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SEOUL: SK Group, the parent of South Korea’s second-largest memory chipmaker SK Hynix, said on Sunday it will invest 103 trillion won ($74.6 billion) by 2028 to strengthen its chip business, with a focus on artificial BroadCast Unitedligence.
SK Group also said it plans to raise 80 trillion won by 2026 to invest in artificial BroadCast Unitedligence and semiconductors and to fund shareholder returns, while streamlining its more than 175 subsidiaries.
The sprawling conglomerate outlined the plans after a two-day strategy meeting aimed at reviving the group after its main money-maker SK Hynix and electric vehicle battery units suffered heavy losses.
SK Group said it seeks to improve competitiveness by focusing on its AI value chain, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, AI data centers and AI services such as personalized AI assistants.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said in a statement that “preemptive, fundamental change is necessary” during the transition period.
During the meeting, executives also agreed to take gradual steps to bring the number of subsidiaries within the group to a “manageable level”, but did not specify the scale of the cuts.
Local media have said SK Innovation, which owns South Korea’s largest oil refiner and battery maker SK On, is expected to merge with its highly profitable natural gas unit SK E&S.
The group expects pre-tax profit to reach around 22 trillion won this year, reversing last year’s losses, and aims to achieve pre-tax profit of 40 trillion won by 2026.
South Korea is home to the world’s top memory chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, but has fallen behind some rivals in areas such as chip design and contract chip manufacturing.
Earlier this year, the South Korean government announced a 26 trillion won ($19 billion) support plan for the chip business, citing the need to maintain leadership in areas such as chip design and contract manufacturing amid “all-out war” in the global semiconductor market.
(1 USD = 1,380.7300 KRW)
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