July 20, 2026
soul – SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won said the global shortage of AI memory chips is so serious that foreign governments are starting to intervene on behalf of their own industries, and warned that South Korea is likely to face similar pressure.
Separately, he argued that SK Hynix needs to accelerate the expansion of production capacity at home and abroad, described current memory prices as “abnormal” and warned that continued high prices would invite new competitors and geopolitical retaliation.
“Building where we can and as quickly as possible is the lifeblood of South Korea’s semiconductor industry,” Choi said at a press conference Wednesday on the sidelines of the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry Jeju Forum, which he chairs.
Choi said customers are asking SK Hynix for 60 to 100 percent more AI memory in 2027 than this year. Given that AI currently accounts for more than half of total semiconductor consumption, he expected total demand growth to be at least 50-60%. Supply is not keeping up. “There are no companies with meaningful new capacity coming online next year,” he said.
This imbalance is most acute in high-bandwidth memory, which is stacked DRAM combined with Nvidia’s AI accelerators. According to Counterpoint Research, SK Hynix accounted for 58% of the global HBM market by sales in the first quarter of 2026, well ahead of Micron and Samsung’s 21% each. Industry demand for HBM has repeatedly exceeded supplier guidance over the past two years.
Chey said that imbalance is now creating what he calls a “nearly anarchic lobbying effort” and not just corporate clients. Foreign governments are beginning to treat memory access as an “economic security” issue.
“Now companies are absorbing the pressure. Governments will soon start putting pressure on other governments.”
Chey framed SK Hynix’s own expansion in different terms. He argued that continued high prices would ultimately harm South Korean semiconductor manufacturers themselves. They will push PC and smartphone makers into what he calls “chipflation,” drawing in new entrants lured by margins and inviting geopolitical retribution like the ones other Asian exporters have faced before.
He cited Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s interest in chip manufacturing as an early sign of momentum.
“Prices need to normalize,” Chey said. “Otherwise, the market will shrink and competitors will crowd in.”
The company is already accelerating its efforts in Japan. SK Hynix postponed the operation of the Yongin cluster’s first clean room from May to February 2027, and in March of this year invested an additional 21.6 trillion won ($14.52 billion). The company is also converting its Cheongju M15X factory to DRAM-based, dedicated to high-bandwidth memory. A major long-term expansion to the southwest of the country, planned jointly with Samsung Electronics, will be located at Gwangju Military Airfield.
In addition, SK Hynix is currently considering potential factory locations around the world based on speed, size, power, water, and land readiness. Chey said a U.S. location is under consideration and is being considered on its own merits, rather than as a concession to specific U.S. demands.
When asked specifically about U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s continued push for South Korean semiconductor manufacturers to invest in the United States, he struck a negative tone. Chey said Lutnick “has always been that way” since the early days of the Trump administration. “The question is always the same: how much to invest in the United States and how much to re-land. This time is no exception.”
The company’s only confirmed U.S. location is the $3.87 billion HBM Advanced Packaging and Research and Development facility in Indiana, announced in April 2024, which will handle back-end operations rather than wafer manufacturing.
