South Korean AI-chip magnate faces near-$1 billion divorce settlement
A court is expected to rule on the division of assets belonging to SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won and his ex-spouse Roh Soh-yeong, with the payout potentially approaching $1 billion.
South Korea’s top AI-chip executive Chey Tae-won, chairman of the SK Group, is awaiting a court decision that could require him to transfer roughly half of his assets to his former wife, Roh Soh-yeong. The appeal, scheduled for Friday, asks the court to value Chey’s holdings at current market prices, after SK Hynix shares have risen about tenfold since early 2025, pushing his net worth to around $5 billion.
Roh, the daughter of former President Roh Tae-woo, seeks a settlement that could total close to $1 billion. She argues that the valuation should reflect the present-day market value of Chey’s stakes, while Chey’s legal team contends that an earlier valuation, before the AI-driven surge, should be used.
The divorce, which began with Chey’s 2015 public statement that his marriage was beyond repair, has involved claims that the SK empire was partially funded by money from Roh’s father. Roh’s lawyers presented a handwritten note allegedly showing a $23 million transfer to Chey’s father, a claim Chey’s attorneys deny.
An earlier appellate ruling ordered Chey to give Roh 35% of his assets, a figure that the Supreme Court later sent back to a lower court for reconsideration. The current dispute centers on how to assess the value of Chey’s holdings amid the rapid growth of SK Hynix, a major supplier of high-bandwidth memory for artificial-intelligence systems.
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," Chey quoted from Leo Tolstoy when announcing his desire for a clean end to the marriage.
Roh has begun moving out of the family home after 37 years, posting images of her wedding dress and a childhood poster that read “True love.”