year, they also became the first to certify compatibility between 10nm-class 4th generation (1a) DDR5 server DRAM and Intel's server CPU, the '4th generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processor.' They have continued their partnership by publishing white papers and more.

Intel holds a high market share in the server CPU market and has recently strengthened its AI competitiveness by launching the AI accelerator 'Gaudi 3.' Additionally, Intel is expanding its semiconductor foundry business and is recognized as having world-class competitiveness across the entire spectrum from AI semiconductor design to production.

Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group (right) met with Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, at Intel headquarters in San Jose to discuss semiconductor collaboration. (Provided by SK Group)

Chairman Choi, who departed for a U.S. business trip on the 22nd, has been continuously meeting with key figures in the local IT industry such as Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. He has been concretizing SK's AI competitiveness enhancement plans and AI business direction focused on 'people,' engaging with AI leaders from semiconductors to services.

In April, he met Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, and in June, Wei Zhejia, Chairman of TSMC, continuing to build a cooperation network with big tech leaders and seeking joint business opportunities.

Meanwhile, SK Group announced at its management strategy meeting held on the 28th and 29th of last month that it plans to secure 80 trillion won in investment funds by 2026 to invest in future growth sectors such as AI and semiconductors. SK Hynix plans to invest a total of 103 trillion won to strengthen its semiconductor business competitiveness, including 82 trillion won over five years until 2028 in AI-related fields such as HBM.

An SK official said, "We plan to actively nurture an 'AI ecosystem' encompassing everything from semiconductors to services to contribute to strengthening national competitiveness and human progress."

Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group (right) met with CEO Kim Young-han at Gauss Labs, SK Hynix's AI (artificial intelligence) subsidiary located in Palo Alto, USA, to discuss semiconductor manufacturing innovation using AI and to review business trends. (Provided by SK Group)