SK Ramps Up U.S. Investments With More than $50 Billion Planned

SK companies expected to quadruple U.S. employees over that time

Investments focused on sustainable energy, semiconductors and life sciences

Driven by a global strategy to advance new sustainable businesses, SK companies plan to invest an additional $30 billion in the U.S. by the end of 2025, nearly tripling their U.S. assets and quadrupling the number of U.S. employees.

SK companies have operated in the U.S. for the past three decades with sites in more than a dozen states from Georgia to California. In the past two years alone, SK companies have invested $5 billion, growing their U.S. assets to $13 billion and doubling employee headcount to more than 4,000 today.

The next few years are expected to mark a new era of growth. By the end of 2025, U.S. assets are expected to top $40 billion and the employee base approach 20,000 strong. The new assets include electric vehicle (EV) battery plants in Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee, a silicon carbide wafer plant in Michigan and expanding pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in Virginia, Texas and California.

The U.S. investments are guided by a purpose – create growth and opportunities in the industries that will define our world’s future. SK’s U.S. expansion and investments will be focused on three major areas – sustainable energy, semiconductors and life sciences. Areas of recent and future growth in the U.S. include:

• SK On is investing billions of dollars to support the growing U.S. EV industry with new battery facilities. Last year, the company’s SK Battery America subsidiary completed the first phase of a $2.6 billion investment in its Georgia site. It also plans to invest $4.45 billion in facilities in Kentucky and Tennessee as part of the BlueOvalSK joint venture with Ford.
• SK hynix created late last year a new standalone U.S. subsidiary, San Jose-based data and memory storage solutions leader Solidigm, following the close of the first stage of an acquisition of the business from Intel.
• SK E&S has made strategic investments in U.S. clean energy firms, including hydrogen energy pioneer Plug Power and energy storage solutions leader Key Capture Energy. Both companies are based in Upstate New York.
• SK Siltron CSS is investing $300 million to more than double its workforce in Bay County, Michigan, to manufacture silicon carbide wafers used in EVs.
• AMPAC Fine Chemicals, part of SK Pharmteco, doubled the workforce at its Petersburg, Virginia site over the past year as it continues to expand its U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturing and development capabilities.
• SK Inc., SK’s investment arm, made strategic investments in a range of companies, including California waste-to-fuels company Fulcrum BioEnergy, Nebraska clean hydrogen producer Monolith Materials and Pennsylvania’s Center for Breakthrough Medicines.

SK’s U.S. investments support its strategy to build global businesses and technologies that follow Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles – a natural evolution of SK’s long-held double-bottom line philosophy that businesses should deliver both financial returns and social good.