South Korean AI billionaire faces $1 billion – Business News
A Korean tech billionaire who publicly confessed to loving a girl different than his spouse and fathering a youngster along with her could possibly be ordered to pay his ex-spouse almost $1 billion as South Korea’s “divorce of the century” nears a decisive ruling.
Chey Tae-won, the 65-year-old chairman of South Korea’s SK Group and a main beneficiary of the AI-chip growth, surprised the nation in 2015 with a three-page newspaper letter saying his marriage was past restore and that he needed a “clean end.”
Now, as shares of SK Hynix — the memory-chip provider whose chips help energy Nvidia’s AI systems — have skyrocketed roughly tenfold because the begin of 2025, the fortune on the middle of the nation’s so-called “divorce of the century” has ballooned, too.
South Korean tech billionaire Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, is battling his ex-wife over a divorce settlement that would strategy $1 billion. Bloomberg through Getty Images
His ex-wife, Roh Soh-yeong, the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, is demanding half of Chey’s property. She’s requested an appeals courtroom to worth them at at the moment’s sky-high costs — a transfer that legal specialists say may increase her payout to just about $1 billion and doubtlessly loosen Chey’s grip on one of South Korea’s greatest business empires.
A ruling is predicted Friday.
The case has gripped South Korea for years — mixing a love triangle, a former presidential household, alleged slush-fund money and a battle over control of a main technology conglomerate.
In publicly asserting his want for a “clean end” to the wedding, Chey quoted the celebrated opening line of Leo Tolstoy’s epic about adultery, “Anna Karenina:” “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
The beautiful admission by Chey, who’s additionally 65, ended a marriage that had as soon as been hailed as South Korea’s “wedding of the century.”
Roh Soh-yeong, Chey Tae-won’s ex-wife and the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, is looking for a bigger share of the billionaire’s fortune. ZUMAPRESS.com
Chey and Roh married in 1988 on the presidential Blue House, months after her father took workplace.
Roh initially refused to grant him a divorce, saying she supposed to guard the household. She later modified course, writing that it may be proper to let her husband pursue the “happiness” he needed.
The different girl within the love triangle, Kim Hee-young, is now Chey’s longtime accomplice. Kim, who goes by the English identify Chloe, leads a charitable basis the couple established and has appeared in public alongside the billionaire. She’s 50 years previous, in line with company filings cited by the Wall Street Journal.
Kim Hee-young, Chey Tae-won’s longtime accomplice, grew to become a central determine within the billionaire’s sensational divorce battle. Instagram / @chloe_tnc_
Roh later sued Kim over the affair and received damages value roughly $1.5 million after a courtroom discovered the connection and the kid born outdoors the wedding had inflicted emotional hurt and helped destroy the couple’s trust.
The feud quickly widened into a high-stakes battle over the origins of the SK fortune.
Roh’s attorneys produced a handwritten notice apparently stored by her mom that listed “Sunkyong” — SK’s former identify — beside “30 billion won,” or about $23 million.
They argued the notice supported claims that Roh’s father secretly offered money to Chey’s father that helped the household develop its business empire. Chey’s attorneys have denied that SK obtained the alleged funds.
Chey Tae-won, whose SK empire contains memory-chip giant SK Hynix, publicly acknowledged in 2015 that he liked one other girl and had fathered a youngster along with her. Bloomberg through Getty Images
An appeals courtroom beforehand ordered Chey to offer Roh 35% of his property, value close to $1 billion on the time.
South Korea’s Supreme Court later upheld the divorce, however despatched the property settlement back to a decrease courtroom after rejecting the use of allegedly unlawful presidential money as the idea for Roh’s declare.
At the center of the retrial is one deceptively easy query: How ought to Chey’s fortune be valued?
Chey Tae-won’s accomplice Kim Hee-young, who makes use of the English identify Chloe, was sued by his ex-wife over the affair. Instagram / @chloe_tnc_
Chey argues that judges ought to use an earlier valuation, earlier than the AI growth despatched the worth of his holdings hovering. Roh desires the courtroom to make use of the a lot increased present-day determine.
That dispute has develop into particularly expensive as SK Hynix has emerged as a key provider of high-bandwidth reminiscence utilized in Nvidia’s artificial-intelligence systems.
The chipmaker’s shares have risen roughly tenfold because the starting of 2025, serving to more than double Chey’s fortune to about $5 billion.
Roh Tae-woo, who served as South Korea’s president from 1988 to 1993, was the daddy of Chey Tae-won’s ex-wife, Roh Soh-yeong. Sygma through Getty Images
Roh, in the meantime, has been packing up the home the place she raised the couple’s three youngsters and lived for 37 years.
In one social-media post, she shared pictures of her wedding ceremony gown and a childhood poster made her youngsters exhibiting their mother and father surrounded by hearts and stars.
One message on the poster learn: “True love.”
