SK Group to secure $58 billion for AI, chip investments by 2026

SK Group, South Korea's chip-to-construction conglomerate, said on Sunday that it will secure 80 trillion won ($58 billion) by 2026 for investments, mainly in artificial intelligence and semiconductors.

Some 20 chief executives of the group's major affiliates gathered at its research centre in Icheon, 58 kms southeast of Seoul, from Friday to Saturday to come up with investment plans for future growth, SK Group said in a statement.

"The group needs to preemptively make drastic changes in the face of the new transition era," SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said in the meeting. 

He attended online as he was visiting the United States for meetings with American tech executives, reports Yonhap news agency.

SK Group must also strengthen "AI value chain leadership," from AI services to AI infrastructure, the chairman said.

Separately, to cement its leadership in the semiconductors industry, the group's core affiliate, SK hynix, will invest 103 trillion won by 2028 in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI chipsets and other AI-related businesses, the statement said.

SK Telecom, the country's leading wireless services providers, and telecommunications firm SK Broadband will invest 3.4 trillion won in establishing AI data centres by 2028, it said.

The investment plans come amid an ongoing legal dispute between Chey and his estranged wife, Roh Soh-yeong, involving their divorce suit.

In May, the Seoul High Court ordered Chey to pay 1.38 trillion won in property division to Roh in the country's most expensive divorce suit of all time. 

The chairman appealed the court's ruling, citing a "critical error" in the calculation of his wife's contribution to the growth of the country's second-biggest conglomerate.