최태원 SK그룹 회장이 SK하이닉스 본사인 이천캠퍼스를 찾아 SK하이닉스 곽노정 대표 등 주요 경영진과 함께 고대역폭메모리(HBM) 생산 라인을 둘러보고, AI 메모리 분야 사업 현황을 점검했다.
SK Hynix Icheon Campus 5th Generation HBM Production Line Inspection
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won personally inspected the 5th generation HBM production line and explored future business competitiveness measures to lead the post-HBM era.
On the 5th, Chairman Choi Tae-won visited the Icheon Campus, the headquarters of SK Hynix, and toured the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) production line with key executives, including SK Hynix CEO Kwak No-jeong, and inspected the status of the AI memory business.
The HBM production line that Chairman Choi inspected this time is a production facility equipped with cutting-edge post-processing equipment, and SK Hynix has been mass-producing the industry's highest-performance AI memory, the 5th generation HBM (HBM3E) 8-layer product, here since March.
SK Hynix is also accelerating preparations for commercialization of next-generation HBM to solidify its AI memory leadership. SK Hynix plans to mass-produce HBM3E 12-layer products in the third quarter of this year and supply them to customers starting in the fourth quarter, and is working hard on the development of the 6th generation HBM (HBM4) with the goal of mass production in the second half of next year.
After inspecting the HBM production line, Chairman Choi had a lengthy discussion with SK Hynix’s key executives, including CEO Kwak No-jeong, President Song Hyeon-jong, and President Kim Joo-sun, on ways to strengthen future business competitiveness that will lead DRAM and NAND technology/product leadership in the AI era and post-HBM.
Chairman Choi said about the AI bubble theory recently raised due to the volatility of the global stock market, “AI is an irreversible trend, and only companies that seize opportunities in crises can survive and lead the technology.” He added, “Especially in difficult times, we must remain steadfast and devote ourselves to securing technological competitiveness and think fiercely about next-generation products.”
Chairman Choi said, “Recently, overseas big tech companies have shown a lot of interest in SK hynix’s HBM technology leadership,” and “I believe this is the result of the continuous challenges and efforts of 32,000 SK hynix members, as well as our confidence in ourselves. He encouraged the members, saying, “Let us silently strengthen that faith.”
He then emphasized, “Let’s commercialize the 6th generation HBM (HBM4) early next year to maintain Korea’s leadership in AI semiconductors and contribute to the national economy.”
Since taking over management of the SK Hynix Icheon Campus on January 4, Chairman Choi has been directly working to strengthen AI semiconductor leadership and build a global cooperation network through a series of meetings with global big tech CEOs.
In April, Chairman Choi met with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang at NVIDIA’s headquarters in the U.S. to discuss ways to build a global AI alliance, and in June, he visited Taiwan to discuss ways to cooperate with TSMC Chairman Wei Jiajia. He then stayed in the U.S. for about two weeks from the end of June and met with the CEOs of major U.S. big tech companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft (MS), Amazon, and Intel to discuss ways to solidify SK’s AI and semiconductor partnerships.
In addition, Chairman Choi is making various efforts to strengthen AI leadership at the national level, such as meeting with major domestic AI leaders at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Jeju Forum in July and discussing future strategies for the AI era. In the group management strategy meeting in June, Chairman Choi ordered a group-level AI growth strategy.
SK said that Chairman Choi is personally overseeing the strategic direction, etc., of building SK's AI value chain, both domestically and internationally, and that SK will focus its capabilities on growing into a company that provides AI total solutions, such as building AI data centers, in addition to its current main AI fields, such as HBM and personal AI assistants.