SK boss vows to go all-out on chips

SK Holdings Chairman Chey Tae-won, left, shakes hands with Qualcomm Chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs during the World Economic Forum in the Swiss city of Davos, Thursday. / Courtesy of SK hynix

Chairman Chey meets with Cisco, Qualcomm CEOs

By Kim Yoo-chul

The word on the SK Group is that it’s a lion at home and a kitten abroad.

SK Holdings Chairman Chey Tae-won hopes that the acquisition of SK hynix a year ago will help the group as a global corporate player and reduce its dependence on domestic industries.

SK hynix is already the world’s second largest computer memory chipmaker behind Samsung Electronics. The chipmaker had endured a financial roller coaster for the larger part of a decade before SK bought it.

Chey, also co-CEO of SK hynix, is vowing to go all-out to strengthen the company’s global market position, exploiting the softened competition during the economic downturn.

He has spoken with technology industry bigwigs like Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs and Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers on the sidelines of this week’s Davos forum over the market’s future and potential mutual business opportunities.

It is the 16th straight year that Chey has participated in the World Economic Forum in the Swiss City. But his purpose has never been more straightforward, SK officials said, intending to use the meeting as a platform for discussions with people in the chip industry.

``Chey’s participation in the meetings used to be symbolic. Now, it’s more purpose driven,’’ said an SK executive who didn’t want to be named.

Qualcomm, one of the most influential mobile technology players today, has maintained a close relation with SK hynix over the years. SK hynix has been providing DRAMs for Qualcomm’s mobile chipsets and the two companies have been looking at ways to deepen their cooperation.

Cisco has been providing network solutions and other information technology related equipment and services to SK affiliates. Chey now believes there is synergy to be found between the American firm and SK hynix.

``As Cisco is investing more for server and storage-related businesses, Chey believes there will be a demand for chips,’’ said the SK official.

SK hynix recently acquired a U.S. company specializing in flash memory and chip controller technologies, which it believes will help its capabilities in designing chips for use in mobile Internet devices like smartphones and tablet computers.

SK hynix, one of the major flash memory suppliers for Apple, is also finding increasing demand for its products from up-and-coming Chinese manufacturers like ZTE, Huawei and TCL.

SK Telecom CEO Ha Sung-min met Jacobs during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, while the other SK hynix co-CEO Kwon Oh-chul held a strategic meeting with Huawei.

SK hynix plans to build a new chip plant in Wuxi, China, where the company already runs a big chip-making facility.