Yoon Poong-young, president of the SK SUPEX Council who has led several of SK Group's innovation initiatives such as AI transformation (AX), has been appointed head of a task force (TF) responsible for expanding SK hynix's global business and identifying new growth engines. Observers say SK Group's push into the global AI market will pick up speed, leveraging SK hynix's vast financial resources.
According to business community sources on the 13th, SK Group recently named Yoon as head of SK hynix's Global Growth TF. He is said to be set to lead the SK hynix TF while retaining his role as president of the SK SUPEX Council. The Global Growth TF is composed of about 10 SK hynix TL (Technical Leader)-level personnel and is tasked with building AI data centers and discovering new businesses.
Regarded as SK Group's leading "innovator," Yoon was born in 1974 and joined SK Group after completing a mechanical engineering degree at Yonsei University and an MBA at INSEAD in France.
He served as head of growth business planning and head of strategic planning at SK C&C (now SK AX); executive director overseeing planning and business development at SK Inc. C&C; head of the PM Group and corporate center at SK Telecom; executive vice president and chief investment officer (CIO) at SK Square; and president of SK AX, before being appointed in Oct. 2025 as president of the group's control tower, the SK SUPEX Council.
In the business community, Yoon's appointment to lead SK hynix's global growth is seen as a move to quickly realize SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won's push to expand the AI business. Chey has repeatedly stressed that SK hynix should not remain merely a company selling chips such as HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) and high-capacity server DRAM, but expand its reach to become a core player leading the global AI market.
Chey is regarded in business circles as the most proactive conglomerate leader in pursuing AI transformation. At the New Icheon Forum, the group's leadership meeting held on June 6, he personally took the stage to emphasize the importance of AI transformation. Yoon has led the groupwide AI transformation efforts while serving as president of SK AX and as president of the SK SUPEX Council.
The first area expected to accelerate is AI data center construction. On June 29, Chey said, in connection with the government's three mega projects, "We will invest about 1 quadrillion won in AI data center projects by 2035." Last month, he also said that, taking SK hynix's listing on the U.S. Nasdaq as an opportunity, the group would build AI data centers in the United States and invest in venture creation and research and development (R&D) centers.
SK Group's AI data center construction involves several affiliates, with SK Telecom at the core, SK Innovation handling energy procurement, and SK ecoplant in charge of construction. The business community believes Yoon, who has led the group's AX initiatives and coordinated affiliate operations as president of the SK SUPEX Council, was tapped as the right person to direct these efforts.
In line with its name, the Global Growth TF is also expected to focus on the group's push into overseas markets centered on SK hynix. Beyond the United States, several countries with large pools of capital are investing to seize the lead in the AI market. The Middle East is a prime example. Following the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia is also pursuing AI data center buildouts and collaborations with global big tech.
To target the global AI market, global corporations are forming alliances and moving to expand. Last year, SoftBank Group of Japan, OpenAI, the developer of the Generative AI "ChatGPT," Oracle, and others formed "The Stargate Project" through joint investment.
A business community source said, "Chairman Chey has a plan to leverage SK hynix's funds, which bring in hundreds of trillions of won annually, to leap into a global AI group," adding, "The Global Growth TF appears set to concretely systematize the chairman's goals and sketch out step-by-step business plans."