The 2025 Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit completed its four-day program on an upbeat notice, drawing participation from the leaders of the 21 APEC member economies and a few 1,700 international enterprise executives.
Held from Oct. 29 to 31, the occasion efficiently served as a platform for international financial leaders to debate the way forward for synthetic intelligence (AI), vitality and different key industries.
Central to these discussions was SK Group, whose chairman, Chey Tae-won, additionally served as summit host, because the group’s associates offered progressive concepts and directed contributors’ efforts to discover alternatives.
Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Business, speaks throughout the Future Tech Discussion board Sequence speak on synthetic intelligence on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation CEO Summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. Courtesy of SK Group
Addressing AI bottleneck
As an official facet occasion of the CEO Summit, SK Group hosted the Future Tech Discussion board Sequence: AI on Oct. 28, sharing insights from international leaders within the AI provide chain.
On the discussion board, specialists, together with Chey, Korea’s senior presidential secretary for AI Ha Jung-woo, Amazon Internet Providers (AWS) CEO Matt Garman, Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon, OpenAI Korea Common Supervisor Kim Kyoung-hoon and Meta Vice President Simon Milner shared their views on how AI is driving regional innovation and the way APEC economies ought to deal with challenges associated to AI governance and ethics.
“Lately, each enterprise matter appears to revolve round AI, and even tariff points are being mentioned within the context of AI,” Chey stated throughout his opening speech on the discussion board.
“Prior to now, AI was about company competitors, however now it has grow to be a race amongst nations, the place AI serves as each a nationwide progress engine and a strategic safety asset.”
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, third from left, shakes arms with Amazon Internet Providers CEO Matt Garman, second from left, throughout their go to to SK Group’s sales space on the Ok-Tech Showcase, a facet occasion of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation CEO Summit 2025, in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. Joint Press Corps
He famous that the hole between nations will finally widen attributable to an “AI bottleneck,” referring to shortages in key assets equivalent to semiconductors and vitality. He added that Korea’s two-track technique of creating localized sovereign AI whereas deepening international cooperation may function a mannequin case for different nations on this race.
“Korea is creating its personal fashions. Whereas our fashions won’t all the time match the chopping fringe of Huge Tech, if we deal with making them as environment friendly and cost-effective as doable, and hold tempo and adapt shortly, Korea’s method may set an instance for a lot of different nations down the road,” he stated, including that it goes the identical for the applying and regulation of recent expertise.
“We’re shifting quick on all these fronts. If Korea stays forward in these areas, we’ll grow to be a worldwide take a look at mattress and benchmark, serving to drive AI progress world wide.”
A presenter showcases SK hynix’s high-bandwidth reminiscence 4 at SK Group’s sales space for the Ok-Tech Showcase, a facet occasion of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation CEO Summit 2025 in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. Yonhap
An artist’s impression of SK Group’s information middle in Ulsan / Courtesy of SK Group
Chey’s remarks are consistent with SK Group’s presence within the international AI provide chain, protecting supplies required for chips, superior reminiscences for AI accelerators, information middle cooling liquids, and operation of knowledge facilities and their safety methods, that are materialized by key associates together with SKC, SK hynix, SK Enmove, SK Telecom and SK AX.
These capabilities have been offered at SK Group’s exhibition on the Ok-Tech Showcase on the sidelines of the APEC CEO Summit. Designed to resemble an information middle, the sales space highlighted the technical capabilities of the group’s key associates within the AI worth chain.
SK hynix drew explicit consideration by displaying a mock-up of its high-bandwidth reminiscence (HBM) 4, which can energy probably the most superior AI accelerators beginning subsequent 12 months. In the meantime, SKC promoted its upcoming glass substrate for semiconductors.
Different associates are concerned within the AI worth chain as properly. SK Ecoplant constructs engineering and setting up information facilities, whereas SK Broadband focuses on operations. SK Innovation and SK Enmove present vitality storage methods and immersion cooling fluids for these information facilities.
Past contributing to the AI worth chain, SK Group can be collaborating with international tech giants. The group is at the moment constructing a 100-megawatt hyperscale AI information middle in Ulsan with AWS, scheduled for completion in 2027, and has additionally agreed with OpenAI to ascertain a devoted AI information middle within the southwestern area of Korea.
Chey stated that SK Group’s capabilities within the AI worth chain will likely be offered higher on the upcoming 2025 SK AI Summit. The occasion is slated for Nov. 3 at Coex in southern Seoul and can characteristic Anthropic co-founder Ben Mann, Nvidia Head of Semiconductor Engineering Tim Costa and Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a amongst its audio system.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won meets Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang throughout their assembly on the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation CEO Summit 2025 in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Friday. Yonhap
On Oct. 31, Chey met Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on the sidelines of the CEO Summit, and each shared their views relating to their partnership on bodily AI and the Korean AI ecosystem.
SK Group will arrange an AI manufacturing unit powered by greater than 50,000 Nvidia graphics processing models (GPUs). The AI manufacturing unit represents a broader idea of AI-based infrastructure that features the bodily AI cloud and the group’s Ulsan information middle mission.
Primarily based on this partnership, the 2 firms plan to open GPU computing assets generated from the AI manufacturing unit to authorities and company customers to assist strengthen Korea’s AI competitiveness.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated Korea has nice expertise, glorious software program and world-class manufacturing, including that the partnership affords a possibility for the nation to steer in synthetic intelligence and robotics. He additionally confirmed that SK hynix will likely be considered one of Nvidia’s main suppliers of HBM4 chips, saying, “All we all know is that SK hynix goes to be a significant HBM4 [supplier]. That’s for certain.”
SK E&S Government Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won speaks throughout the Asia Pacific Liquefied Pure Fuel (LNG) Join session of Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation CEO Summit 2025 in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Friday. Joint Press Corps
LNG: key to vitality transition
In the course of the APEC CEO Summit, SK Innovation, the group’s vitality affiliate, hosted the Asia Pacific Liquefied Pure Fuel (LNG) Join session on Friday. Together with SK Innovation, CEOs of 10 international vitality companies, together with Hanwha FutureProof, Continental Sources, Freeport LNG, NextDecade, Tokyo Fuel and Petronas joined the session to share their views.
Members mentioned the strategic significance of U.S. LNG for vitality safety within the Asia-Pacific area and methods to make sure the sustainability of the LNG business. They agreed to strengthen cooperation between LNG suppliers and consumers within the area to boost provide stability and sustainability.
The contributors famous that LNG is a key vitality supply that may concurrently safe vitality safety and allow an vitality transition within the area, when backed by applicable carbon seize and storage (CCS) applied sciences.
The contributors recognized CCS as probably the most sensible technique of attaining LNG sustainability and shared their respective methods associated to the expertise. Additionally they emphasised the necessity for government-level coverage help to vitalize the business.
Their remarks stem from the popularity that transitioning to zero emissions within the brief time period is nearly unimaginable, and that LNG should play a vital function within the meantime. To advance low-carbon LNG energy technology, it’s essential to develop methods to raised retailer captured carbon from gasoline area operations underground or, in the long run, put it to use to provide blue hydrogen or as a feedstock for chemical merchandise.
In 2022, SK E&S, a gasoline unit of SK Innovation, together with Summit Agricultural Group and Continental Sources, collectively invested in a CCS mission in North America, and it’s now looking for to start the mission’s business operation in early 2026.
A carbon seize facility at Darwin LNG Terminal in Australia / Courtesy of SK E&S
The contributors additionally mentioned the distinctive competitiveness and progress potential of U.S. LNG, emphasizing that it performs an important function in securing provide stability and diversifying portfolios within the Asia-Pacific area, due to its versatile contract constructions, value competitiveness and low geopolitical danger.
In the meantime, SK Innovation supported contributors’ mobility throughout the CEO Summit by working 20 hydrogen-powered buses that transported attendees between Gyeongju, the occasion venue, and close by cities together with Busan and Pohang.
