SK Group's top leadership has begun one-on-one, in-depth interviews with the entire executive ranks of SK hynix (000660), a move read as preparation for the period after the current memory boom. With semiconductors elevated to the group's undisputed flagship business, the effort is seen as reflecting Chairman Chey Tae-won's intent to review the organization and its personnel makeup and to drive an overhaul of management fundamentals.
Business circles say the in-depth interviews with all hynix executives recall 2012, when Chey first acquired the chipmaker. At the time, Chey met one-on-one with executives at a loss-making hynix to hear from the field. On that basis, he pushed through trillion-won research and development and facility investments despite internal and external opposition, laying the groundwork for the high-bandwidth memory success story that later coincided with the semiconductor super cycle. Fourteen years after the acquisition, the move is also read as returning to that starting point to design, at the peak of the chip boom, the structure of an artificial intelligence-leading company that will drive the next decade.
The group's most seasoned vice chairmen have all been mobilized for the interviews. Yoo Jeong-joon, vice chairman for the Americas; Suh Jin-woo, vice chairman for China operations; and Lee Hyung-hee, vice chairman of SK Inc., have been meeting about 250 people since August, including presidents and division-level executives, excluding CEO Kwak Noh-jung.
The vice chairmen are listening to practical difficulties and structural improvement tasks that executives face in the field, while also providing coaching to strengthen leadership, according to the group. The detailed findings will feed into a strategy to become a global top-tier player, extending beyond SK hynix to the entire group.
Business circles say that while SK Group once sought growth on two pillars, energy through SK Innovation (096770) and telecommunications through SK Telecom (017670), SK hynix has now risen to become an overwhelming top affiliate. Its standing is comparable to that of Samsung Electronics (005930) within Samsung Group, they say.
The shift is clear in market capitalization, which reflects market assessments. As of the 17th, SK hynix's market value stood at 1,274.7092 trillion won, 55 to 70 times larger than SK Innovation's 23.566 trillion won and SK Telecom's 18.8156 trillion won.
SK hynix's earnings also hit a quarterly record in the second quarter, with revenue of 79.3187 trillion won and operating profit of 60.5426 trillion won. In the HBM market, it held the world's top spot with a 50% share by second-quarter revenue, ahead of Samsung Electronics at 33% and Micron at 18%. By contrast, SK Innovation, long a core affiliate, posted second-quarter operating profit of 3.4873 trillion won, while SK Telecom recorded 566 billion won.
A reshaping of the organization and its locations is also being discussed in line with the changed standing. A plan to move SK hynix's core organizations and staff, currently based in Icheon and Bundang in the southern part of Gyeonggi Province, to the Seorin Building in Seoul's Jongno district, where group headquarters is located, has been under continuing review.
SK hynix has also taken center stage in AI investment, the group's core future business. The company will reorganize Solidigm, its U.S. NAND subsidiary, to launch an AI investment and solutions entity called AI Co., into which it plans to inject up to $10 billion, or about 14 trillion won. SK Inc., SK Innovation and SK Telecom have also committed capital to AI Co., leaving the group's AI investment and business capabilities converging on hynix.
Notably, the in-depth executive interviews overlap with the season for drafting next year's business plans. "As far as we know, this year's SK CEO seminar is set for mid-November," a business source said. "Given the preparation time for the seminar, there is a strong chance the reshuffle of presidents will be carried out in early November."
Major event schedules have also been adjusted in line with the internal realignment. SK Group will skip this year's SK AI Summit, its largest annual technology event previously held in the second half, and will hold it in the first half of the year starting next year. The change is read as a strategy to raise the event's global profile by linking it to Nvidia's GTC, held each March in San Jose, California.
"The vice chairmen's interviews with every hynix executive are a strategic diagnosis aimed at solidifying the company's dominance in AI chips, as well as groundwork to maximize the organization's potential," a business source said. "The personnel renewal and improvement of fundamentals at SK hynix, now the group's flagship in both name and substance, will be a key indicator of SK Group's future lineup at the end of the year."
