NVIDIA's AI chips have become the impenetrable armor, and whoever gets NVIDIA's orders will have an indestructible body. SK Hynix Inc. has long been overshadowed by Samsung, picking up the scraps left by Samsung and ranking second. According to a Bloomberg report, this situation has recently reversed, and SK Hynix has become NVIDIA's main partner, supplying high-bandwidth memory HBM compatible with NVIDIA's GPUs, and severely beatingSamsung.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae Won's life ups and downs are as dramatic as a Korean drama. His ex-wife is the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, a typical case of a chaebol-political marriage. Later, Chey Tae Won was divorced by his ex-wife after she discovered his extramarital affair, and was required to pay what is said to be the highest divorce settlement in Korean history, with Roh Soo-young demanding $10.42 billion from Chey Tae Won. Chey Tae Won was also indicted and imprisoned by theSouth Korean court for embezzling hundreds of billions of won in company funds, just like Samsung heir Jay Y. Lee.
Tony, the English name of Chey Tae Won, acquired SK Hynix in 2012. SK Hynix, formerly Hyundai Electronics Co., was established in 1983 and was in deep debt due to a sharp drop in DRAM prices. Chey Tae Won's acquisition of SK Hynix was not well received at the time, but he has now proven his foresight.
The key to SK Hynix's revival was its continued development of high-bandwidth memory HBM. Samsung's top management did not take this technology seriously and even disbanded their HBM team, effectively handing over the gold mine to SK Hynix. When OpenAI launched ChatGPT at the end of 2022, triggering a rush for AI chips, SK Hynix was ready to seize the opportunity.
SK Hynix has been chosen as the main supplier by NVIDIA. Its market value has soared to 117 trillion won (about $84 billion), up more than 110% since the beginning of 2023.
Samsung's scale is still three times that of SK Hynix, but it is lagging behind in developing HBM technology and needs to obtain NVIDIA's approval, while SK Hynix is leveraging its advantages.
To maintain its advantage, SK Hynix has offered more bonuses and benefits than Samsung to encourage existing employees and attract more talent from large companies. SK Hynix engineers proudly say that HBM represents the company's best reserve force.
