SK chairman talks with Nvidia CEO about faster-than-requested HBM development

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won responds to questions from reporters on the group’s exhibition pavilion for CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Wednesday (native time). Courtesy of SK Group

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won expressed confidence in SK hynix’s bargaining energy towards Nvidia, saying that the chipmaker’s improvement of high-bandwidth reminiscence (HBM) chips has already outpaced the pace requested by the U.S. computing big.

He made the remarks throughout a press convention with Korean media on the CES 2025 tech commerce present in Las Vegas, Wednesday (native time), confirming his assembly with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on the exhibition’s venue that day.

„Though Nvidia beforehand requested us to hurry up the event of HBM, the current pace of our improvement has been surpassing the shopper’s requested tempo,“ the SK Group chairman stated.

HBM is a vital element for graphics processing items (GPUs) that energy generative synthetic intelligence (AI) programs.

Amid the rising use of AI in on a regular basis life, SK hynix has remained a significant provider of HBM to Nvidia, whereas Samsung Electronics has been struggling to get its HBM chips to cross qualification assessments for the U.S. agency’s AI processors.

A day earlier than Chey’s press convention, the Nvidia CEO additionally harassed Samsung’s must engineer a brand new design, though he expressed optimism about the Korean firm’s efforts to produce its HBM to his firm.

Nonetheless, Huang appeared unaware that each Samsung and SK produced graphic reminiscence chips when he erroneously acknowledged that as an alternative of Samsung’s graphic reminiscence chip, Micron Know-how’s G7 reminiscence chip can be utilized in his firm’s GeForce RTX 50 sequence GPU.

Though the misstatement triggered considerations amongst traders concerning the risk that the Korean semiconductor firms might lag behind their U.S. rival, the SK Group chairman defended the Nvidia CEO, saying that it’s troublesome for prime executives to memorize all the small print about their merchandise.

The Nvidia CEO later corrected his remarks, saying that Samsung is among the many a number of suppliers of reminiscence chips for his firm’s new graphic card.

„To be sincere, Nvidia simply must be good at understanding computing and creating probably the most environment friendly options for computing,“ Chey stated.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, entrance row proper, listens to a proof at Samsung Electronics‘ exhibition pavilion for CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Wednesday (native time), together with Samsung Electronics CEO and Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee, entrance row left. Yonhap

The chairman added that he additionally exchanged opinions with Huang relating to bodily AI that permits autonomous machines to understand, perceive and carry out complicated actions in the true world.

When requested about his impression of this yr’s CES, the chairman stated that the exhibition confirmed the hovering use of AI in all kinds of units, together with robots. He additionally launched SK Group’s AI and knowledge middle enterprise throughout his go to to the world’s largest tech truthful for the third straight yr.

In response to a query concerning the group’s methods towards Donald Trump’s return to the White Home, Chey maintained a cautious stance, saying that lots of the incoming U.S. authorities’s insurance policies stay unknown.

He additionally reiterated that there isn’t any motive for his firm to desert the Chinese language market, regardless of the current withdrawals of many Korean firms from China, amid the intensifying political and commerce disputes between the world’s two largest economies.