As SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won puts considerable effort into entering and cooperating with Japan—such as expressing an intention to build a new SK hynix plant there—former SK Innovation President Park Sang-kyu is drawing attention. After serving as Chey's chief secretary and being considered one of his closest aides, he left SK Innovation over poor results and is now serving as SK Group's president overseeing Japan.
According to the business community on the 2nd, Chey said in an interview with Bloomberg on the 31st that "we are also considering building a plant in Japan to meet surging artificial intelligence (AI) demand and reduce production expense."
He added, "We are looking across Japan (as candidate sites for the new plant)," and "we are considering any location with ample power and water supply."
Bloomberg analyzed that SK hynix's decision to push for building a new plant in Japan aims to strengthen cooperation with Japanese clients and expand the market.
In particular, Kioxia, a Japanese flash memory manufacturer, is SK hynix's most important partner, and the possibility of joint production in the future has been mentioned. SK hynix currently holds a 14% equity stake in Kioxia, a Japanese flash memory manufacturer, through a special-purpose company (SPC) under Bain Capital.
In an interview with Japan's Asahi Shimbun on the 2nd, Chey said, "Kioxia is a company with many strengths," adding, "If SK hynix is included in Kioxia's future strategy, we are ready to be a partner at any time."
This is not the first time Chey has shown interest in Japan. While serving as head of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said several times that it was necessary to join hands strongly with Japan. He emphasized that going beyond simple economic cooperation to achieve economic integration is necessary to compete with rival countries such as China.
In an interview with Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun last year, he said, "Korea and Japan need complete economic integration in a form like the European Union (EU), not a gradual economic alliance," and he cited artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors as representative fields.
In the business community and within SK Group, there is an interpretation that Park Sang-kyu's role likely had a significant influence on Chey publicly expressing his intent to do business in Japan and even advocating for Korea-Japan economic integration. After stepping down as SK Innovation president in May last year, he is said to have spent more than a year as head of Japan operations, focusing on testing business feasibility in Japan and building networks.
At one time, Park was listed as a strong candidate for vice chairman within SK Group. Born in 1964, he graduated from the business administration department at Seoul National University and joined Yukong, the predecessor of SK Innovation, in 1987. He then served as head of retail strategy at SK Energy, an executive at SK Corp.'s investment company management office, and head of SK Energy's retail marketing division, building his career mainly in the energy field and the group's overall investment area.
Park is known to have earned Chey's deep trust by playing a leading role in the process of converting SK into a holding company and reorganizing its governance structure. In 2011, he was selected as executive vice president and chief secretary of SK Corp., then served as president overseeing SK Networks and president of SK Enmove before serving as overall president of SK Innovation in Mar. 2024.
Within SK Group, Park was also counted among the closest aides to the owner, along with SK Corp. Vice Chairman Lee Hyung-hee, a direct junior from Chey's alma maters, Shinil High School and Korea University.
Riding high, Park resigned in May last year, taking responsibility for SK Innovation's poor performance. SK Innovation's battery subsidiary SK On posted a large deficit due to a slump in the electric vehicle market, and weak refining margins hit its core refining business, sharply dragging down results.
At the end of 2024, Park moved to improve SK Innovation's financial structure by merging even the "cash-cow affiliate" SK E&S, but poor performance continued last year, and he ultimately stepped down as president after 1 year and 2 months in office.
Afterward, Park remained with SK Group and took office as president overseeing Japan. In the business community and within the group, many interpreted this as Chey giving Park a special mission to take command of practical work related to SK's entry into and cooperation with Japan, sending him into a new role. Indeed, after he was appointed head of Japan operations, Chey has been more publicly proactive about economic integration with Japan and advancing into business there.
Another apparent reason Park was tapped to lead SK's business in Japan is that he is considered an "energy expert."
Chey wants not only SK hynix, which sells chips such as HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) and high-capacity server DRAM, but the entire SK Group to expand its scope as a key player leading the global AI market. In particular, building AI data centers is the project he is most focused on promoting. He plans to build AI data centers not only in Korea but across global markets.
In an interview with the Nihon Keizai Shimbun in Jun., Chey said, "We will work with Nvidia to build an 'AI factory,' a next-generation AI-dedicated data center with gigawatt (GW)-class capacity, in Japan."
Because semiconductor plants and AI data centers require massive amounts of power, Park, who has long been steeped in SK Group's energy-related affiliates, is seen as the right person for the job.
A business community source said, "SK Group is shifting from the austerity stance it maintained for the past several years to an expansion stance that gradually broadens its footprint in global markets," adding, "In Japan, where Chey is putting in the most effort along with the United States, the group is likely placing high expectations on the role of Park, his closest aide."