SK Group chairman meets with CEOs of Amazon, Intel

Seoul, July 1: SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has met with leaders of global tech giants, including Amazon and Intel, to discuss ways to broaden business cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors, his company said on Monday.

Chey, who has been on a US trip since June 22, held talks with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy at the headquarters of the US multinational technology company in Washington, last week, to explore ways to enhance cooperation in the AI chip sector, according to SK Group.

Amazon has unveiled its own AI chips, Trainium and Inferentia, as part of its plans to expand its business portfolio to include designing AI chips and offering AI services, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The US company is one of SK Hynix's clients for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a core component for AI semiconductors. SK Hynix is leading the HBM market with its latest fifth-generation HBM3E product.

Later, Chey also met with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger at its headquarters in California.

During the meeting, the two leaders celebrated the long partnership between the two companies and shared views on future technologies and business collaborations in the sector of AI chips.

In partnership with Intel, SK Hynix developed the fastest DRAM for servers, DDR5 Multiplexer Combined Ranks Dual In-line Memory Module, in December 2022.

Last year, SK Hynix's DDR5 product for servers received approval for Intel's fourth-generation processor for the first time in the industry.

During his stay in the US, Chey has also met with other tech moguls, including Sam Altman from OpenAI and Satya Nadella of Microsoft.

Meanwhile, SK Group unveiled its reform plan to secure 80 trillion won ($58 billion) by 2026 to increase investment in AI and semiconductors, aiming to keep up with the AI-led industry transition.