SK hynix

Yoon Poong-young, president of the SK SUPEX Council who has led several of SK Group's innovation initiatives including AI transformation (AX), was appointed head of a task force (TF) charged with SK hynix's global business expansion and the search for new growth engines. Observers say SK Group's push into the global AI market, leveraging SK hynix's vast financial resources, is set to accelerate in earnest. According to business community sources on the 13th, SK Group recently tapped Yoon as head of SK hynix's Global Growth TF. He is expected to serve as TF chief at SK hynix while retaining his role as president of the SK SUPEX Council.

The Global Growth TF is composed of about 10 TL (technical leader)-level personnel at SK hynix and is tasked with building AI data centers and developing new businesses. Considered one of SK Group's representative "innovators," Yoon, born in 1974, joined SK Group after completing a mechanical engineering degree at Yonsei University and an MBA at INSEAD in France. He served as head of the growth business planning team and strategic planning team at SK C&C (now SK AX), head of planning at SK Inc. C&C and executive director in charge of business development, 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.

last year 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 decision to swiftly realize SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won's push to expand AI operations. Chey has repeatedly stressed that SK hynix should not remain merely a company that sells chips such as HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) and high-capacity server DRAM, but expand its scope to become a key player leading the global AI market. Chey is regarded in the business community as the most proactive conglomerate leader driving AI transformation.

At the "New Icheon Forum," the group's top-level meeting held in June, he personally took the podium to emphasize the importance of AI transformation. As president of SK AX and the SK SUPEX Council, Yoon has led the groupwide AI transformation effort. The business expected to pick up speed first 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 indicated plans to build AI data centers in the United States in conjunction with SK hynix's listing on the Nasdaq and to invest in venture creation and research and development (R&D) centers.

SK Group's AI data center construction involves multiple affiliates, with SK Telecom taking the lead, SK Innovation handling energy procurement, and SK ecoplant overseeing construction.