Choi Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, the parent company of SK Hynix, promised to expand the production of AI memory chips to cope with the surge in demand brought about by the construction of global data centers. The billionaire who runs South Korea's second-largest conglomerate said at a conference in Washington on February 20 that high-bandwidth memory chips (HBM) are a "monster chip" that is bringing huge profits to SK Hynix. The chip maker's stock price has more than tripled in the past year on record profits.
Although Cui Taiyuan did not specify the expansion scale of the chip subsidiary, SK Hynix said in January that its capital expenditures in 2026 will increase significantly from last year to meet the demand for HBM chips required for accelerators designed by companies such as Nvidia to train and run AI services.
U.S. technology companies such as Microsoft and Meta have invested approximately $650 billion in infrastructure funds this year in the competition for AI technology. The record spending is triggering a global shortage of memory chips in a market dominated by SK Hynix, South Korean peer Samsung Electronics and U.S. Micron Technology. SK Hynix's 2026 memory chips have been sold out, and the same situation has occurred with Micron's HBM products.
However, Cui Taiyuan also warned that there is still a risk of losses in the future as rapid technological changes may change the competitive landscape.
According to Cui Taiyuan, analysts' average forecast for SK Hynix's full-year operating profit in 2026 has risen from about US$50 billion at the end of last year to US$70 billion in January, and some forecasts have even been raised again to more than US$100 billion.
"This sounds like good news," Choi said, "but it could also turn into a $100 billion loss."
He also noted the growing challenges facing infrastructure. Cui Taiyuan said that SK Group is currently considering building a power plant next to the AI data center because insufficient energy supply could be "catastrophic."