A South Korean court has ordered billionaire Chey Tae-won, chairman of the SK Group conglomerate, to pay his former wife, Roh Soh-yeong, approximately $640 million in one of the country’s largest and most high-profile divorce settlements. The Seoul High Court issued the ruling on Friday, concluding a decade-long legal battle widely described in South Korea as the “divorce of the century.”
Chey, 65, is the head of SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker and a key supplier to Nvidia’s artificial intelligence (AI) processor business. His fortune, estimated at around $5.6 billion, has soared amid a global AI boom, with SK Hynix’s valuation increasing about 2,500 percent since Chey filed for divorce in 2017. The court took this dramatic rise in the company’s share price into account while determining the settlement.
Roh, also 65 and the daughter of former South Korean president Roh Tae-woo, had sought nearly half of Chey’s wealth, arguing that she deserved a significant portion of the couple’s combined assets. The court allocated about one-third of Chey’s shares in SK Inc., the SK Group’s holding company, to Roh, reportedly allowing payment in cash to enable Chey to retain control over his stake in the conglomerate. This payout is equivalent to roughly 12 percent of Chey’s current fortune.
The couple married in 1988 in a ceremony at Seoul’s presidential palace, a union hailed at the time as a high-profile alliance between a business scion and a political family. Their marriage began to unravel publicly in 2015 when Chey issued a letter to a South Korean newspaper, admitting to fathering a child with another woman and announcing his intention to divorce. The divorce proceedings that followed have been marked by disputes over asset valuation, the division of shares, and whether parts of the wealth were inherited or accumulated through managerial contributions during the marriage.
Chey’s legal team has argued that much of his wealth is inherited and should not be fully subject to division as marital property. Meanwhile, Roh’s legal representatives had previously contended that her share should reflect a more recent and higher valuation of his assets, given the surge in SK Hynix's market value, as well as her contributions to maintaining their household. The Supreme Court of South Korea has returned the case multiple times for reconsideration, with rulings addressing issues such as the legitimacy of certain funds linked to Roh Tae-woo.
Analysts suggest that while the settlement is substantial, it is unlikely to weaken Chey’s hold over SK Group. Experts believe he can finance the payout by selling shares in non-core subsidiaries or securing loans, preserving his control over the conglomerate’s key businesses, which include SK Telecom and SK Innovation alongside SK Hynix.
The case has attracted significant media attention in South Korea and abroad, encapsulating elements of wealth, political legacy, corporate power, and personal drama. Meanwhile, Chey’s global profile has grown during this period, as he continues to engage with leading technology figures worldwide, underscoring SK Hynix’s vital role in the expanding AI industry. Both parties retain the right to appeal the latest ruling to South Korea’s Supreme Court.