SK spearheads global dialogue on AI, energy at APEC CEO Summit

Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, delivers his closing address at Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Friday. Joint Press Corps

The 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit finished its four-day program on an upbeat note, drawing participation from the leaders of the 21 APEC member economies and some 1,700 global business executives.

Held from Oct. 29 to 31, the event successfully served as a platform for global economic leaders to discuss the future of artificial intelligence (AI), energy and other key industries.

Central to those discussions was SK Group, whose chairman, Chey Tae-won, also served as summit host, as the group's affiliates presented innovative ideas and directed participants' efforts to explore opportunities.

Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, speaks during the Future Tech Forum Series talk on artificial intelligence on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. Courtesy of SK Group

Addressing AI bottleneck

As an official side event of the CEO Summit, SK Group hosted the Future Tech Forum Series: AI on Oct. 28, sharing insights from global leaders in the AI supply chain.

At the forum, experts, including Chey, Korea’s senior presidential secretary for AI Ha Jung-woo, Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Matt Garman, Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon, OpenAI Korea General Manager Kim Kyoung-hoon and Meta Vice President Simon Milner shared their views on how AI is driving regional innovation and how APEC economies should address challenges related to AI governance and ethics.

“These days, every business topic seems to revolve around AI, and even tariff issues are being discussed in the context of AI,” Chey said during his opening speech at the forum.

“In the past, AI was about corporate competition, but now it has become a race among nations, where AI serves as both a national growth engine and a strategic security asset.”

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, third from left, shakes hands with Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman, second from left, during their visit to SK Group's booth at the K-Tech Showcase, a side event of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit 2025, in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. Joint Press Corps

He noted that the gap between nations will eventually widen due to an “AI bottleneck,” referring to shortages in key resources such as semiconductors and energy. He added that Korea’s two-track strategy of developing localized sovereign AI while deepening global cooperation could serve as a model case for other nations in this race.

“Korea is developing its own models. While our models might not always match the cutting edge of Big Tech, if we focus on making them as efficient and cost-effective as possible, and keep pace and adapt quickly, Korea’s approach could set an example for many other countries down the line,” he said, adding that it goes the same for the application and regulation of new technology.

“We’re moving fast on all these fronts. If Korea stays ahead in these areas, we’ll become a global test bed and benchmark, helping drive AI progress around the world.”

A presenter showcases SK hynix's high-bandwidth memory 4 at SK Group's booth for the K-Tech Showcase, a side event of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit 2025 in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. Yonhap

An artist's impression of SK Group's data center in Ulsan / Courtesy of SK Group

Chey’s remarks are in line with SK Group’s presence in the global AI supply chain, covering materials required for chips, advanced memories for AI accelerators, data center cooling liquids, and operation of data centers and their security systems, which are materialized by key affiliates including SKC, SK hynix, SK Enmove, SK Telecom and SK AX.

These capabilities were presented at SK Group’s exhibition at the K-Tech Showcase on the sidelines of the APEC CEO Summit. Designed to resemble a data center, the booth highlighted the technical capabilities of the group’s key affiliates in the AI value chain.

SK hynix drew particular attention by displaying a mock-up of its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) 4, which will power the most advanced AI accelerators starting next year. Meanwhile, SKC promoted its upcoming glass substrate for semiconductors.

Other affiliates are involved in the AI value chain as well. SK Ecoplant constructs engineering and constructing data centers, while SK Broadband specializes in operations. SK Innovation and SK Enmove provide energy storage systems and immersion cooling fluids for those data centers.

Beyond contributing to the AI value chain, SK Group is also collaborating with global tech giants. The group is currently building a 100-megawatt hyperscale AI data center in Ulsan with AWS, scheduled for completion in 2027, and has also agreed with OpenAI to establish a dedicated AI data center in the southwestern region of Korea.

Chey said that SK Group’s capabilities in the AI value chain will be presented better at the upcoming 2025 SK AI Summit. The event is slated for Nov. 3 at Coex in southern Seoul and will feature Anthropic co-founder Ben Mann, Nvidia Head of Semiconductor Engineering Tim Costa and Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a among its speakers.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won meets Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during their meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit 2025 in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Friday. Yonhap

On Oct. 31, Chey met Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on the sidelines of the CEO Summit, and both shared their views regarding their partnership on physical AI and the Korean AI ecosystem.

SK Group will set up an AI factory powered by more than 50,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs). The AI factory represents a broader concept of AI-based infrastructure that includes the physical AI cloud and the group’s Ulsan data center project.

Based on this partnership, the two companies plan to open GPU computing resources generated from the AI factory to government and corporate users to help strengthen Korea’s AI competitiveness.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Korea has great technology, excellent software and world-class manufacturing, adding that the partnership offers an opportunity for the country to lead in artificial intelligence and robotics. He also confirmed that SK hynix will be one of Nvidia’s major suppliers of HBM4 chips, saying, “All we know is that SK hynix is going to be a major HBM4 [supplier]. That is for sure.”

SK E&S Executive Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won speaks during the Asia Pacific Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Connect session of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit 2025 in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Friday. Joint Press Corps

LNG: key to energy transition

During the APEC CEO Summit, SK Innovation, the group’s energy affiliate, hosted the Asia Pacific Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Connect session on Friday. Along with SK Innovation, CEOs of 10 global energy firms, including Hanwha FutureProof, Continental Resources, Freeport LNG, NextDecade, Tokyo Gas and Petronas joined the session to share their views.

Participants discussed the strategic importance of U.S. LNG for energy security in the Asia-Pacific region and ways to ensure the sustainability of the LNG industry. They agreed to strengthen cooperation between LNG suppliers and buyers in the region to enhance supply stability and sustainability.

The participants noted that LNG is a key energy source that can simultaneously secure energy security and enable an energy transition in the region, when backed by appropriate carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.

The participants identified CCS as the most practical means of achieving LNG sustainability and shared their respective strategies related to the technology. They also emphasized the need for government-level policy support to vitalize the industry.

Their remarks stem from the recognition that transitioning to zero emissions in the short term is virtually impossible, and that LNG must play an essential role in the meantime. To advance low-carbon LNG power generation, it is crucial to develop ways to better store captured carbon from gas field operations underground or, in the longer term, utilize it to produce blue hydrogen or as a feedstock for chemical products.

In 2022, SK E&S, a gas unit of SK Innovation, along with Summit Agricultural Group and Continental Resources, jointly invested in a CCS project in North America, and it is now seeking to begin the project’s commercial operation in early 2026.

A carbon capture facility at Darwin LNG Terminal in Australia / Courtesy of SK E&S

The participants also discussed the distinctive competitiveness and growth potential of U.S. LNG, emphasizing that it plays a crucial role in securing supply stability and diversifying portfolios in the Asia-Pacific region, thanks to its flexible contract structures, price competitiveness and low geopolitical risk.

Meanwhile, SK Innovation supported participants’ mobility during the CEO Summit by operating 20 hydrogen-powered buses that transported attendees between Gyeongju, the event venue, and nearby cities including Busan and Pohang.