The Largest AI Summit in Korea Hosted by SK
Chey Tae-won Highlights Surge in AI Infrastructure Investment
"Timely Memory Supply Will Determine AI Expansion"
SK Telecom's Jung Jaeheon: "Transforming into a Comprehensive AI Solutions Provider"
Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, stated at the "SK AI Summit," the largest artificial intelligence (AI) conference in Korea, "Recently, OpenAI requested that we supply 900,000 units of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) per month for the 'Stargate Project.'" He posed a question about the background behind such a request. This example illustrates the bottleneck in memory supply resulting from the explosive increase in demand for AI semiconductors. Chairman Chey emphasized the need for a systematic response and the establishment of stable infrastructure to sustain the AI ecosystem.
Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group is delivering the keynote speech at the "SK AI Summit" held on the 3rd at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yoon Dongju
During his keynote speech at the "SK AI Summit 2025" held at COEX in Seoul on the morning of November 3, Chairman Chey Tae-won asserted, "The current hot topic in the AI industry is the increase in AI infrastructure investment to meet explosive demand." This year's SK AI Summit was held under the theme "AI Now & Next," aiming to assess the present and explore the future of AI.
Chairman Chey pointed out that global data center investment has grown at an average annual rate of 24% over the past five years, reaching 600 billion dollars (approximately 800 trillion won) this year. The new investment amounts announced by major big tech companies such as OpenAI and Meta exceed this figure. He noted, "While infrastructure investment is increasing alongside rising AI demand, it is difficult to predict how much it will grow because, unlike industries such as energy or oil, there is no stable demand forecasting model."
He particularly noted, "Although the performance of AI chips such as graphics processing units (GPUs) is improving every year, the pace of memory supply to support them is severely lacking," diagnosing, "We are entering an era where the bottleneck is not in performance, but in supply."
He identified the following as challenges for SK Group in the AI era: stable memory supply to support next-generation AI chip performance, building future AI infrastructure, and actively utilizing AI to solve AI-related challenges. Based on this, he presented a vision for SK Group to become "the most efficient AI solution provider" in order to respond to AI demand.
Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group is delivering the keynote speech at the "SK AI Summit" held on the 3rd at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yoon Dongju
Jeong Jaeheon, CEO of SK Telecom, made his first public appearance since taking office and unveiled the company's AI infrastructure strategy. He stated, "We will expand our role in the AI data center business and grow into a comprehensive service provider overseeing the entire project from design and construction to operation," adding, "As Korea's leading AI company, we will drive the evolution of AI infrastructure."
He also announced plans to build a manufacturing AI cloud to support the group's AI transformation (AX). CEO Jeong emphasized, "The manufacturing AI cloud will be utilized for the AX of major manufacturing companies, including SK Hynix," and added, "It will serve as the core infrastructure to promote manufacturing AI-based innovation, such as digital twins and robot AI in manufacturing sites."
During Chairman Chey's keynote speech, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, delivered video messages expressing their commitment to AI data center and computing collaboration with SK.
CEO Altman stated, "To support much more powerful AI models and allow everyone to leverage advanced intelligence, massive infrastructure investment is necessary. Our partnership with SK is more than just business; OpenAI will explore the possibility of establishing an AI data center in Korea with SK, contributing to strengthening 'AI sovereignty.'"
CEO Jassy highly praised the collaboration between SK and Amazon Web Services (AWS) on the Ulsan data center, stating, "Improving semiconductor performance is essential for enhancing AI infrastructure," and added, "SK is Amazon's partner for expanding AI solutions."
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