Chey Tae-won and Jensen Huang Have Met Six Times This Year, Signaling a Deepening Relationship

[Financial News] SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang met for the sixth time this year on the 7th in Seoul, following previous meetings in the United States and Taiwan. Among domestic business leaders, Chey has met Huang the most often. This month alone, they met four times between Taipei and Seoul from the 1st through today. The close partnership between SK and NVIDIA is clearly on display. Observers say the two sides are working together to shape the future AI era through high-bandwidth memory (HBM) 4, the next-generation AI accelerator, and other key technologies.
That evening, Chey held a second "Kkanbu meeting" with Huang and NVIDIA executives at Kkanbu Chicken, a chicken restaurant in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, along with SK Group executives in charge of AI, including SK hynix President Noh-Jung Kwak and SK Telecom President Jung Jae-heon. The restaurant was the same place where Huang, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun held the so-called "Kkanbu meeting" in October last year. Just two days after dining with Koo Kwang-mo and Lee Hae-jin at a pork belly restaurant called "Hyungnim Jeoyo" in Hongdae, Seoul, he met separately for dinner again.

The meeting is being interpreted as a sign that SK Group, which is pushing for a fourth quantum leap as an AI infrastructure company, and NVIDIA, which is leading the AI era, see each other as ideal partners and plan to expand cooperation further.
The most immediate expectation is an expansion in SK hynix's HBM4 supply. In response to rivals such as Samsung Electronics and Micron expanding their HBM supply, Chey met Huang twice on the 1st and 2nd during COMPUTEX Taipei to underscore their strong partnership. At COMPUTEX, Huang visited the SK hynix booth, signed an SK hynix HBM4E wafer, and wrote, "Please make more." At a COMPUTEX media briefing, Huang also said, "Even with the full support of global partners, there are still constraints on NVIDIA's AI chip supply." Right after that remark, Chey told reporters, "We will double our memory production capacity within five years," publicly signaling his commitment to solidify a long-term supply partnership with NVIDIA.
SK hynix plans to supply HBM4 for Vera Rubin, NVIDIA's next-generation AI accelerator, and also provide HBM4E samples for Vera Rubin Ultra, which is scheduled for release next year. Securing DRAM amid the recent supply shortage is also a major concern for NVIDIA. Because SK Group is a key supplier of HBM to NVIDIA and could become a major customer for advanced AI accelerators such as Blackwell and Vera Rubin, analysts expect the close relationship between the two companies to deepen further.
This is directly tied to the current structure of the HBM4 market. Competition from Samsung Electronics and Micron is intensifying. Samsung Electronics was the first to announce the start of HBM4 supply to NVIDIA and recently sent HBM4E samples as well. In response, SK is pursuing a strategy of strengthening its relationship assets with NVIDIA not only through HBM4 supply, but also by jointly designing AI infrastructure. Last year, the global HBM market share was estimated at 61% for SK hynix, 22% for Micron, and 18% for Samsung Electronics. This year, SK hynix is also expected to retain more than half of the market by revenue.
ehcho@fnnews.com Jo Eun-hyo Reporter