SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won purchased a total of 3,620 shares of SK hynix Inc. in the open market, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing Thursday, marking the first time the executive has made such a move.

The total value of the shares acquired by Chey amounts to approximately 4.8 billion won (US$3.35 million), based on the chipmaker's closing price of 1.32 million won on Thursday. SK hynix, South Korea's second-largest semiconductor manufacturer and the world's second-largest memory chipmaker behind Samsung Electronics, is the crown jewel of the SK Group conglomerate. The company is also a dominant supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in artificial intelligence accelerators, positioning it at the center of the global AI hardware buildout.

According to industry insiders, Chey made the stock purchase to demonstrate his commitment to "responsible management," amid a growing assessment that SK hynix shares are being severely undervalued. The stock price of the semiconductor giant had climbed to a record high of 2.99 million won on June 25 before declining by more than half to Thursday's closing level of 1.32 million won. The pullback came during a period of broader volatility across global semiconductor stocks, even as demand for AI-related memory remains a central growth driver for the industry.

Chey had previously stated that it is "better to hold on to SK hynix shares, instead of repeatedly selling and repurchasing them, to preserve wealth." He also noted that the company's share price would continue an uptrend driven by sustained demand for memory chips.

The purchase comes shortly after Chey participated in a public briefing on three mega-projects chaired by President Lee Jae Myung at the presidential office in Seoul on June 29.