SK Group Signals US Investment Beyond Its $35 Billion Base
SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won said the next phase of its US plans would be “much, much bigger” than the more than $35 billion the group says it has already invested, without specifying whether that denotes additional spending or the scale of a broader plan. Speaking to Bloomberg’s Ed Ludlow, Chey cited SK Hynix’s Indiana fab, as well as the group’s bio, battery and AI-startup investments, in describing its US footprint. He also called access to US capital markets a milestone in the broader plan.
Chey puts SK’s next US phase above an already $35 billion base
? chey-won said SK Group has already invested more than $35 billion in the United States and intends to commit a substantially larger, though still unspecified, amount. The figure was not presented as a newly announced spending target. It was the scale of investment Chey said the group has already made across its US businesses.
Asked whether his plan was bigger than $35 billion, Chey’s answer was direct:
Yeah, well, much, much bigger than 35.
The distinction matters. Chey did not give a time frame, a total future commitment, a project list, or a dollar ceiling. Nor did he say that the “much, much bigger” number represented incremental spending beyond the existing $35 billion, rather than the scale of a broader plan. What he did establish is that SK sees the current figure as a milestone rather than an endpoint.
Chey’s answer also widened the frame beyond SK Hynix, even though Ed Ludlow’s question focused on bringing more of the memory-chip company to the United States. SK Group’s US footprint, Chey said, includes bio and battery businesses; SK Hynix’s newly announced fab in Indiana; and SK Telecom’s investments in AI startups. He suggested that this wider set of investments has received less public attention than it merits.
The result is a group-level investment account rather than a semiconductor-only commitment. The Indiana fab is the manufacturing element Chey named. Bio, batteries, and AI startup investments are the other portfolio components he cited. He did not break out the $35 billion by business, identify particular startup investments, or say how future spending would be allocated among those lines.
US capital-market access is a milestone, not the whole plan
Chey described access to US capital markets as “one milestone” in the plan. That phrasing placed the milestone alongside, rather than in place of, the group’s operating investments. He said SK has “a lot of options,” but did not specify whether those options meant fundraising, listings, financing structures, acquisitions, or additional industrial projects.
The chairman connected that flexibility to a responsibility to maintain SK’s share price and preserve its value. In his account, making “the right investment” has enabled the group to keep that value. The remarks did not define what investment criteria SK is using, what return it expects from its US activities, or how a larger US commitment would be financed.
Ed Ludlow had also asked about SK’s relationship with the Trump administration. Chey did not directly characterize that relationship or describe specific work with the administration. Instead, he answered through the breadth of SK’s existing US activity, the planned expansion beyond that base, and the importance he assigns to US capital-market access.
That leaves the practical content of the announcement deliberately open. There is no disclosed new target, no schedule, and no account of government engagement. There is, however, a clear statement of direction: Chey expects SK’s US presence to grow from an investment base he puts above $35 billion, across several businesses rather than through SK Hynix alone.
Bloomberg’s on-screen lower third during the exchange read, “WE HAVE TO LOWER AI TOKEN COST, SK CHAIRMAN SAYS.” Chey did not explain that proposition in the remarks shown. His only spoken AI reference was to SK Telecom’s investments in AI startups, which he listed as one part of SK’s existing US investment portfolio.