SK Group's Chey pledges 1,000 trillion won for AI data centers, 1,100 trillion won for semiconductor expansion

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won unveiled a blueprint to invest 1,000 trillion won ($648 billion) in AI data centers by 2035, aiming to transform South Korea into an exporter of artificial intelligence. He also said SK hynix would accelerate completion of the Yongin semiconductor cluster by 12 years and invest 400 trillion won in a new cluster in the southwestern region, bringing total planned semiconductor investment to 1,100 trillion won.

Speaking Sunday at the "Great Leap Forward — Three Mega-Projects National Briefing" held at Cheong Wa Dae, Chey said South Korea's AI goal is to "dramatically reduce high social costs and grow the national economy," adding that achieving this requires "AI factories" — facilities that produce intelligence rather than merely store data.

"While conventional data centers were storage facilities for data, the AI era calls for AI factories that produce intelligence," Chey said. "SK plans to build AI data centers totaling 15 gigawatts across various regions, with SK Telecom as the lead entity." He outlined a two-phase approach: in the first phase, a combined 5GW of capacity would be built as quickly as possible in units of 0.5 to 1GW in areas with available power and land; in the second phase, an additional 10GW would be added sequentially based on demand and other conditions.

Chey said the AI data centers SK builds "can become South Korea's AI national infrastructure," describing them as the engine powering robots and physical AI and as a catalyst for building new upstream and downstream businesses around AI data centers. He added that the ultimate vision is to develop the network into a "token factory" that creates a token economy. "This project will draw roughly 1,000 trillion won in investment from multiple participants through 2035," he said. "I believe this will transform South Korea from a country that consumes AI into one that exports intelligence."

Chey also addressed the worsening shortage of memory chips. "As AI demand surges worldwide, memory chip demand is forecast to surge as well," he said. "The memory chip market is already in severe undersupply, and the shortage is expected to deepen further." He warned that an excessive supply shortfall risks driving prices sharply higher and shrinking the future market, and said SK had decided to dramatically expand supply to sustain a healthy market.

"SK hynix has decided to accelerate the Yongin cluster — originally scheduled for completion in 2045 — by 12 years," Chey said. He added that the company would bring forward roughly 600 trillion won in investment in Yongin to boost DRAM production and about 100 trillion won in Cheongju to scale up NAND capacity.

Even with that acceleration, Chey said, supply shortages would persist. "To build new semiconductor factories, we need to start selecting large sites and laying the necessary infrastructure now," he said. "SK hynix intends to invest about 400 trillion won in the southwestern region, which we expect to meet all the required conditions, to establish a new cluster."

In total, SK is planning approximately 1,000 trillion won for AI data centers and approximately 1,100 trillion won for the semiconductor supply expansion project. "We will of course monitor market demand closely before deploying investment," Chey said. "But demand through today has been very solid, and I believe that even with continued investment of this scale, resolving the supply shortage will remain difficult."

Closing his remarks, Chey said SK would sustain domestic investment averaging more than 100 trillion won per year over the next decade. "We will prepare a viable financing plan that fully accounts for risk, and lead the global AI ecosystem with a bold vision and thorough preparation," he said.