Choi Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, recently noted that the development speed of SK Hynix's high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is exceeding Nvidia's requirements.

Choi Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, holds a Q&A session at a press conference on Mar. 8 (local time) in Las Vegas, USA, where the world's largest IT and home appliance exhibition CES 2025 is taking place. /Courtesy of SK

Chairman Choi said this during a press briefing after attending the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025 at the Las Vegas Convention Center on the 8th (local time), saying, "I just met with Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang." Jensen Huang had stated at a global press briefing the previous day that he was "looking forward to meeting Chairman Choi."

Chairman Choi explained, "Until now, SK Hynix's development speed was slightly behind Nvidia's, and the counterpart (Nvidia) had requested that they develop faster, but recently, I think we can say that our development speed is slightly exceeding Nvidia's requirements."

Nvidia is the largest customer of SK Hynix, which effectively monopolizes the supply of HBM. Since March of last year, SK Hynix has been the first in the industry to supply the eighth generation of HBM3E, and in October, it began mass production of the world's first HBM3E 12-layer.

Chairman Choi conveyed that regarding specific business plans with Nvidia, including the supply scale of HBM, "The practical teams have already decided everything, including this year's supply amount, and the meeting with CEO Jensen Huang was merely to confirm that."

Choi Tae-won, Chairman of SK, tours the SK exhibition hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) in Nevada, USA, on Mar. 9 (local time), the second day of the world's largest information technology (IT) and home appliance exhibition CES 2025. /Courtesy of News1

Earlier, in response to CEO Jensen Huang's comment that he did not know Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix were making graphics memory, he drew a line by saying, "It's not a huge issue." Chairman Choi remarked, "I can't memorize all the detailed aspects of which chips go where, and I also don’t know well what products or solutions are being used."

Regarding which area of artificial intelligence (AI) business to pursue, Chairman Choi stated, "We plan to focus on AI data center-related business." He added, "There are various important tasks, such as building power plants and increasing the efficiency of electricity, and this has many connections with SK's business portfolio."

Wrapping up the briefing, Chairman Choi asserted, "AI is not an option; it is making changes across all fields," and emphasized that "the basic environment, such as infrastructure and personnel, must be in place to properly do AI." He also reiterated that "if we become dependent on other countries, it will be quite difficult for us to carve out our future ourselves."