SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won will start construction on the Honam semiconductor project, according to a report by South Korea's Chosun Ilbo, pressing ahead with the plan even though the timeline has slipped from earlier expectations.

The decision signals that Korea's second-largest conglomerate still treats large-scale domestic fab investment as a strategic priority, despite the delays that have pushed back the start of work on the Honam complex.

What does the announcement confirm?

The Chosun Ilbo report confirms two points:

• Construction at the Honam site will now begin, ending a period of uncertainty over whether the project would be paused or rescheduled.
• Delays have affected the program, and the current schedule lags the original plan.

Chosun Ilbo did not specify in the reported material a revised completion date, a capacity target, a process node or an investment amount for the complex. Chey has not publicly detailed those figures in connection with this announcement, and SK Group has not confirmed a final capex number.

Who is behind the project?

Chey Tae-won chairs SK Group, the parent of SK Hynix — the world's second-largest memory maker and a leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI accelerators. Any new domestic fabrication capacity under the group carries weight for Korea's position in memory supply, though the Chosun Ilbo report does not state which product family or business unit the Honam site will serve.

The move comes as chipmakers across Korea, the United States, Japan and Taiwan weigh the pace of new capacity against memory demand cycles and government incentive programs. Starting construction in a soft part of the cycle would align SK with peers that have continued site work while deferring equipment installation — but the report does not specify how SK will phase the Honam buildout.

What remains open?

Key commercial parameters are still undefined in the public record:

• Total investment value for the Honam complex
• Wafer capacity and process technology targeted
• Which SK entity — SK Hynix or another group affiliate — will own and operate the site
• The revised timeline relative to the original schedule

Investors and supply-chain planners will watch SK's next disclosures for those figures, since they determine when new supply could reach the memory market and how the project affects SK's capital allocation alongside its existing HBM and DRAM commitments.

With groundbreaking now set to proceed, attention shifts to whether SK discloses capacity and investment details — and whether equipment orders follow on a schedule that keeps the Honam complex competitive with rival fab expansions in Asia and the United States.