Kwak Noh-jung, CEO of SK hynix (000660.KS), will attend a high-level Microsoft event and meet with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and CEO Satya Nadella. Through the gathering, Kwak aims to deepen cooperation with Microsoft, a major customer in the artificial intelligence (AI) memory business.
According to industry sources on Wednesday, Kwak will attend the “MS CEO Summit 2026,” held the same day (local time) at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The MS CEO Summit is a closed-door event where Microsoft invites CEOs and experts from major global companies to share technology trends and business strategies, and to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation.
Kwak is scheduled to meet top Microsoft figures including Gates and Nadella in succession. There is also a possibility that Kwak will be invited to a dinner hosted by Gates at his residence. The meeting is expected to advance cooperation between the two companies, such as SK hynix expanding its memory supply to Microsoft.
Microsoft sources DRAM and NAND flash memory from SK hynix for operating its flagship large-scale data centers and cloud services. SK hynix’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is also built into “Maia 200,” Microsoft’s in-house AI chip (ASIC) developed to compete with Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs).
SK hynix, for its part, is actively pursuing long-term agreements (LTAs) of three to five years with Big Tech customers including Microsoft, stepping up its response in the memory market share competition with Samsung Electronics and Micron.
Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have previously sent CEO-level representatives to the MS CEO Summit but will not attend this year. Hong Bum-shik, CEO of LG Uplus, is also known to be attending.