REPORTED: based on a Seoul Economic Daily report published on 12 October 2026. These are remarks to reporters. SK has not announced any new investment or timetable.
SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won says South Korea needs to speed up building chip factories, because rivals in the United States and China are expanding fast, according to the Seoul Economic Daily [1]. SK Group owns SK hynix, one of the world’s biggest makers of memory chips, including the high-bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators.
Chey spoke to reporters on 11 October in Shanghai, at the 38th International Business Leaders’ Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai, the paper says [1].
What Chey said
According to the Seoul Economic Daily’s English translation [1]:
- “If China or Micron of the U.S. expands capacity at a faster pace, South Korea’s market share shrinks,” Chey said, adding: “We need to move on expansion quickly.”
- He said the 400 trillion won Honam semiconductor cluster investment must also be speeded up, following the Yongin fab (reported speech, not a direct quote).
- He repeated that building fabs abroad, including in Japan, remains “under review”.
- On concerns raised by US politicians about South Korean chip investment in China, he said: “I can’t agree with the idea that blocking it will stop China’s semiconductor industry.”
Micron is the largest US memory maker. CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies) is China’s leading maker of DRAM, the working memory used in computers, phones and AI servers.
Why it matters
Memory has become one of the tightest parts of the AI supply chain. A fab (a chip factory) takes years to build, so whoever adds capacity first can win market share. Chey’s point is that Korea’s lead depends on how fast it builds.
What this is not
This is commentary. Chey did not announce new spending, a start date for the Honam (Gwangju) cluster or a decision on a Japan fab. The 400 trillion won figure refers to a plan SK announced in June; TSN covered his 9 October visit to the Gwangju site in an update to an earlier post [2].
The Seoul Economic Daily says its English article is machine-translated from Korean and quotes may not match the exact original wording [1].
Sources
- An Hye-ji, “SK Chief Urges Faster Chip Fab Buildout as Micron, CXMT Close In”, Seoul Economic Daily, 12 October 2026, 10:00 KST. https://en.sedaily.com/finance/2026/10/12/sk-chief-urges-faster-chip-fab-buildout-as-micron-cxmt
- TSN, “AI Chip Supply: GlobalFoundries Will Make a Key Packaging Part for TSMC in New York” (update, 9 October 2026: SK hynix’s planned Gwangju memory cluster). https://tsnmedia.org/ai-chip-supply-globalfoundries-tsmc-interposers-tsmc-september-revenue/
