South Korean AI billionaire faces $1 billion divorce payout after marriage of the century crumbles amid affair with younger woman
A Korean tech billionaire who publicly confessed to loving a woman other than his wife and fathering a child with her could be ordered to pay his ex-spouse nearly $1 billion as South Korea’s “divorce of the century” nears a decisive ruling.Chey Tae-won, the 65-year-old chairman of South Korea’s SK Group and a major beneficiary of the AI-chip boom, stunned the country in 2015 with a three-page newspaper letter saying his marriage was beyond repair and that he wanted a “clean end.”Now, as shares of SK Hynix — the memory-chip supplier whose chips help power Nvidia’s AI systems — have skyrocketed roughly tenfold since the start of 2025, the fortune at the center of the country’s so-called “divorce of the century” has ballooned, too.His ex-wife, Roh Soh-yeong, the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, is demanding half of Chey’s assets.She’s asked an appeals court to value them at today’s sky-high prices — a move that legal experts say could boost her payout to nearly $1 billion and potentially loosen Chey’s grip on one of South Korea’s biggest business empires.A ruling is expected Friday.The case has gripped South Korea for years — blending a love triangle, a former presidential family, alleged slush-fund money and a battle over control of a major technology conglomerate.In publicly announcing his desire for a “clean end” to the marriage, Chey quoted the celebrated opening line of Leo Tolstoy’s epic about adultery, “Anna Karenina:” “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”The stunning admission by Chey, who’s also 65, ended a marriage that had once been hailed as South Korea’s “wedding of the century.”Chey and Roh married in 1988 at the presidential Blue House, months after her father took office.Roh initially refused to grant him a divorce, saying she intended to protect the family.
She later changed course, writing that it might be right to let her husba...