The SK hynix Newsroom is running a series of interviews with the Top Team—the executives in charge of the company’s major business divisions. This series provides insights into the business strategies, organizational culture, and more promoted by the leaders to achieve the company’s vision. For this latest interview, the newsroom spoke with Vice President and Head of Front-End Procurement Seonghan Kim.

Global collaboration is crucial in the semiconductor industry. This is because semiconductor product fabrication can only be completed when the design and manufacturing process, as well as the supply chain of materials, components, and equipment—where companies across the world each hold their own competitiveness—is fully supported. However, semiconductor companies are facing difficulties in managing these supply chains as competition within the industry intensifies and the global geopolitical situation becomes increasingly unstable.

Today, it is becoming increasingly challenging for companies to respond to fluctuating demand and supply chain changes while maximizing profitability. To find out how SK hynix is operating in this uncertain global environment, the newsroom spoke with Seonghan Kim, head of Front-End (FE) Procurement. In this latest episode of the Top Team Insights series, Kim reveals how the company is establishing response strategies based on various scenarios, while sticking to the essence of its procurement work.

Going “Back to Basics” for Enhanced Buying Power

FE Procurement purchases materials, components, and equipment required for the front-end process and supplies them to the field. While quality, cost, and technological performance are the department’s basic considerations, it also plays a key role in optimizing task flow by managing the entire delivery process and forecasting demand. To increase FE Procurement’s purchasing competitiveness, members are establishing strategies to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO)¹, securing capacity (CAPA), optimizing suppliers, and allocating volumes.

¹Total cost of ownership (TCO): All costs incurred to purchase, install, and maintain a product or service.

Kim emphasized how FE Procurement benefitted from focusing on its core duties

“The Procurement division, including FE Procurement, is responsible for securing quality subcontractors while reducing costs to increase product competitiveness,” said Kim. “Previously, the division’s role was focused solely on procurement. However, it has grown in importance both internally and externally, expanding to include technology procurement, global sourcing, and supply chain ecosystem management. FE Procurement also plays an important role in ensuring the timely supply of key equipment, such as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, which is essential for wafer production.”

Recently, Kim conducted a reorganization of his department to increase the effectiveness of its expanded role.

“By integrating aspects of development and mass production and establishing a new Fab Materials Procurement team, we have created an environment that fosters systemic collaboration,” Kim revealed. “We also strengthened the role of the Equipment and Components Procurement team while newly establishing the Risk Management team, which is responsible for supply chain management and compliance activities. With this reorganization, FE Procurement was given the foundation to address various issues with greater expertise and flexibility.”

While the role of procurement is becoming more diverse and important, Kim emphasized that ultimately it is important to go “back to basics” and carry out the tasks expected of the department.

“In the AI era where everything is rapidly changing, situations and roles are bound to become complex. In order not to lose direction and momentum in this environment, we need to focus on our core duties, and only then can we achieve results,” Kim stated. “The essence of procurement is ‘making competitive purchases in the face of contingencies.’ Everyone in our department has taken this to heart and is doing their best in their respective positions with a ‘back to basics’ attitude.”

Focusing on Core Duties to Overcome the Downturn & Meet HBM Demand

Kim’s emphasis on the “basics” is reflected in the progress the Procurement division has made in overcoming the recent industry downturn.

Kim revealed how supply chain diversification helped SK hynix overcome the downturn

“During the downturn, Procurement helped drive down company-wide costs by reducing investments and increasing cost competitiveness,” Kim said. “We frequently negotiated unit prices and identified collaborative items with the Manufacturing and Technology divisions to reduce operating expenses (OpEx). At the same time, we dealt with contingencies such as global instability and the AI explosion. By securing our supply chain, continuously monitoring delivery times, and expanding production capacity, we were able to respond stably to fluctuations in memory demand.

“Above all, we diversified our supply chain to lower costs and reduce the risks of a single supply chain,” Kim emphasized. “To this end, we implemented supply chain ESG management by providing ESG consultations to suppliers and conducting on-site assessments related to carbon reduction. We also secured multi-faceted market intelligence (MI)² through collaboration with relevant departments and suppliers, to fine-tune our market forecasting system. All of this was possible because we focused on the essence of ‘executing competitive purchasing.'”

²Market intelligence (MI): Data collected and analyzed by a company to understand the market environment and make strategic decisions.

Despite SK hynix’s successes in overcoming the industry downturn and capitalizing on the semiconductor boom, Kim claimed that the real work lies ahead. From expanding procurement to preparing for the future semiconductor market, the company has a lengthy to-do list. In particular, the most pressing challenges are geopolitical issues and growing global instability.

“As the international situation becomes increasingly unstable, a challenging environment is emerging across the entire procurement process, with the supply of certain items becoming limited,” Kim claimed. “To overcome this, we are utilizing all available resources within the legal and institutional frameworks to secure market information and reduce uncertainty. We are responding quickly to changes in major supplier policies and strategies, strengthening our supply chain risk monitoring system, and regularly publishing market intelligence and supply chain-related reports to enhance our members’ insights.”

In addition, Kim emphasized that he is committed to maintaining the company’s position as the number one HBM provider.

“Our goal is to secure the company’s leadership in the AI memory market by quickly procuring key materials and components,” he said. “We also aim to help achieve our management goals by efficiently managing capital expenditure (CapEx) and OpEx. In the long term, we plan to reduce the TCO and support the smooth development of future semiconductor products. In addition, we will build a supply chain system that is resilient to geopolitical issues and achieve net zero with our partners through step-by-step ESG policies.”

Rapidly Responding to Geopolitical Issues

Kim said that another one of the “basics” of his and the company’s role is supporting the growth and development of employees.

Ethical awareness is a key quality for SK hynix employees, according to Kim

“The success of a project and how much we can achieve depends on the competitiveness of our members,” Kim stated. “We are supporting them in many ways so that they can conduct deep analysis, negotiate diligently, and strive for win-win situations with our suppliers. Moreover, we are also encouraging them to adopt a service-oriented attitude at work so they consider their fellow employees as customers.”

Above all else, Kim emphasizes that all SK hynix employees must possess “ethical awareness.”

“Each team member represents the company in their respective roles. Their decisions can influence the dynamics of domestic and international supply chains,” Kim added. “Because of this, the role requires huge responsibility, and it is essential to comply with relevant laws and institutions. We always emphasize that compliance and ethical management must take precedence over any performance or reward.”

Wrapping up the interview, Kim said that the current semiconductor market conditions must be viewed with caution, and that the company will continue to thoroughly prepare for the future.

“Uncertainty is growing amid escalating supply chain risks and geopolitical issues. As a result, we will continue to think about Procurement’s role in responding to this rapidly changing environment,” Kim said.

“However, we’re more confident than concerned. Even throughout the pandemic and the downturn, we have reorganized and created foundations to soar higher. If all members work together to increase our competitiveness, we will enjoy a brighter future. FE Procurement will continue to vigilantly monitor and respond to changes and do our utmost to strengthen our competitiveness.”

The post Top Team Insights: “Procurement Is Key to Enhancing Our AI Memory Competitiveness Amid Global Instability”, Strategy of FE Procurement Head Seonghan Kim first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

The SK hynix Newsroom is running a series of interviews with the Top Team—the executives in charge of the company’s major business divisions. This series provides insights into the business strategies, organizational culture, and more promoted by the leaders to achieve the company’s vision. For this latest interview, the newsroom spoke with Vice President and Head of Corporate Strategy & Planning Byunghoon Ryu.

Following the recent industry downturn, SK hynix returned to profitability in the fourth quarter of 2023 and posted an operating profit of KRW 2.886 trillion (USD 2.099 billion) for the first quarter of 2024. This was made possible as all the company’s workforce participated in efforts to overcome the industry slump from 2022 to 2023 and followed a strategic plan. In the process, head of Corporate Strategy & Planning Byunghoon Ryu helped SK hynix withstand the challenging market conditions by improving company-wide profitability. As the global tech industry continues to rapidly reshape itself around AI, Ryu is taking a deeper look at the market and refining his department’s future strategies with the aim of maximizing profitability.

“One-Team Spirit”: Systematic Collaboration Leading to Market Leadership & Profitability

Led by Ryu, Corporate Strategy & Planning considers and supports the direction of the company’s growth from a long-term perspective. The department’s main role is to identify market conditions, trends, and competitive environments and reflect these insights in the company’s growth strategy to increase profitability. To this end, Corporate Strategy & Planning collaborates with various departments to collect a wide range of information and respond quickly to market changes.

In 2024, Ryu’s department took on several roles including optimizing production and sales as well as improving cost efficiency in manufacturing and R&D. The role of implementing the ESG strategy to support company-wide ESG activities has also been transferred to his team. In addition, he divided his department into Business Strategy and Business Planning functions to enhance each of their expertise. As a result, the department can now analyze short- to long-term strategies, investment efficiency, and even geopolitical issues.

Ryu emphasizes the importance of cross-company collaboration

“Even as we grow, what we emphasize as a team remains quite simple,” Ryu said. “We need to identify low-risk opportunities which produce significant output in relation to our input. We always need to keep that in mind while analyzing the market to come up with the optimal strategy. In the end, it is our mission to promote the company’s growth.”

To achieve this goal, Ryu claims that a so-called “one-team spirit” is key. He stressed that collaboration with employees on a company-wide scale is of the utmost importance, given the characteristics of his department which establishes strategies by analyzing the overall business environment and technology trends as well as reflecting workers’ opinions.

“We can only enhance our global competitiveness when we lay out and discuss data and insights from various departments. For example, we need outlooks about the industry from an R&D department and updates about changes in Silicon Valley’s hardware technology from a department researching advanced technologies,” Ryu said. “We must pursue a one-team mentality as our department needs to be able to interpret the industry trends gathered from across the entire company.”

He cites the company’s SSD products as a case that was developed with such effective collaboration. With the recent rise of AI, high-capacity enterprise SSDs used in AI data centers, as well as HBM¹ products, have seen a rise in demand. “By quickly picking up on this demand from work sites and sharing it with our strategy team, we were able to immediately incorporate this change into our business strategy and respond proactively,” Ryu recalled. “Consequently, integrating a culture of working systematically and sharing information in real time across the entire company can have an impact that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”

¹High Bandwidth Memory (HBM): A high-value, high-performance product that revolutionizes data processing speeds by connecting multiple DRAM chips with through-silicon via (TSV).

A Bright Future for the HBM Market, But Cautious Investment Needed

Ryu revealed departments share market forecasts to make calculated investments

Since joining SK hynix in January 2023, Ryu has been continuously making efforts to foster a collaborative environment.

“We have created a collaborative system where various departments make their own calculated forecasts about market conditions and share them with other departments,” he explained. “This has allowed us to allocate resources and capital expenditure² around profitability, reducing forecasting errors and providing visibility in investments. Later in 2024, we will invite a team researching advanced technologies to provide us with technical data and insights that will give us an even clearer picture of the mid- to long-term market.”

²Capital expenditure: Funds used by a company to purchase, upgrade, and maintain physical assets such as buildings, technology, or equipment.

Ryu’s department also developed a market condition analysis tool that is set to be actively used across the company. This model forecasts the conditions of the memory market through regression analysis³ of data from downstream and upstream industries⁴. Its analysis shows that the HBM market is also in good shape for 2024. Looking ahead, HBM is expected to firmly establish itself as a promising memory product line, following memory solutions for PC, mobile, and servers.

“As AI services become more sophisticated, we run into a memory wall⁵,” Ryu said. “However, HBM is emerging as a product to overcome this limitation, so we expect demand for this product to grow significantly.”

³Regression analysis: A statistical method to determine the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables.
⁴Downstream and upstream industries: Sectors handling different stages of the product manufacturing process. For semiconductor production, the upstream industry handles the materials required for production, while the downstream industry deals with the actual production of consumer products such as PCs and smartphones.
⁵Memory wall: A computing phenomenon in which the processor pauses operations because data that needs to be processed has yet to arrive from the memory. Memory therefore determines the performance of computing.

Ryu, nevertheless, does not expect everything to go as planned. As a result, he is cautious of the many variables to consider going forward.

“We need to pay attention to downstream industries,” he emphasized. “Many AI companies are heavily backed by venture capital, and there is demand that also stems from the fear of missing out (FOMO) on a potentially lucrative investment. While growth is set to be robust in the short term, we need to be mindful of possible fluctuations until downstream industries become more established. In addition, we also need to cautiously increase our investments keeping in mind the construction speed of AI data centers. We will be watching all of these signals closely to forecast demand and build the most efficient and effective strategy.”

Responding to Strong Demand of Customized AI Solutions With a Top-Down Approach

Ryu hopes his department can provide stability and adaptability during the unpredictable AI era

Ryu has a long history of building up capabilities in the IT and semiconductor industries while delivering positive results at various companies within SK Group. During his time at SK Telecom in 2012, he played a role in the acquisition of Hynix Semiconductor before the company merged with SK Group to become SK hynix. Through this process, he became familiar with the characteristics of the semiconductor industry’s downstream and upstream sectors. When working at other affiliate companies such as SK C&C and SK Square later on, Ryu also learned about the developments and investment trends in the IT industry. Now, he is working towards three specific goals.

“The short-term goal is to find the optimum point from a production and investment perspective of where to concentrate our resources and determine which product lineups to strengthen,” he explained. “As for our mid- to long-term goal, we aim to identify technological, business, and macroeconomic factors that will drive changes in the market, such as generative AI. Finally, the long-term goal is to establish a global operating system. If we sense changes in the supply chain of Silicon Valley, for instance, we want to immediately reflect these changes in our decision-making and swiftly make adjustments to our production and investments.”

In particular, Ryu emphasized the need for an advanced operating system that can respond to rapid fluctuations in the future semiconductor market caused by geopolitical developments, changes in the supply chain, and cross sector M&As. To establish such a system, Ryu is committed to developing insights and foresights by employing a top-down approach which starts by looking at the big picture and then fills in the smaller details.

“When looking at the AI market as a whole, there is a trend for businesses in the downstream sector to increase efficiency while minimizing spending,” he said. “This tells us that demand for customized products is increasing. We believe that collaborative efforts to address the competitive environment and the need for customer-centric service will become more important in the future. We will continue to develop our future strategies in this way.”

Lastly, Ryu again reiterated the value of collaboration to employees.

“If we showed our one-team spirit in 2023 by overcoming the recent downturn, this year the spirit would involve interpreting and sharing IT trends in various ways,” he said. “Communication and sharing information are the most important values at Corporate Strategy & Planning, so I urge all our employees to take this to heart. Just as our CEO Kwak Noh-Jung emphasized in his New Year’s message, let us make 2024 the beginning of SK hynix’s renaissance.”

The post Top Team Insights: “One-Team Spirit to Lead the AI Memory Market, Satisfy Demands & Optimize Investments,” Philosophy of Head of Corp Strategy & Planning Byunghoon Ryu first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

The SK hynix Newsroom is running a series of interviews with the Top Team—the executives in charge of the company’s major business divisions. This series provides insights into the business strategies, organizational culture, and more promoted by the leaders to achieve the company’s vision. For this latest interview, the newsroom spoke with Vice President and Head of Package & Test (P&T) Woojin Choi.

For the past 30 years, Woojin Choi has conducted and led R&D in semiconductor memory packaging. During that time, packaging has become increasingly important and is now a pivotal technology for in-demand AI memory solutions such as HBM¹.

¹High Bandwidth Memory (HBM): A high-value, high-performance product that revolutionizes data processing speeds by connecting multiple DRAM chips with through-silicon via (TSV).

As the technology environment has evolved, packaging has become a game-changer in the AI memory market. Amidst this backdrop, Choi, who was appointed as head of SK hynix’s Package & Test (P&T) at the end of 2023, is determined to prove the company’s technological edge. In this latest Top Team Insights interview, the newsroom spoke with Choi about the importance of packaging technologies in the AI era, taking on new challenges, and his mission to go “beyond HBM”.

Leading the AI Memory Market through Limitless Challenges

After wafers undergo the semiconductor front-end process in fabs, P&T oversees the back-end process where wafers are packaged into products and tested to ensure they meet customer expectations.

While packaging traditionally held the role of electrically connecting chips and protecting them from external shocks, it is now vital to enabling differentiated product performances. Consequently, advanced packaging technologies such as TSV² and MR-MUF³ have grown in importance as they have proven to be critical in the development of key products including HBM.

²Through-silicon via (TSV): A technology that drills microscopic holes in DRAM chips to vertically connect silicon dies through electrodes.
³Mass Reflow-Molded Underfill (MR-MUF): Mass reflow is a technology that connects chips together by melting the bumps between stacked chips. Molded underfill fills the gaps between stacked chips with protective material to increase durability and heat dissipation.

Choi believes that facing new challenges will enable a company to become an industry leader in the AI era

“P&T technology is turning into a crucial factor in the battle for semiconductor leadership,” Choi claimed. “As demand for high-performance chips is exploding in the AI era, we will contribute to the development of the highest-performance memory products through advanced packaging technologies.

Choi emphasizes to his employees the importance of setting no limits to challenges. “The way we have aggressively taken on tough challenges has lifted the Korean semiconductor industry to where it is today,” he said. “At a time when countries around the world are investing huge amounts of capital to secure leadership in the semiconductor market, it has become even more vital to continuously embrace new challenges.”

According to Choi, the global semiconductor race has even been likened to a war due to its intense environment. “If continuous innovations and efforts to overcome challenges cease, it could be disastrous for a company,” he said. “It is more crucial than ever to push the limits in all areas of product development including performance, yield, and cost competitiveness.”

Choi says that advanced packaging technologies are key to developing next-generation signature memories

As AI memory is a key pillar in the global semiconductor race, Choi presented the development of signature memories as a key strategy to revolutionize this technology.

“In the age of AI, SK hynix is focusing on signature memories which possess diverse aspects required by customers, including various capabilities, sizes, shapes and power efficiency,” Choi explained. “To realize these products, we are advancing technologies such as TSV and MR-MUF which play a key role in HBM performance. Moreover, we are developing various next-generation packaging technologies including chiplet⁴ and hybrid bonding⁵. These innovations will contribute to the development of new types of semiconductors while supporting heterogeneous integrations such as between semiconductor memory and logic chips.”

⁴Chiplet: A technology that breaks up chips into functions and connects these separated pieces called chiplets on a single substrate to enable heterogeneous bonding and integration.
⁵Hybrid Bonding: A technology that connects chips together directly without bumps to enable higher bandwidth and capacity. This allows for shorter data pathways and the ability to stack more chips in the same space.

Choi stresses that his department will not limit themselves when taking on challenges and will demonstrate their strong technological advantage.

The Next Innovation and Challenge: Building a Global Manufacturing Base

Choi’s emphasis on challenges makes sense when looking at his career. In 2020, he succeeded in developing a heat dissipation solution for HBM3 to improve the product’s performance. He also helped tackle the industry downturn in 2023 by reducing costs in areas including materials and general expenses. Additionally, he quickly secured a production line to meet the growing demand for DRAMs during the rapid rise of ChatGPT, helping SK hynix strengthen its leadership in AI memory.

“It was challenging to respond immediately to the sudden surging demand for AI memory in 2023, but we quickly utilized our TSV packaging line with no additional investments to ramp up the production of our server-oriented 3D stacked memory (3DS)⁶ modules based on DDR5 DRAM,” Choi recalled. “This is an example of a bold decision made in a short period of time. We would not have been able to accomplish this feat if we had hesitated.”

⁶3D Stacked Memory (3DS): A high-bandwidth memory product that is packaged by connecting two or more DRAM chips through TSV. 3DS and HBM differ in that the latter is supplied to the system company before packaging is completed, and it is then packaged with logic chips such as GPUs.

Choi has an instrumental role in the planning of SK hynix’s new manufacturing facility in Indiana

Now, Choi’s challenge awaits overseas. On April 3, SK hynix announced plans to establish a packaging manufacturing facility in the U.S. state of Indiana to enhance its competitiveness in the global HBM market while also enhancing its R&D capabilities in advanced packaging.

Choi is playing a key role in this process by planning the strategy for the construction and operations of the fab. The U.S. packaging plant will receive HBM wafers that have undergone the front-end process from the Korean HQ to produce finished products and, at the same time, actively cooperate in R&D with global companies.

“We are currently in the process of refining the fab design and mass production system, as well as preparing to build an R&D cooperation ecosystem with global companies,” Choi explained. “Once the factory is fully operational, we expect it to make a significant contribution to strengthening the company’s AI memory technology and business leadership.”

Going “Beyond HBM”: Data-Centric Innovations and Focus on Employee Development

As for the important missions of P&T, Choi mentioned maximizing profitability and what he calls going “beyond HBM.” “In the short term, we plan to strengthen our domestic production capabilities to meet demand for HBM while leveraging our global base to maximize profitability,” he said. “In the long run, we aim to secure more innovative packaging technologies like MR-MUF, which is now a vital technology to HBM.”

To accomplish this, Choi highlights the significance of finding answers in the data, a philosophy he has followed throughout his decades of experience in the packaging field.

“As there is a tremendous amount of data during the P&T process, the saying that the ‘answer is in the data’ proves to be true,” Choi said. “If we utilize this data well, we can improve yields and even find clues for new product development. We need to work with the idea that data can guide us to growth.”

To go “beyond HBM,” Choi emphasizes utilizing data for growth and focusing on membership development

Lastly, Choi underlined his commitment to supporting the growth of SK hynix employees. “It is our members who have raised the profile of packaging technology,” he said. “Many of the breakthroughs we have made, such as solving the heat dissipation issue of HBM at the packaging stage, have come from their ideas.” Accordingly, Choi plans to lay the foundation for continued growth so employees can always take on challenges with the mindset of leading the global market.

“Our company is actively interacting with universities and research institutes at home and abroad,” he added. “We plan to capitalize on this to help P&T members gain diverse global experiences and further improve their R&D capabilities to aid their growth and development.”

The post Top Team Insights: “Embrace Limitless Challenges to Strengthen Advanced Packaging Tech,” Motto of P&T Head Woojin Choi first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

The SK hynix Newsroom is launching a series of interviews with the Top Team—the executives in charge of the company’s major business divisions. This series will provide insights into the business strategies, organizational culture, and more promoted by the leaders to achieve the company’s vision. The first interview is with Justin Kim, president and head of the new AI Infra division.

SK hynix—the world’s no.1 HBM provider. It took a lot of hard work from many people for the company to reach this position. The efforts of various departments, including developers striving to create high-performance products, engineers working day and night to improve yields, and business units strategizing to strengthen profitability, were combined to reach this goal.

One executive who played a key role in this process is Justin Kim. The strategist nimbly responded to global market changes and worked closely with customers to secure HBM market leadership. In January 2024, he became president and head of the new AI Infra division after helping SK hynix establish itself as the global leading AI memory company.

As head of the new division as well as Global Sales & Marketing (GSM), Kim is ready to ensure SK hynix continues to lead the global AI memory market. In a wide-ranging interview, Kim discusses how innovation, his industry expertise, and collaborations all played a part in the company’s journey to the pinnacle of the sector.

Breaking Free from Inertia to Achieve Innovation in the AI Age

New business divisions are akin to road signs as their goals signal a company’s direction. In the case of AI Infra, which oversees the HBM¹ business and identifies future businesses, it shows that SK hynix’s direction is centered on AI memory.

¹High Bandwidth Memory (HBM): A high-value, high-performance product that possesses much higher data processing speeds compared to existing DRAMs by vertically connecting multiple DRAMs with through-silicon via (TSV). There are five generations of HBM, starting with the original HBM and followed by HBM2, HBM2E, HBM3, and HBM3E—an extended version of HBM3.

Kim underlines the importance of innovation to ensure SK hynix continues to lead the AI memory market

“We have created a new division to expand SK hynix’s leadership in the AI infrastructure² market,” he said. “AI Infra consists of GSM which is responsible for global business, the HBM Business Unit which brings together our HBM capabilities, and Memory System Research (MSR) which is in charge of pathfinding initiatives to explore future products and markets beyond HBM.”

²AI infrastructure: The hardware and software required to build, test, learn, and deploy AI-based applications and services.

The leaders and members of AI Infra collaborate with other SK hynix departments and divisions to plan AI memory and next-generation products, and proactively lead the AI memory market through sales. Specifically, SK hynix supplies specialty products tailored to customer needs, develops optimal memory by analyzing LLMs³, and proposes advanced memory solutions by refining the concept of custom HBM.

³Large Language Model (LLM): A deep learning algorithm that can comprehend and generate natural language using very large datasets.

“SK hynix is at the forefront of the AI business, which gives me a greater sense of responsibility. This is why I want to look at the business environment from a variety of perspectives and provide clear goals and visions for our employees so that we can make the best decisions,” he said.

It is as important to talk about how to reach a goal as it is to discuss the goal itself. In this respect, Kim emphasizes the importance of innovating to break free from inertia. Summing up this approach, Kim claims if there is something to throw away, it should be immediately discarded so employees can focus on issues that can create great value.

“In an environment where the market is rapidly changing around AI, we can’t achieve anything if we keep doing things the same way. We need to be flexible to make changes and identify and support customer needs,” he said.

“If we innovate to overcome inertia, efficiently reorganize work structures, and clearly identify customer needs and pain points, we can move the AI memory market in our favor. I expect our employees to cut down on unnecessary work and always think outside the box to innovate.”

Continuing 33 Years of Proven Results in AI Infra

Over the years, Kim has led the GSM department and demonstrated firsthand how innovation occurs when people break free from inertia. Some of his most notable achievements include developing the Memory Market Index (MMI), a market forecasting tool, and solidifying SK hynix’s position in the AI memory market by nimbly responding to HBM demand.

Kim’s market forecasting tool played a key role in enabling SK hynix to achieve HBM market dominance

“Historically, market forecasting was done sporadically across multiple departments, including development, manufacturing, purchasing, sales, and marketing, resulting in poor forecasting results,” he said. “As simply repeating the same process didn’t bring about a different outcome, I established a one-team structure and efficiently deployed company resources. This strengthened our ability to respond quickly to market changes and operational issues. Now we can stay more than six months ahead of the curve and respond to HBM demand in a timely manner.”

Achieving HBM market dominance was not only a result of introducing MMI, as Kim’s ability to form strategic partnerships and organizational collaboration also played key roles.

“We have established strong relationships with leading companies in the AI market,” he said. “By earning their trust and full cooperation, we were able to secure a stable demand of HBM. The collaboration of HBM-related departments as a team has allowed us to provide the best products, satisfying our customers and securing the number one market share.”

Kim was also influential in advancing DDR5 and other solutions. His early collaborations with server customers paved the way for SK hynix to take the top spot in the high-performance DDR5 market. In addition, Kim helped the company achieve the memory industry’s first 2023 quarterly turnaround in the fourth quarter by gaining an edge in the average selling price (ASP) of DRAM.

Armed with these experiences, Kim will now lead AI Infra and accelerate SK hynix’s efforts to remain the world’s leading AI memory provider.

“Strategic partnerships based on trust are crucial for our response to future markets. With such partnerships, we will quickly provide our customers with the products they want at the right time,” he said.

“In the short term, we will maximize our market dominance through our outstanding technology. We will also engage with our customers, particularly those that are growing rapidly, to identify and address their pain points, which will boost our profitability. In the long run, we will develop the next generation of memory solutions and ensure our technology and products become the market standard.”

Solidifying AI Leadership as a Trusted Strategist

Anticipation is building for Kim’s blueprint for the new division as a result of his significant expertise and leadership skills accrued during 33 years in the industry.

After joining SK hynix’s semiconductor fab production team in February 1991, he has worked in various departments. In 2017, he became Sales Lead of the GSM department where he helped to expand the company’s global market share. In particular, he devoted his time to securing SK hynix’s MCP⁴ market share in Greater China.

Since 2021, he has served as the head of both GSM and SK hynix America, where he played a crucial role in expanding the company’s U.S. presence. As such, Kim has secured market competitiveness across the DRAM and NAND sectors with his quick thinking and decisive execution. When asked about his secret, Kim cites communication and understanding.

⁴Multi Chip Package (MCP): Two or more chips stacked vertically to form a single package, such as mobile DRAM and NAND flash products stacked in a single package for smartphones.

Communication, grit, and ambition are key to business success, according to Kim

“We were able to make decisions and move faster than anyone else because we were in close contact with our customers and understood our situation perfectly. We went into the market with our senses sharpened,” he said.

Kim stressed that leaders need to take the initiative to achieve goals and bring everyone together as a team. He also stressed that ambition and grit play a big role in finding new customers and deepening professional relationships. They are traits he encourages SK hynix employees to embrace as well.

“Facing any challenge with ambition and grit, and never giving up, will earn you the trust of your customers and deliver valuable results,” he added. “I hope our staff will take this to heart and do their best to achieve their goals.”

Concluding the interview, Kim underlined his strong commitment to achieving the company’s future growth.

Kim claims AI Infra will play a key role in solidifying SK hynix’s market leadership going forward

“We will continue to maximize the value of our products by strengthening communication and partnerships so that SK hynix is the first AI memory company that comes to people’s minds,” he said. “AI Infra will help SK hynix cement its position as the global no. 1 AI memory provider.”

The post Top Team Insights: “Overcome Inertia With Innovation”, AI Infra Head Justin Kim’s Strategy in the AI Era first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.