SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, on the screen, and other executives attend a meeting to discuss future investment plans at its research center in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, approximately 58 kilometers southeast of Seoul, June 29, in this photo provided by the company. Yonhap

SK Group, Korea's chip-to-construction conglomerate, said Sunday it will secure 80 trillion won ($58 billion) by 2026 for investments, mainly in artificial intelligence and semiconductors.

Some 20 chief executives of the group's major affiliates gathered at its research center in Icheon, 58 kilometers southeast of Seoul, from Friday to Saturday to come up with investment plans for future growth, SK Group said in a statement.

"The group needs to preemptively make drastic changes in the face of the new transition era," SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said in the meeting. He attended online as he was visiting the United States for meetings with American tech executives.

Given the accelerating AI industry in the U.S., SK Group must also strengthen "AI value chain leadership," from AI services to AI infrastructure, the chairman said.

To push ahead with the investments as planned, the semicondcutors committee will kick off under the SK Supex Council, the group's highest decision-making body, Monday.

Mentioning the green, chemical and biopharmaceutical businesses, the chairman said the group needs to seek "qualitative growth" by concentrating on businesses with technologies and competitiveness.

Under the motto "Back to the Basics," SK Group is expected to accelerate its drive to streamline its 219 affiliates, which will help reduce redundant investments within the group and enhance synergy between future-growth businesses.

Separately, to cement its leadership in the semiconductors industry, the group's core affiliate, SK hynix, will invest 103 trillion won by 2028 in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI chipsets and other AI-related businesses, the statement said.

This undated photo provided by SK hynix shows its plant in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, approximately 58 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Yonhap

SK hynix has led the HBM chip market as it is the sole supplier of the version currently used — the HBM3 — to Nvidia, which controls about 80 percent of the high-end AI chip market.

SK Telecom, the country's leading wireless services providers, and telecommunications firm SK Broadband will invest 3.4 trillion won in establishing AI data centers by 2028, it said.

Helped by strong chip demand, SK Group expects its overall pre-tax income will swing to a profit of 22 trillion won this year from a loss of 10 trillion won last year. It aims to achieve 40 trillion won in pre-tax profit in 2026.

The investment plans come amid an ongoing legal dispute between Chey and his estranged wife, Roh Soh-yeong, involving their divorce suit.

In May, the Seoul High Court ordered Chey to pay 1.38 trillion won in property division to Roh in the country's most expensive divorce suit of all time. The chairman appealed the court's ruling, citing a "critical error" in the calculation of his wife's contribution to the growth of the country's second-biggest conglomerate. (Yonhap)