SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won urged global economies to integrate social values into the current capitalist system, highlighting the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in assessing and controlling these values. Chey delivered the comments at the beginning of the Tokyo Forum 2025, which was organized by the University of Tokyo and Chey Institute for Advanced Studies.
The institute is named in honor of the late former SK Group Chairman Chey Jong-hyon. Since 2019, the yearly conference has focused on topics like fast advancements in technology, political uncertainty, and other worldwide concerns.
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The latest iteration of the event delved into concepts surrounding the theme “Reassessing Capitalism: Different Forms, Conflicts, and Prospects”.
For years, Chey has emphasized the significance of social value in the operation of SK Group, advocating that companies should do more than just make money and instead focus on addressing social issues and enhancing the welfare of stakeholders.
In 2019, SK Group began measuring the social value produced by major subsidiaries and made the findings accessible to the public. In 2018, SK hynix reported almost 9.9 trillion won ($6.7 billion) in indirect economic benefits, while also noting a social performance loss of 450 billion won.
The company stated that the decrease was mainly due to environmental factors, specifically emissions produced during its manufacturing processes.
“Conventional capitalism has been concentrating solely on financial aspects, offering no rewards or incentives for creating social value,” Chey said in his speech.
“Measuring social value has long been difficult due to high costs and insufficient data, which hindered the proper allocation of resources. But with digital technologies and AI now serving as powerful measurement tools, these problems can be overcome.”
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Chey mentioned that SK assesses the social values generated by each partner company in different areas like job growth, tax payments, environmental influence, and community involvement. He also emphasized that measuring these values can impact the decision-making process of companies.
“Once social value can be measured and evaluated systematically, we can allocate resources differently and create incentives that can change how an enterprise operates,” Chey said. He described this as a “new capitalism,” saying that if capitalism incorporates social value, it can form a far more sustainable structure for the future.
Chey joined a panel discussion at the forum, along with University of Tokyo President Teruo Fuji and other prominent figures from the Japanese business sector.
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The two-day conference began on Friday and included keynote addresses and conversations with prominent specialists such as Marianne Bertrand from the University of Chicago, Kim Byung-yeon from Seoul National University, and Kim Yoo-suk, President of the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies.