SK Group’s Chey Tae-won heads to Europe, seeks AI partnerships at MWC

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won will embark on a business trip to Europe next week as South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate seeks to strengthen its artificial intelligence partnerships at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

Ahead of the Spain event, he will leave for Germany on Monday as part of a business delegation in his role as chief of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He will seek business opportunities in Germany for SK and other Korean companies, particularly in the automobile and auto parts industries.

Following Germany, the SK chief will travel to Spain for MWC 2024, which opens on Feb. 26 for a four-day run.

He will be accompanied by SK Telecom Co. Chief Executive Ryu Young-sang to the MWC event, where the SK executives are expected to meet with global business leaders to discuss AI technology partnerships.

Last July, SK Telecom agreed with three telecommunications companies –Deutsche Telecom, Singtel and e&, a United Arab Emirates company – to form the Global Telco AI Alliance.

Under the memorandum of understanding signed in Seoul, the four parties agreed to accelerate their transformation into AI technology firms.

Leaders of the four telecom operators will likely meet at MWC 2024, industry sources said.

CRISSCROSSING THE GLOBE

Chey has been crisscrossing the globe since late last year to meet with heads of SK’s business partners.

Company officials said his overseas push is designed to secure a stable supply of key materials for SK Group affiliates and build relationships amid growing market uncertainty.

The conglomerate’s major affiliates include SK Hynix Inc., the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker; SK Telecom, Korea’s No. 1 mobile carrier; SK Innovation Co., which owns oil refiner SK Energy Co. and battery maker SK On Co.

In December he flew to Washington, D.C., where he called for the creation of an economic bloc made up of Korea, Japan and the US to respond to the changing dynamics in Asia.

He also visited SK’s subsidiaries and invested firms, including SK Hynix Memory Solutions America Inc., Gauss Labs and Lunar Energy Inc. late last year.

Last month the SK chairman attended CES 2024 where he met with business leaders in the AI, semiconductors and future energy sectors.

Write to Woo-Sub Kim at duter@hankyung.com


In-Soo Nam edited this article.