SK Group’s “AI Company” (tentative name), being established in the United States, is consolidating the group’s artificial intelligence (AI) assets ahead of its full-scale launch in the second half of this year. In particular, it is set to take on the role of a control tower bringing together the group’s overall capabilities, acquiring even the minority stakes in promising global AI firms that SK Telecom (017670) has strategically invested in. Through this, the group aims to maximize synergy across the entire value chain spanning semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and data centers.
SK Group headquarters. SK
According to investment banking (IB) and industry sources Wednesday, SK Group’s newly established US entity, AI Company, recently agreed to acquire minority stakes in three AI firms held by SK Telecom: Perplexity, Lambda, and Penguin Solutions. The total value of the stakes in the three target companies was set at approximately $300 million (about 460 billion won). Both sides aim to complete all of the stake transactions by the end of this month.
Once the deal is finalized, the group’s AI alliance system centered on SK hynix (000660) is expected to become even more solidified. In addition, AI Company can expect to inherit strategic cooperative relationships with already-proven core global AI firms, helping it establish a stable foundation in the early stages of its business.
AI Company also plans to complete the asset transfer process for Solidigm (NAND Product Solutions), the US NAND flash subsidiary it is to receive from SK hynix, by the end of this month. In this process, Solidigm’s corporate value was assessed at approximately $10.6 billion (about 16.33 trillion won). The strategy is to position Solidigm, which possesses unrivaled technological prowess in semiconductor fields such as NAND flash, as a core business of AI Company to lead the industry in the United States.
As the group rapidly consolidates its AI assets in this manner, funding support from major affiliates such as SK hynix is also expected to accelerate. Earlier this year, SK hynix announced an investment plan to contribute a total of $10 billion to AI Company through a capital call method. With holding company SK Inc. and SK Innovation (096770) also deciding to make additional contributions of $250 million and $380 million respectively, AI Company’s capital scale and investment capacity have become even more formidable.
The all-out alliance of SK Group’s major affiliates comes as competition among global big tech firms for AI data center dominance intensifies and the related market grows explosively. Big tech firms such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are tightening the reins of competition by continuing massive investments to secure AI dominance. Experts assess that broad cooperation among companies to optimize AI systems is becoming increasingly important. Concentrating SK Telecom’s AI-related corporate stakes into the new company is also interpreted as a decisive move to leap forward as a core company in the global AI ecosystem.
In fact, observers say that combining Lambda’s graphics processing unit (GPU) cloud infrastructure capabilities, Perplexity’s AI search technology, and Penguin Solutions’ data center construction expertise will lay the foundation for an early business base in the United States. There are also expectations that this will generate a strong value-up effect for SK hynix locally, ahead of SK hynix’s American Depositary Receipt (ADR) listing, which is expected to materialize soon.
“SK’s AI Company, with this stake acquisition as a starting signal, will more aggressively expand strategic investment and technology collaboration with AI innovation firms in the United States,” an IB industry official said.