Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said on the 28th, "I am confident that Korea will become a test bed that solves the bottleneck of the artificial intelligence (AI) era."
At the Future Tech Forum: AI held that day at Munmu Hall of the Gyeongju Arts Center in North Gyeongsang Province, Chey stated accordingly, "At a time when we need to build many AI data centers, everything from the chips (semiconductors) that go inside them to energy is causing bottlenecks."
The Future Tech Forum is a side event of the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Chief Executive Officers (CEO) Summit, and SK Group is hosting the AI segment within the forum.
Chey viewed that the worldwide shortage of chips and energy is occurring due to the growing number of AI data centers.
Chey emphasized, "Korea will unleash the bottleneck by demonstrating 'speed' that adapts in new and rapid ways," adding, "This is something Korea has already proven in the history of the internet and mobile, and I think AI will likewise spread and evolve the fastest in Korea."
He added, "I expect everything to be approached at a fairly fast pace," and said, "If Korea approaches many such areas at a fast pace, it will in fact become many test beds and a target for benchmarking, which could contribute to the development of AI worldwide."
Chey also made clear that cooperative play, not individual play, is needed.
He said, "We also need to work with global players," adding, "In that sense, the construction of the Ulsan AI data center by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and SK, and the Stargate collaboration with OpenAI, are becoming another catalyst for expanding Korea's AI ecosystem."
He went on, "I think many APEC countries, beyond Korea where these two—technological self-reliance and trust-based cooperation—coexist, can look to this model as a reference," emphasizing, "How to harmonize these two pillars is a task not only for Korea but for many countries."
Attending the event were Ha Jung-woo, senior secretary for AI future planning at the presidential office; Matt Garman, AWS CEO; Choi Soo-yeon, NAVER CEO; Kim Kyung-hoon, OpenAI Korea country manager; Ryu Young-sang, SK Telecom president; and Simon Milner, Meta vice president, among other AI industry figures.