SK Group Deepens Global AI Alliances with Nvidia, TSMC, and Foxconn as Anthropic Expands Mithos Access to Korean Firms

The Quick Take

• SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won met Jensen Huang, then TSMC and Foxconn leadership in Taiwan, cementing AI infrastructure alliances across chip design, foundry, and assembly.
• Anthropic expanded access to its most powerful AI model 'Mithos' to include Samsung and SK among privileged enterprise partners, signaling Korean tech giants' strategic AI positioning.
• SK Telecom is finalizing a minority stake sale in its $2 trillion-won Ulsan AI data center, with the main share purchase agreement expected by end of June 2026.

SK Group, South Korea's second-largest conglomerate, is executing a comprehensive AI ecosystem expansion strategy across multiple fronts simultaneously. Chairman Chey Tae-won's Taiwan trip included sequential meetings with Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Wei Che-chia of TSMC, and Foxconn's leadership, cementing SK's positioning at the intersection of AI chip demand (SK Hynix supplies HBM memory to Nvidia), foundry capacity (TSMC manufactures leading-edge chips), and device assembly (Foxconn builds AI servers). Concurrently, Anthropic has extended privileged enterprise access to its most powerful AI model, reportedly codenamed Mithos, to Samsung and SK, reflecting how Korean tech giants are securing top-tier AI model partnerships that compete with US-only access arrangements.

The capital market implications of SK's AI alliance strategy are substantial. SK Telecom's Ulsan AI data center minority stake sale — targeting a main SPA by end of June — will crystallize a market valuation for the asset and potentially set a benchmark for Korean AI infrastructure investment. SK Hynix's position as Nvidia's preferred HBM memory supplier makes it the primary Korean beneficiary of the global AI chip investment cycle; Chey's Nvidia alignment reinforces this supply chain lock-in. For Krafton, Jensen Huang's planned visit signals exploration of physical AI and AI PC collaboration, potentially accelerating the gaming company's AI product roadmap. The web of simultaneous AI partnerships positions SK as a Korean-led node in the global AI value chain.

The macro variable that determines the durability of SK's AI positioning is whether HBM memory demand remains concentrated enough in Nvidia's supply chain to sustain SK Hynix's pricing power, or whether Samsung's competing HBM4 ramp provides Nvidia with viable second-source alternatives that compress margins. Investors should watch SK Hynix's next quarterly earnings for HBM revenue contribution, SK Telecom's data center stake sale valuation disclosure, and any Anthropic Mithos commercial terms leaked from Samsung or SK. The geopolitical risk that could disrupt these alliances is US-China tech decoupling policy: any restriction on Korean companies cooperating with Nvidia or TSMC in the context of China-facing products could fragment the ecosystem.

Synthesized from 8 sources.