SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said concerns that SK hynix is overly exposed to Nvidia are misplaced because the memory maker also sells to Google, Microsoft and other hyperscalers, while Nvidia remains central to AI infrastructure and a key buyer of high-bandwidth memory. A semiannual filing showed SK hynix booked 17.6087 trillion won ($12.7 billion) in first-half sales from a single external customer understood to be Nvidia, equal to 13.35% of total sales, down from 24% of annual sales last year; a second unnamed single external customer contributed 17.1874 trillion won. Chey said AI demand is "explosive," with customers seeking nearly double this year's memory volumes for next year, and warned that capacity could take four to five years to expand, making next year potentially the most severe period for supply shortages. He said memory demand is undergoing a structural shift from smartphones and other devices toward AI models and agents, raising the risk of broader price increases across products in a "chipflation" effect. SK Group is reviewing fab expansion in several regions including the United States, while pursuing long-term supply agreements, possible fab joint ventures and a Memory-as-a-Service model. Chey also said SK Group's mix of energy, telecom and chip businesses positions it to build AI data centers. SK hynix said it began mass-production supply of HBM4 to major customers in the second quarter, completed HBM4E sample supply, and is discussing 2027 HBM volumes and prices with major customers.