SK Group Chair warns of emerging bottlenecks in memory chip supply

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said on the 3rd, “Many companies are requesting memory semiconductor supplies, and I am deeply concerned about how to respond,” adding, “We are entering an era where bottlenecks in supply are emerging.” His remarks came during a keynote speech at the ‘SK AI Summit 2025’ held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the same day.

Chairman Chey also stated, “As companies rush to transition to AI, demand is surging rapidly, and the performance of AI chips, including graphics processing units (GPUs), is improving annually. However, the supply speed of memory semiconductors to support this is lagging.” He diagnosed that the shortage of memory semiconductor supply is severe enough to slow the growth and efficiency of the entire AI industry. He revealed, “We will prepare strategies to respond to demand in a timely manner.”

The event, held on the day SK Hynix’s stock price rose to 620,000 Korean won, setting a new all-time high, drew attention from the semiconductor industry and investors. With approximately 35,000 participants online and offline, Chairman Chey detailed his views on the memory semiconductor shortage and the AI infrastructure investment boom. The SK AI Summit is an event where SK Group introduces its AI competitiveness to domestic and international companies and academia and explores future development directions with global big tech firms.

Chairman Chey said, “Resolving the mismatch between demand and supply is SK’s role.” To address the memory supply shortage, the company will begin full-scale operations at the M15X fab (factory) at the Cheongju Campus next year and complete the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster by 2027. He emphasized, “Once the four fabs in the Yongin Cluster are completed, it will have the same effect as building 24 M15X fabs in Cheongju.”

Technologically, SK is pursuing the development of high-capacity AI semiconductors or products based on a NAND flash memory concept that can process data as quickly as HBM at a lower cost. This refers to HBF (High-Bandwidth Flash Memory), which SK Hynix recently announced its development plans for—a technology reportedly not yet secured by Samsung Electronics. Chairman Chey expressed confidence, saying, “Now, even NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang does not ask SK Hynix to accelerate technological development,” adding, “This shows we are well-prepared.”

Chairman Chey forecast that explosive infrastructure investments in the AI market will continue for some time. He said, “Global data center investments this year reached approximately 800 trillion Korean won, growing at an average annual rate of 24% over the past five years. However, big tech companies’ new investment plans far exceed this,” noting, “All companies believe they will fall behind if they do not adopt AI, so the AI market among enterprises will explode.” A representative example is OpenAI’s recent request for SK Hynix to supply up to 900,000 high-performance DRAMs per month, including HBM semiconductors, for its U.S. AI infrastructure project, Stargate. Chairman Chey added, “As AI begins full-scale inference, demand will inevitably grow as it deeply analyzes and verifies given questions.” In response, SK Group announced, “We will become a company that provides the most efficient AI solutions, including optimal ‘AI infrastructure.’”

The event also featured video messages from Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon. Altman said, “The future SK and OpenAI envision is a world where every individual has their own intelligent AI assistant. To realize this, massive infrastructure investment and close cooperation are essential.” Jassy stated, “Many Korean companies face practical challenges such as rapid innovation pressure, complex customer demands, and efficient scaling,” adding, “These challenges require bold and future-oriented solutions.” The Chosun