A fund tied to Dell Technologies Chairman Michael Dell has agreed to buy 544 billion won ($380 million) worth of SK Inc. (034730) shares held by SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, drawing attention to the artificial intelligence hardware alliance between SK hynix (000660) and Dell. With the Dell family adding an equity investment to a supply chain in which Nvidia builds AI processors using SK hynix memory chips and Dell turns them into finished servers, analysts expect the partnership between the two companies to deepen.
SK hynix and Dell have been working together by fitting SK hynix memory products into Dell servers, according to industry sources on the 15th. At the Dell Technologies Forum 2026 held in Seoul in August, SK hynix said its DDR5 DRAM modules and enterprise solid-state drives (eSSDs) would be installed in Dell's R770 data center server.
Nvidia is the link between the two companies. Nvidia designs graphics processing units (GPUs) that handle large volumes of calculations simultaneously, while SK hynix supplies high-bandwidth memory (HBM) that pairs with the GPUs to move data at high speed.
Dell integrates the computing modules that combine GPUs and memory into servers and racks that data centers can use immediately. A rack is a large frame that holds multiple servers and related equipment in stacked tiers. Dell bundles in networking gear that carries data between servers, along with power supply units and cooling systems.
The three-way collaboration is already producing results in the AI market. In June, Dell said it had become the first in the industry to ship a server rack carrying 72 units of Nvidia's next-generation AI chip, Vera Rubin, to U.S. cloud company CoreWeave. The rack was equipped with HBM4, SK hynix's sixth-generation HBM.
The share transaction between Chey and the Dell chairman's side is also drawing attention against this backdrop of business cooperation. According to a large shareholding report SK filed on the 13th, DFO Public Investments agreed to acquire the 972,493 SK Inc. shares, or a 1.34% stake, that Chey plans to sell, for 544 billion won. The fund is managed by DFO Management, which oversees the Dell family's assets.
"With a fund connected to Michael Dell's family joining SK's shareholder register, there is a view that the scope of the relationship between the two sides has broadened," an industry official said.
