SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has turned personal injury into an unusually vivid snapshot of the global artificial intelligence supply chain.
In an Instagram post uploaded Wednesday, Chey shared photos of the wrist cast he wore for about eight weeks after fracturing his wrist while playing tennis with his son. The cast was covered with signatures and handwritten messages from some of the most influential figures in the tech industry, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and SoftBank Group Chairman Masayoshi Son.
Chey said he had grown attached to the cast as “friends” signed it and wished him a speedy recovery on his overseas trips. The post marked a return to social media for Chey after roughly 18 months.
The images were taken during Chey’s visit to Silicon Valley and Seattle last month, where he continued a series of meetings with major technology firms despite the injury. According to local media reports, those discussions included cooperation on AI semiconductors, particularly high bandwidth memory.
HBM has become a critical bottleneck in the AI industry. Memory is essential for high-performance AI chips, and demand has surged alongside the expansion of generative AI services and data center infrastructure. Supply remains tight, with leading chipmakers racing to secure capacity.
SK hynix, SK Group’s semiconductor affiliate, is one of the world’s leading HBM suppliers and a key partner to Nvidia, whose graphics processing units dominate the AI accelerator market. The Korean chipmaker also supplies advanced memory products such as DDR5 server DRAM to global clients including Google and Meta.
Against this backdrop, the cast signatures have drawn attention as an informal but visible indicator of SK’s position within the AI ecosystem. Industry officials say the presence of multiple big tech leaders on the cast reflects ongoing efforts by these companies to maintain close coordination with critical suppliers as competition for AI infrastructure intensifies.
Chey’s decision to proceed with the US trip while wearing the cast is also seen by industry observers as part of broader efforts to reinforce trust with major customers during a period of supply constraint.
mjh@heraldcorp.com
