SK chairman pushes affiliates beyond chips toward AI models and services

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won wants affiliates to do more than supply the chips, infrastructure and energy behind AI. At the group’s November 12–14 CEO Seminar, he urged them to pursue AI models and services, linking their businesses into a cycle of mutually reinforcing growth, according to SK’s November 15 announcement.

The gathering at the SKMS Research Institute in Icheon brought together about 50 executives. Chey delivered his keynote on November 14 and led a deeper discussion of future growth strategy. Rather than simply presenting each affiliate’s position, executives exchanged outside perspectives on one another’s businesses and reviewed new opportunities and potential risks.

Selling AI services, not only supplying them

Chey’s proposed “AI flywheel” starts with the group’s existing strengths. Competitive AI semiconductors would help grow AI factories, which in turn would create demand for electricity, energy infrastructure and AI services. The strategy treats those businesses as connected sources of demand rather than separate investment destinations.

The return path is central to the plan. SK expects competitive energy supplies and wider adoption of AI services to encourage further AI factory expansion and advanced-chip innovation. That growth would also open partnership and business opportunities. It is a proposed reinforcing cycle: progress in one business is meant to support the next.

Models and applications would extend SK’s role into services. The group describes its destination as a “token economy,” meaning a market where AI computing and services are traded as valuable resources. Chey asked every affiliate to identify a role beyond its traditional business and connect that role to this wider service economy.

But the ambition is not to do everything within SK. Chey called open cooperation with global partners essential to building capabilities and moving faster. His direction combines a broader remit for affiliates with an explicit acknowledgment that the group cannot supply every part of its AI ambitions alone.

We must break out of existing business frameworks and redefine ourselves as AI companies

Chey Tae-won, as quoted by The Korea Times

Inside SK, the emphasis is practical

Alongside that outward-facing growth strategy, executives agreed to spread practical AI use across the group. SK’s stated approach combines employees’ knowledge of their work with data, aiming to generate earnings and change working methods. The company pointed to existing applications across manufacturing, energy, telecommunications and market analysis as examples of that approach.

• SK hynix is upgrading AI-enabled smart factories to improve production efficiency. SK presented manufacturing operations as one area where AI is already being applied.
• SK Innovation has linked equipment and operating data through a process map at its Ulsan CLX complex. SK says the approach has improved production yields.
• SK Telecom is using AI to automate network and service operations. Its stated goals are higher productivity and a better customer experience.
• SK Gas uses AI to analyze market conditions and turn operational knowledge into reusable assets. SK says those applications have accelerated decision-making.

A wider remit, with financial constraints

The seminar also linked the AI strategy to continued restructuring. Executives agreed to carry on with Portfolio Rebalancing 2.0, which targets inefficient businesses while strengthening core operations. SK presented that work as a way to improve the group’s underlying financial strength and support its future growth agenda.

Capital allocation will be based on cash-generating capacity, with the stated aim of balancing financial stability against investment for the future. The financial direction therefore sits alongside, rather than replaces, the call for new businesses: affiliates are being asked to find AI opportunities while the group maintains its restructuring and investment discipline.

For affiliate leaders, the assignment extends beyond identifying promising markets. SK said the seminar examined each company’s role and execution tasks within the strategy. The group’s stated next step is to strengthen execution and core competitiveness through work grounded in its operating businesses.