SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang convened on Monday at Computex 2026 in Taipei to mark SK hynix’s rise to a USD 1 trillion market capitalisation — a milestone that frames the South Korean chipmaker as a load-bearing pillar of the global AI hardware stack.
The meeting produced an operational commitment that sets the trajectory for global high-bandwidth memory supply through the rest of the decade. "Despite such challenges, we plan to double our production capacity of wafers over the next five years," Chey told reporters, according to The Korea Times.
Supply crunch forecast through 2030
The five-year doubling pledge carries structural weight because memory fab construction takes a minimum of three years from ground-breaking to first wafer. That lead time is why Chey set 2030 as the horizon for the current HBM supply bottleneck. Demand from hyperscaler AI-training clusters and inference farms is rising faster than the industry can commission new clean-room capacity, and the gap is expected to keep HBM pricing elevated in the intervening years.
US advanced packaging fab, HBM4 tri-party roadmap
SK hynix is already building its first advanced packaging facility in the United States, a plant intended to serve North American data-centre customers and reduce geopolitical supply-chain concentration. The company is also co-developing HBM4 base-die production with Nvidia and TSMC in an arrangement that links accelerator design, foundry wafer fabrication and chip packaging under a unified engineering schedule.
Jensen Huang’s Seoul itinerary
Huang is scheduled to arrive in Seoul on Thursday evening for a Friday line-up that includes separate bilateral meetings with Chey, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, Naver founder Lee Hae-jin and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung. NC Corp CEO Kim Taek-jin is booked for Sunday. The Seoul sweep deepens Nvidia’s practice of conducting high-level engagement with each major Korean conglomerate in succession — a cadence last seen during the APEC CEO Summit in October, when Huang dined with Samsung’s Lee Jae-yong and Chung.
Competitive backdrop
At the same Computex show floor, Samsung Electronics unveiled an HBM5 mockup, renewing its challenge to SK hynix’s dominant share in high-bandwidth memory. Whether Samsung can close the design-win gap before Chey’s doubling programme reaches full scale will determine whether the 2030 market structure ends the crunch — or merely shifts who controls it.
Sources
- The Korea Times — Nvidia chief, SK Group Chey meet in Taipei to discuss AI memory chip cooperation, June 2, 2026
- The Korea Times — SK Group to double wafer production cap over next 5 years, says chairman, June 2, 2026
- Chosun Biz — Jensen Huang met Chey Tae-won at SK hynix booth, June 2, 2026
- Chosun Biz — Chey Tae-won: HBM shortage until 2030, production capacity to double in 5 years, June 2, 2026
- Maeil Business Newspaper — Chey Tae-won: Memory shortage until 2030, Hynix to double wafer cap in 5 years, June 2, 2026
