LAS VEGAS - The pace of chip development at SK now surpasses Nvidia's demands, according to SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who met Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during CES 2025.
“In the past, Nvidia pushed SK hynix to develop faster, but now our pace exceeds their requests,” Chey told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s almost a reversal. Of course, this could change, but it’s clear our development pace in HBM [high bandwidth memory] is now going head-to-head with Nvidia.”
Chey, attending CES 2025 for the third consecutive year, toured SK's booth in the central hall on Wednesday morning before visiting Samsung’s. His meeting with Huang drew significant attention as both leaders confirmed their attendance at the show.
Huang, returning to CES after six years, delivered the opening keynote on Tuesday. Chey revealed that while he and Huang discussed physical AI, no specific business collaboration was agreed upon.
“Korea has strengths in manufacturing and know-how, while Nvidia aims to advance physical AI through digital twins and recently announced platforms like Cosmos,” Chey said. “I hope we can collaborate, but details are yet to be decided. It was more of an initial discussion.”
Chey emphasized the importance of investing in infrastructure and talent to remain competitive in the rapidly evolving AI industry.
“Korea needs AI infrastructure and people skilled in AI,” he said. “Researchers need a supportive environment. If we rely on other countries, we can’t shape our future. We must build what we need ourselves.”
SK is focusing on AI data centers as a targeted strategy, following its advancements in chips.
“These aren’t just regular data centers,” Chey said. “They’re larger-scale AI data centers requiring more energy. They go beyond cloud, search or video services and focus on efficient AI inference. If we set the right direction, everything else will follow.”
Chey underscored the need for specialization.
“No company or startup can succeed alone by handling everything from A to Z. We need to focus on areas where we can excel and take the lead,” he said.
He also highlighted the importance of action, echoing sentiments from his New Year’s address.
“AI is still in its early stages, and we don’t know what challenges lie ahead,” he said. “But by confronting these challenges head-on, we can find the path to success. We have no choice but to tackle them.”
SK Group participated in this year's CES by setting up a booth themed “Innovative AI, Sustainable Tomorrow” highlighting its technology for AI data centers across energy sources, AI processors, operations and security. Four of SK's affiliates participated the show, from chipmaker SK hynix to telecom provider SK Telecom.
