A South Korean appeals court will rule Friday on whether SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won must hand over as much as $1 billion to his ex-wife, Roh Soh-yeong. The ruling could force Chey to transfer a significant portion of his SK Holdings stake, potentially diluting his control over the conglomerate behind SK Hynix, the $1 trillion memory-chip maker that has been the biggest beneficiary of the AI infrastructure buildout.
A South Korean appeals court will rule Friday on whether SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won must hand over as much as $1 billion to his ex-wife, Roh Soh-yeong, in a case that could reshape control of the conglomerate behind the world's hottest memory-chip maker.
"The ruling could dilute Chey's controlling stake in SK Holdings, exposing the conglomerate to activist pressure for the first time," said Lee Kyung-soo, a corporate governance professor at Korea University.
The case, known locally as the divorce of the century, centers on how to value Chey's fortune, which has more than doubled to about $5 billion as SK Hynix's stock surged roughly tenfold since the start of 2025. The memory-chip maker's market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion in May, driven by its role as Nvidia's primary supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI servers. Roh, 65, initially demanded half of Chey's assets. A prior appeals court ruling awarded her 35 percent, worth nearly $1 billion at the time, before the Supreme Court overturned that decision last year.
A payout of that size would force Chey to transfer a significant portion of his SK Holdings stake, weakening his grip on the group that controls SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory-chip maker. SK Hynix's full-year 2026 HBM capacity is already sold out, with shortages expected through 2027, giving the company unprecedented pricing power. The ruling comes just weeks after SK Hynix raised $26.5 billion in the largest U.S. listing ever by a foreign company.
The marriage between Chey, a nephew of SK's founder, and Roh, the daughter of former President Roh Tae-woo, was celebrated as the wedding of the century in 1988. The fairy-tale image shattered in 2015 when Chey published a letter confessing he loved another woman and had a child with her.
Chey's legal team argues that Roh played no role in SK's recent success and that the asset division should be based on an earlier valuation, before the AI-driven stock surge. Roh's lawyers contend the division should reflect the current value of Chey's holdings, including the gains from SK Hynix's historic rally.
The case has drawn attention from global investors because of what it means for SK Group's governance. Chey has twice been convicted of white-collar crimes and later pardoned by South Korean presidents, but has maintained tight control over the conglomerate through his stake in SK Holdings.
The ruling is scheduled for Friday in Seoul. Chey and Roh both attended their youngest daughter's wedding in October 2024. For SK Hynix investors, the key question is whether the ruling creates an opening for activist funds to challenge Chey's control at a time when the company is enjoying its strongest pricing power in history. The next catalyst will be the company's third-quarter earnings, where investors will look for signs that HBM demand is continuing to outpace supply.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
