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Welcome to Impact TV.
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It's a corporate venture video series in
collaboration with the Kaufman Fellows.
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I'm Jack Crawford, a founding managing partner
at CIBC.
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And alongside my colleague, Pat Bumpus, and my
Kaufman Fellow co chair, Alessandro Santo,
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we're thrilled to welcome to the show Renee
Dodes, senior director of venture investments
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at SK Hynix.
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Hi, Renee.
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How are doing today?
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I'm doing well.
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Thank you, Jack, Pat, Alessandro, and the
entire Impact TV team for having me.
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I've seen how this platform brings together
investors and innovators across the venture
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ecosystem.
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So it's truly a pleasure to join the
conversation.
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Oh, we're thrilled to include you, especially
coming off this big win.
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GCV recognized you as one of the emerging
corporate venture capitalists, so
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congratulations on the recognition.
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Thank you.
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It was genuinely an honor to be recognized.
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So I know you collaborate a little bit with He
Jin Chung, who I've known for more than, ten
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years.
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And and I guess I was looking at your your
LinkedIn profile, and I saw that you were
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involved in, a bit in, Coffin Venture Deals
program.
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Maybe you could talk a little bit about how
you've, collaborated with He Jin and and
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anything that you did with, Coffin on the
venture deals program.
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So, when it comes to Heejin, he I report to
him.
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So it's more of a, you know, a ten year
relationship now, professional relationship.
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So I have many things to say.
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I don't know whether it's suitable for this
conversation.
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With the, deals, program, it's something that I
came across, and it was a very succinct and
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well organized program for people who's
already, experienced and ventured but, want a,
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you know, clear, structured, learning,
platform, just to, review concepts and make
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sure that you are thoroughly, you have a
thorough understanding.
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Both, Alessandro and I, went through the
Kaufman, fellows program.
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We developed an incredible network of of global
relationships and and certainly contributed
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significantly to our personal journeys getting
into Venture.
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Let's talk about your personal journey in
Venture.
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Sort of it looks like sort of Samsung to
Motorola, a little bit of time at LG, and now
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SK Hynix.
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Can you just talk about sort of your your
personal journey, to the role that you're in
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now?
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Sure.
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I've, never, intended, to be in venture
capital, but, I've always had a strong
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curiosity around innovation and a desire to
contribute to technologies that can create
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meaningful impact.
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And, looking back, each chapter of my career
gave me a different lens on how innovation
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actually happens and, more importantly, how it
scales.
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So I started at Samsung Electronics and
Semiconductors, which gave me a foundational
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understanding of the industry.
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And, the culture there really instilled an
obsession with quality, continuous improvement,
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and long term planning, lessons that still
influence how I evaluate companies today.
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Then at Motorola, I was able to move closer to
products and commercialization.
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And, that experience taught me the importance
of streamlined execution, cross functional
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teamwork, and communication.
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So you can have brilliant technology, but if
you can't align teams and bring products
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successfully to market, the innovation doesn't
create impact.
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Later at consulting at Accenture, brought in my
strategic perspective across industries, and my
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role at LG Electronics was really where
everything started to converge.
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So, we had strategy, partnerships, open
innovation, and venture investing in my role,
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and that exposed me to thousands of startups
and reinforce it reinforce my belief that
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innovation often happens at intersections and,
meaning, between industries and between
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technologies and between large companies and
entrepreneurs.
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Eventually, I moved to SK Hynix to focus on
venture investing.
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And what's interesting about corporate
venturing is that it's not just about investing
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capital, but it's about fueling innovation.
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You're you're at an interesting company at an
interesting time.
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Mhmm.
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As a you know, a lot of the growth appears to
be driven by SK Hynix playing a supplier role
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of HBM to NVIDIA.
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That appears to be some of the growth.
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There's some exciting plans, I guess, about a
$13,000,000,000 facility in South Korea focused
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on AI.
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There's some really interesting things
happening at the company that you're at right
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now.
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What can you talk a little bit about sort of
the the growth?
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Is that where where most of the excitement in
in in growth is happening?
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What what's your view on why it's so
interesting to be at SK Hynix at this moment in
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time?
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I think it's exciting because right now, we are
the market leader of AI memory.
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And, when, people, people usually think, models
and, compute power, when they think what's
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enabling all of that is, data infrastructure
and memory.
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And, at right now, we are a company, that is
generating around $7,000,000,000 in annual
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revenue and playing that foundational role in
enabling the modern AI infrastructure.
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From a industry sector standpoint, my
recollection and research is mostly knowing SK
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Hynix is is a leader in memory and storage with
some strategic investment focus on
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semiconductor and data infrastructure and AI.
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Do I have it right with regard to the role that
you're looking to play?
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Sort of picks and shovels an infrastructure in
AI as it as it grows going forward?
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How would you describe sort of the the role,
that that you'll play in in those general
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industry sectors and what kind of you expect
next?
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So yes.
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So when I say, we like to position ourselves as
a full AI memory stack, provider, you know,
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it's going to be a combination of leveraging
our DRAM products, NAND flash products, and
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storage solutions.
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I see.
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And and, I wanted to talk a little bit about a
couple of articles that I saw that you wrote,
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talking about sort of AI applied to automotive
and, and then AI applied to sort of power in
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the data center.
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Can you comment to sort of, you know, we don't
have time today for a full debrief on your
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expertise in in sort of how AI applies to the
automotive, but I would encourage people to go
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read your LinkedIn post because I thought it
was I thought it was extremely interesting.
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Can you just talk a little bit at a high level
of how AI is impacting the automotive industry?
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So, that article, was to cover, one of our
portfolio companies, from our earlier days,
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when, the automotive industry was emerging, and
it was the fastest growing segment of the
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market for our products.
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And we wanted to we invested in that industry
because we wanted to better understand the
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ecosystem, understand the evolving requirements
in the automotive industry, And, also, in
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addition to understanding, that market, at that
time, we had the, CMOS image sensor business,
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where there were portfolio companies that were,
highly relevant when it came to intelligent
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perception.
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Mhmm.
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And then, your comments on the reason why I
mentioned power in the data center are
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particularly interesting to to us because we
invested in a company that you may have heard
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of called Kornami.
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It's looking at high performance computing with
lower power consumption and enhanced security.
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And and so just your general view on what's
happening in the data center.
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How's that relevant to SK Hynix?
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And how are you thinking about sort of, you
know, power consumption in the data center?
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Yes.
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So because there is a massive increase in, AI
workload, there is a lot of, compute resources
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being allocated, but at the same time,
traditional, system architectures have not
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thought out this power usage increase.
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And so, the industry, I think, is tackling as a
whole, to, reenvision how we can make the
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system more efficient, not just the individual
chips.
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So, as a memory provider, we are revisiting,
you know, our product itself and how we can,
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better collaborate with the ecosystem players,
to bring higher levels of, integration and
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system level optimization so that, there is
more efficiency.
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And, when we say efficiency, it means, using
less power, whether it's, based on the chip or
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whether we're using, better material, and also,
you know, thinking about, cooling, in the,
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whole data center at the whole data center
scale and at the whole data center scale.
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What what, what do you make of, if you've been,
watching it closely, the Grok transaction with
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NVIDIA and and then this this recent I IPO, the
Grok transaction with NVIDIA was
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$20,000,000,000 and now recent Cerebras IPO at,
I guess, 55,000,000,000.
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You've watching that market closely.
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And sort of what would you expect to happen
next with, kind of, you know, emerging
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companies like Kornami and others?
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What what do you envision as the next sort of
wave of growth in the data center space as it
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relates to high performance computing and and
low power consumption?
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So I think, some of the areas that could be,
emerging, that could be disruptive would be, of
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course, you know, optical, technologies as well
as, wafer level integration.
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So, again, this ties into, my, previous comment
about, system level, integration.
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And one of the ways could be, wafer level
integration.
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So, there is less, distance between compute and
memory, and, also, the manufacturing
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manufacturing is happening together at the
wafer level.
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Mhmm.
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Awesome.
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Alright.
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I'm gonna shift gears and ask you some
questions about the CBC platform, that that
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you've been building.
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A lot of times, and we were interacting with
hundreds of corporate investors each year as
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part of our strategy, we're investing at the
seed in early stage in AI companies, mostly
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applied to security, finance, digital health.
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But oftentimes, as you may know, we, we
actively invest alongside of corporate,
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investors.
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We actually have a couple of co investments
with, with with SK Hynix.
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And I'm wondering how your platform has evolved
because you seem to be the CBC at SK Hynix
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seems to be operating more like a traditional
corporate veteran with regard to your your
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pace, your speed, your ability to respond.
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Can you talk a little bit about the research
Pat and I were doing was sort of leading us to
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believe you're going from kind of a
relationships driven model to more of a
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scalable investment platform.
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How has it evolved over the last, what is it,
seven, eight, nine years that you you've been
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there?
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How has it evolved over that time?
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Yes.
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So as you mentioned, I think there is a broader
evolution of corporate venture capital because
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the pace of innovation is accelerating,
especially in AI and deep tech.
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And as you mentioned, many CVCs operated in a
more relationship driven way.
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But today, the sheer volume and the velocity
of, opportunities require a much more
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structured and thesis driven approach.
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And so at SK Hynix, we are focused on improving
our signal to noise ratio, accelerating
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diligence, and strengthening strategic
alignment and engaging founders, with founders
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more proactively.
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Does that mean using data to make decisions?
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You're doing more analytics?
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Talk about what what does that mean?
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Is it is it a shift from, I don't know,
attending 30 events each year to sort of really
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looking at the data that's been able, that that
you've been able to to gather and making
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decisions based on follow on rounds of
financing or the quality of the investment
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syndicate or, you know, maybe maybe the overall
market size and its and its and its growth.
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Is it is it data versus relationships?
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Talk a little bit about what you mean when when
when you talk about kind of decisions being
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made in a different way.
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Right.
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So, as we've, gained experience over the past
decade in investing, we have understood what
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type of functions are required, for venture
investment to work at SK Hynix.
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And so, clearly defining, functions, also,
streamlining process.
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And we've understood that, in order to gain
some of the strategic values that we seek, we
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also need to, have more flexibility, when it
comes to, the check size, the stage, that we
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invest in.
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So, those are some of the changes that we're
going through this year.
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And, traditionally, we were focused on
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more
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directly relevant opportunities to memory, but
we are broadening our scope when it comes to
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investment areas.
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Typical check size is kinda two to ten million
and mostly series a, series b.
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Help fine tune my my memory of Yeah.
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Five year to
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You are up to date on our check size.
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So 2 to five, was our check size last year.
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And this year, I think we can comfortably
invest up to 10,000,000.
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But, as Dean fit, there is, more flexibility
beyond that.
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If your revenues keep growing, your check size
might increase to 20,000,000 next year.
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So I'll keep an eye on that.
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I'll remember this for next year's, next year's
interview.
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I so there's some people on our team that seem
to know a lot about quantum and AI systems.
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I don't know much about that area, but it seems
like it's an area that's growing in interest by
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a lot of corporate venture groups.
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How are you are there high priority areas that
you're looking at that you're really excited
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about in the coming year?
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Talk a little bit about sort of from an
investment theme standpoint.
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What are the areas you're most likely to make
investments in in the next quarter or two?
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Yes.
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So, when it comes to, quantum and advanced AI,
compute systems, I remain cautiously
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optimistic, about, those computing paradigms.
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As I mentioned earlier, optical computing and
certain quantum technologies, both continue to
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make gradual progress, but I think
commercialization timelines and practical
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deployment challenges are often underestimated.
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Where I think some of the most impactful
breakthroughs over the next several years may
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actually happen, may come from applying AI to
semiconductors and infrastructure engineering
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itself.
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So think of it as using AI to help build the
very infrastructure, that powers AI.
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And when it comes to applying it to our
company, as you know, the semiconductor
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industry is very, complex.
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So from design and verification to
manufacturing, testing, yield optimization,
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packaging, and so on and so forth.
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And so there is a lot of potential, to
fundamentally accelerate and optimize, many of
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these processes.
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You are with the expertise on your team, with
your own personal skills and network of
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relationships, you're clearly in a great
position to add value beyond capital to
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startups that that you invest in.
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We've seen corporates play an active role with
engineering expertise and co development
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opportunities.
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At SK Hynix, I have to imagine your your
understanding of manufacturing ecosystems, your
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understanding of significant customer
relationships could also bring some value to
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startups that you work with.
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When you're pitching a startup about the
importance of of SK Hynix being included in and
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maybe an oversubscribed round of financing, how
do you articulate your value beyond capital?
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What is that?
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00:19:02,464 --> 00:19:07,984
How should how should founders think about, the
importance of including SK Hynix in a series a
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or series b round of financing?
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Sure.
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So, as as you may be aware, we are a strategic
investor.
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So we always pitch the, strategic value and the
synergy that we can create, being a corporate,
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investor.
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And, in deep tech, many of the, hardest
challenges happen during the transition from a
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promising technology to, scalable commercial
deployment.
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So we, offer, our technical insight, ecosystem
navigation, partner introductions, and
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practical guidance, especially around
manufacturability and go to market strategy,
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when we are approaching startups.
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As you invest in these rounds and you've got
the founder buy in, is it mostly alongside
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other corporate investors?
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Is it mostly alongside other VCs?
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Is it alongside private equity firms?
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What's the typical syndicate, the types of
investors that you're you're most often
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investing alongside?
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So we don't have any restrictions on who we co
invest with, but it tends to be venture capital
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firms that are technical and also strategic
investors in the semiconductor industry or in
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the broad technology ecosystem.
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And are you when you meet a new company, is it
and you go through an assessment, is there a
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different process if or does it go to a
different team if it's a a partnership versus a
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venture investment versus, oh, wow.
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This looks pretty interesting, and we actually
may wanna acquire this business.
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Are those different teams that you're working
with different business units and you guys are
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really handled handling the the direct
investment portion?
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Are you having influence over partnerships and
over, acquisition opportunities as well?
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So I would say, at our company, we are usually,
the first group that the startup encounters,
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and we have a introductory session and have the
initial evaluation and make introductions as
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deemed fit to the right organization, be it
partnerships.
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And I think consideration for acquisition
happens at a later stage because it's a more
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serious transaction than a partnership or an
investment.
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So it's something that would perhaps then be
taken as a next step.
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And and in line with that, Renee, how are you
sort of measuring your own performance at the
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end of the year?
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How do you know you had a great year?
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Is it that the portfolio that you invested in
grew in value or you provided some strategic
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addition to SK Hynix, or is there some other
metric from a KPI standpoint?
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How do you think about, you know, sort of your
own performance this year?
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So you know how they say that investing and
venture investing is an art form.
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I think measuring our performance is also an
art form.
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A lot of it is qualitative, although there are
quantitative KPIs that can be taken into
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account such as, you know, deal, number of
deals, number of investments, the value
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increase of the portfolio company.
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And but, you know, be be given that we are a
strategic investor, much of it is qualitative.
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So number of partnerships, joint
collaborations, POCs, joint research papers,
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and so on and so forth.
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So, it's a it's a holistic, evaluation that we,
do on ourselves.
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It's an art, not a science.
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Yeah.
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I hear you loud and clear.
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Okay.
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Last couple of questions before we run out of
time.
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Just wanted to understand if we're looking out
over the next few years, are you excited about
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defense tech?
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Are you excited are you excited about robotics,
humanoids, or any of those areas?
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Are there other areas that seems to be a lot of
corporate interest in those areas?
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00:23:50,559 --> 00:23:54,559
What you and I have mostly talked about today
is obviously the data center and AI
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infrastructure.
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00:23:55,519 --> 00:23:59,440
Is there anything else when we think about SK
Hynix that we should be thinking about by
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00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:01,359
industry sector that you're really excited
about?
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00:24:02,144 --> 00:24:02,865
Mhmm.
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So I represent SK Hynix, and we're focused on
the semiconductors and AI data center space.
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At the SK group level, we are open to all sorts
of technologies and industries.
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And I think for me personally, I am curious to
see how AI will impact our society and how it
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will also help me improve as an individual in
the coming years.
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And at the same time, I'm also concerned about,
you know, how the society will evolve as, there
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is concentration of, AI based power.
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Very helpful.
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Well, on behalf of the team at CIBC and the
Kaufman fellows, thanks to Renee Doe for
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spending a little bit of time with us.
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Really appreciate you today.
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00:25:12,554 --> 00:25:14,634
And thank you very much for having me.
00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:01,760
Welcome to Impact TV.
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00:00:01,760 --> 00:00:05,200
It's a corporate venture video series in
collaboration with the Kaufman Fellows.
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00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:08,240
I'm Jack Crawford, a founding managing partner
at CIBC.
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00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:13,359
And alongside my colleague, Pat Bumpus, and my
Kaufman Fellow co chair, Alessandro Santo,
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00:00:13,359 --> 00:00:17,774
we're thrilled to welcome to the show Renee
Dodes, senior director of venture investments
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00:00:17,774 --> 00:00:18,655
at SK Hynix.
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00:00:18,655 --> 00:00:19,135
Hi, Renee.
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00:00:19,135 --> 00:00:20,015
How are doing today?
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00:00:20,414 --> 00:00:21,454
I'm doing well.
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00:00:21,774 --> 00:00:28,015
Thank you, Jack, Pat, Alessandro, and the
entire Impact TV team for having me.
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00:00:28,789 --> 00:00:34,629
I've seen how this platform brings together
investors and innovators across the venture
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00:00:34,629 --> 00:00:35,509
ecosystem.
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00:00:35,509 --> 00:00:38,629
So it's truly a pleasure to join the
conversation.
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00:00:39,590 --> 00:00:42,469
Oh, we're thrilled to include you, especially
coming off this big win.
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00:00:42,884 --> 00:00:47,844
GCV recognized you as one of the emerging
corporate venture capitalists, so
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congratulations on the recognition.
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00:00:49,765 --> 00:00:50,804
Thank you.
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It was genuinely an honor to be recognized.
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00:00:54,405 --> 00:01:00,109
So I know you collaborate a little bit with He
Jin Chung, who I've known for more than, ten
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00:01:00,109 --> 00:01:00,670
years.
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00:01:00,670 --> 00:01:04,030
And and I guess I was looking at your your
LinkedIn profile, and I saw that you were
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00:01:04,030 --> 00:01:07,310
involved in, a bit in, Coffin Venture Deals
program.
23
00:01:07,549 --> 00:01:11,015
Maybe you could talk a little bit about how
you've, collaborated with He Jin and and
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00:01:11,015 --> 00:01:14,135
anything that you did with, Coffin on the
venture deals program.
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00:01:14,694 --> 00:01:18,775
So, when it comes to Heejin, he I report to
him.
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So it's more of a, you know, a ten year
relationship now, professional relationship.
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So I have many things to say.
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I don't know whether it's suitable for this
conversation.
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With the, deals, program, it's something that I
came across, and it was a very succinct and
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well organized program for people who's
already, experienced and ventured but, want a,
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you know, clear, structured, learning,
platform, just to, review concepts and make
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00:01:55,305 --> 00:02:01,039
sure that you are thoroughly, you have a
thorough understanding.
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00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:06,000
Both, Alessandro and I, went through the
Kaufman, fellows program.
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00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:10,544
We developed an incredible network of of global
relationships and and certainly contributed
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00:02:10,544 --> 00:02:13,264
significantly to our personal journeys getting
into Venture.
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00:02:13,264 --> 00:02:16,384
Let's talk about your personal journey in
Venture.
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00:02:16,384 --> 00:02:22,784
Sort of it looks like sort of Samsung to
Motorola, a little bit of time at LG, and now
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00:02:22,784 --> 00:02:23,665
SK Hynix.
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00:02:23,665 --> 00:02:27,569
Can you just talk about sort of your your
personal journey, to the role that you're in
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00:02:27,569 --> 00:02:28,050
now?
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00:02:28,449 --> 00:02:29,330
Sure.
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00:02:29,650 --> 00:02:37,889
I've, never, intended, to be in venture
capital, but, I've always had a strong
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00:02:37,889 --> 00:02:44,925
curiosity around innovation and a desire to
contribute to technologies that can create
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meaningful impact.
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00:02:47,325 --> 00:02:54,389
And, looking back, each chapter of my career
gave me a different lens on how innovation
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00:02:54,389 --> 00:02:57,909
actually happens and, more importantly, how it
scales.
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00:02:58,629 --> 00:03:04,469
So I started at Samsung Electronics and
Semiconductors, which gave me a foundational
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understanding of the industry.
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And, the culture there really instilled an
obsession with quality, continuous improvement,
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00:03:14,995 --> 00:03:20,675
and long term planning, lessons that still
influence how I evaluate companies today.
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Then at Motorola, I was able to move closer to
products and commercialization.
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00:03:29,849 --> 00:03:36,974
And, that experience taught me the importance
of streamlined execution, cross functional
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teamwork, and communication.
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00:03:40,094 --> 00:03:45,775
So you can have brilliant technology, but if
you can't align teams and bring products
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00:03:45,775 --> 00:03:49,775
successfully to market, the innovation doesn't
create impact.
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00:03:51,469 --> 00:03:59,549
Later at consulting at Accenture, brought in my
strategic perspective across industries, and my
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00:03:59,549 --> 00:04:03,949
role at LG Electronics was really where
everything started to converge.
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00:04:04,614 --> 00:04:11,335
So, we had strategy, partnerships, open
innovation, and venture investing in my role,
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00:04:11,894 --> 00:04:19,979
and that exposed me to thousands of startups
and reinforce it reinforce my belief that
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00:04:19,979 --> 00:04:28,620
innovation often happens at intersections and,
meaning, between industries and between
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00:04:28,620 --> 00:04:32,379
technologies and between large companies and
entrepreneurs.
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Eventually, I moved to SK Hynix to focus on
venture investing.
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00:04:38,944 --> 00:04:44,305
And what's interesting about corporate
venturing is that it's not just about investing
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00:04:44,305 --> 00:04:47,025
capital, but it's about fueling innovation.
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00:04:49,449 --> 00:04:53,610
You're you're at an interesting company at an
interesting time.
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00:04:53,850 --> 00:04:54,250
Mhmm.
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00:04:54,329 --> 00:05:00,649
As a you know, a lot of the growth appears to
be driven by SK Hynix playing a supplier role
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00:05:00,649 --> 00:05:02,009
of HBM to NVIDIA.
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00:05:02,785 --> 00:05:04,145
That appears to be some of the growth.
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00:05:04,145 --> 00:05:09,105
There's some exciting plans, I guess, about a
$13,000,000,000 facility in South Korea focused
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on AI.
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There's some really interesting things
happening at the company that you're at right
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00:05:12,865 --> 00:05:13,345
now.
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00:05:13,345 --> 00:05:16,169
What can you talk a little bit about sort of
the the growth?
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00:05:16,169 --> 00:05:19,930
Is that where where most of the excitement in
in in growth is happening?
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00:05:19,930 --> 00:05:23,849
What what's your view on why it's so
interesting to be at SK Hynix at this moment in
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00:05:23,849 --> 00:05:24,410
time?
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00:05:25,129 --> 00:05:32,545
I think it's exciting because right now, we are
the market leader of AI memory.
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00:05:32,705 --> 00:05:46,169
And, when, people, people usually think, models
and, compute power, when they think what's
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00:05:46,169 --> 00:05:50,329
enabling all of that is, data infrastructure
and memory.
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And, at right now, we are a company, that is
generating around $7,000,000,000 in annual
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revenue and playing that foundational role in
enabling the modern AI infrastructure.
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00:06:07,485 --> 00:06:13,564
From a industry sector standpoint, my
recollection and research is mostly knowing SK
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Hynix is is a leader in memory and storage with
some strategic investment focus on
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00:06:20,660 --> 00:06:23,459
semiconductor and data infrastructure and AI.
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00:06:23,459 --> 00:06:26,500
Do I have it right with regard to the role that
you're looking to play?
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00:06:27,045 --> 00:06:31,444
Sort of picks and shovels an infrastructure in
AI as it as it grows going forward?
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00:06:31,444 --> 00:06:36,165
How would you describe sort of the the role,
that that you'll play in in those general
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00:06:36,165 --> 00:06:38,085
industry sectors and what kind of you expect
next?
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00:06:39,199 --> 00:06:40,000
So yes.
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00:06:40,319 --> 00:06:49,680
So when I say, we like to position ourselves as
a full AI memory stack, provider, you know,
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it's going to be a combination of leveraging
our DRAM products, NAND flash products, and
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storage solutions.
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I see.
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00:07:02,485 --> 00:07:09,930
And and, I wanted to talk a little bit about a
couple of articles that I saw that you wrote,
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talking about sort of AI applied to automotive
and, and then AI applied to sort of power in
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00:07:17,769 --> 00:07:18,490
the data center.
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00:07:18,490 --> 00:07:24,824
Can you comment to sort of, you know, we don't
have time today for a full debrief on your
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expertise in in sort of how AI applies to the
automotive, but I would encourage people to go
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read your LinkedIn post because I thought it
was I thought it was extremely interesting.
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Can you just talk a little bit at a high level
of how AI is impacting the automotive industry?
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00:07:38,589 --> 00:07:46,189
So, that article, was to cover, one of our
portfolio companies, from our earlier days,
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when, the automotive industry was emerging, and
it was the fastest growing segment of the
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market for our products.
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And we wanted to we invested in that industry
because we wanted to better understand the
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ecosystem, understand the evolving requirements
in the automotive industry, And, also, in
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addition to understanding, that market, at that
time, we had the, CMOS image sensor business,
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where there were portfolio companies that were,
highly relevant when it came to intelligent
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perception.
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Mhmm.
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And then, your comments on the reason why I
mentioned power in the data center are
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particularly interesting to to us because we
invested in a company that you may have heard
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of called Kornami.
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It's looking at high performance computing with
lower power consumption and enhanced security.
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And and so just your general view on what's
happening in the data center.
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00:09:01,100 --> 00:09:02,940
How's that relevant to SK Hynix?
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And how are you thinking about sort of, you
know, power consumption in the data center?
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Yes.
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00:09:07,820 --> 00:09:20,914
So because there is a massive increase in, AI
workload, there is a lot of, compute resources
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00:09:20,914 --> 00:09:27,709
being allocated, but at the same time,
traditional, system architectures have not
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00:09:27,709 --> 00:09:31,389
thought out this power usage increase.
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00:09:31,709 --> 00:09:40,589
And so, the industry, I think, is tackling as a
whole, to, reenvision how we can make the
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system more efficient, not just the individual
chips.
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00:09:45,195 --> 00:09:56,950
So, as a memory provider, we are revisiting,
you know, our product itself and how we can,
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better collaborate with the ecosystem players,
to bring higher levels of, integration and
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00:10:04,709 --> 00:10:09,695
system level optimization so that, there is
more efficiency.
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00:10:10,174 --> 00:10:19,370
And, when we say efficiency, it means, using
less power, whether it's, based on the chip or
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whether we're using, better material, and also,
you know, thinking about, cooling, in the,
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whole data center at the whole data center
scale and at the whole data center scale.
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What what, what do you make of, if you've been,
watching it closely, the Grok transaction with
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NVIDIA and and then this this recent I IPO, the
Grok transaction with NVIDIA was
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$20,000,000,000 and now recent Cerebras IPO at,
I guess, 55,000,000,000.
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You've watching that market closely.
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And sort of what would you expect to happen
next with, kind of, you know, emerging
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companies like Kornami and others?
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What what do you envision as the next sort of
wave of growth in the data center space as it
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relates to high performance computing and and
low power consumption?
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So I think, some of the areas that could be,
emerging, that could be disruptive would be, of
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course, you know, optical, technologies as well
as, wafer level integration.
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So, again, this ties into, my, previous comment
about, system level, integration.
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And one of the ways could be, wafer level
integration.
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So, there is less, distance between compute and
memory, and, also, the manufacturing
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manufacturing is happening together at the
wafer level.
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Mhmm.
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Awesome.
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Alright.
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I'm gonna shift gears and ask you some
questions about the CBC platform, that that
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you've been building.
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A lot of times, and we were interacting with
hundreds of corporate investors each year as
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part of our strategy, we're investing at the
seed in early stage in AI companies, mostly
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applied to security, finance, digital health.
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But oftentimes, as you may know, we, we
actively invest alongside of corporate,
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investors.
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We actually have a couple of co investments
with, with with SK Hynix.
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And I'm wondering how your platform has evolved
because you seem to be the CBC at SK Hynix
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seems to be operating more like a traditional
corporate veteran with regard to your your
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pace, your speed, your ability to respond.
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Can you talk a little bit about the research
Pat and I were doing was sort of leading us to
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believe you're going from kind of a
relationships driven model to more of a
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scalable investment platform.
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How has it evolved over the last, what is it,
seven, eight, nine years that you you've been
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there?
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How has it evolved over that time?
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Yes.
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So as you mentioned, I think there is a broader
evolution of corporate venture capital because
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the pace of innovation is accelerating,
especially in AI and deep tech.
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And as you mentioned, many CVCs operated in a
more relationship driven way.
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But today, the sheer volume and the velocity
of, opportunities require a much more
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structured and thesis driven approach.
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And so at SK Hynix, we are focused on improving
our signal to noise ratio, accelerating
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diligence, and strengthening strategic
alignment and engaging founders, with founders
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more proactively.
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Does that mean using data to make decisions?
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You're doing more analytics?
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Talk about what what does that mean?
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Is it is it a shift from, I don't know,
attending 30 events each year to sort of really
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looking at the data that's been able, that that
you've been able to to gather and making
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decisions based on follow on rounds of
financing or the quality of the investment
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00:14:23,424 --> 00:14:29,970
syndicate or, you know, maybe maybe the overall
market size and its and its and its growth.
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Is it is it data versus relationships?
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00:14:33,170 --> 00:14:36,850
Talk a little bit about what you mean when when
when you talk about kind of decisions being
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made in a different way.
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Right.
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So, as we've, gained experience over the past
decade in investing, we have understood what
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type of functions are required, for venture
investment to work at SK Hynix.
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And so, clearly defining, functions, also,
streamlining process.
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And we've understood that, in order to gain
some of the strategic values that we seek, we
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also need to, have more flexibility, when it
comes to, the check size, the stage, that we
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invest in.
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So, those are some of the changes that we're
going through this year.
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And, traditionally, we were focused on
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more
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directly relevant opportunities to memory, but
we are broadening our scope when it comes to
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investment areas.
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Typical check size is kinda two to ten million
and mostly series a, series b.
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Help fine tune my my memory of Yeah.
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Five year to
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You are up to date on our check size.
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So 2 to five, was our check size last year.
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And this year, I think we can comfortably
invest up to 10,000,000.
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But, as Dean fit, there is, more flexibility
beyond that.
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If your revenues keep growing, your check size
might increase to 20,000,000 next year.
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So I'll keep an eye on that.
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I'll remember this for next year's, next year's
interview.
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I so there's some people on our team that seem
to know a lot about quantum and AI systems.
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I don't know much about that area, but it seems
like it's an area that's growing in interest by
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a lot of corporate venture groups.
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How are you are there high priority areas that
you're looking at that you're really excited
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00:16:44,535 --> 00:16:45,735
about in the coming year?
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00:16:45,894 --> 00:16:49,095
Talk a little bit about sort of from an
investment theme standpoint.
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What are the areas you're most likely to make
investments in in the next quarter or two?
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00:16:55,759 --> 00:16:56,480
Yes.
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00:16:56,800 --> 00:17:04,799
So, when it comes to, quantum and advanced AI,
compute systems, I remain cautiously
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optimistic, about, those computing paradigms.
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As I mentioned earlier, optical computing and
certain quantum technologies, both continue to
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make gradual progress, but I think
commercialization timelines and practical
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deployment challenges are often underestimated.
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Where I think some of the most impactful
breakthroughs over the next several years may
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actually happen, may come from applying AI to
semiconductors and infrastructure engineering
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itself.
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So think of it as using AI to help build the
very infrastructure, that powers AI.
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And when it comes to applying it to our
company, as you know, the semiconductor
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industry is very, complex.
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So from design and verification to
manufacturing, testing, yield optimization,
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packaging, and so on and so forth.
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And so there is a lot of potential, to
fundamentally accelerate and optimize, many of
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these processes.
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You are with the expertise on your team, with
your own personal skills and network of
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relationships, you're clearly in a great
position to add value beyond capital to
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startups that that you invest in.
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We've seen corporates play an active role with
engineering expertise and co development
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opportunities.
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At SK Hynix, I have to imagine your your
understanding of manufacturing ecosystems, your
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understanding of significant customer
relationships could also bring some value to
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startups that you work with.
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When you're pitching a startup about the
importance of of SK Hynix being included in and
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maybe an oversubscribed round of financing, how
do you articulate your value beyond capital?
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What is that?
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00:19:02,464 --> 00:19:07,984
How should how should founders think about, the
importance of including SK Hynix in a series a
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or series b round of financing?
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00:19:10,865 --> 00:19:11,585
Sure.
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00:19:11,585 --> 00:19:20,149
So, as as you may be aware, we are a strategic
investor.
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So we always pitch the, strategic value and the
synergy that we can create, being a corporate,
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investor.
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00:19:28,505 --> 00:19:36,184
And, in deep tech, many of the, hardest
challenges happen during the transition from a
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promising technology to, scalable commercial
deployment.
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So we, offer, our technical insight, ecosystem
navigation, partner introductions, and
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practical guidance, especially around
manufacturability and go to market strategy,
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when we are approaching startups.
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As you invest in these rounds and you've got
the founder buy in, is it mostly alongside
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other corporate investors?
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Is it mostly alongside other VCs?
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Is it alongside private equity firms?
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What's the typical syndicate, the types of
investors that you're you're most often
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investing alongside?
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00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:31,455
So we don't have any restrictions on who we co
invest with, but it tends to be venture capital
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firms that are technical and also strategic
investors in the semiconductor industry or in
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the broad technology ecosystem.
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00:20:47,315 --> 00:20:53,954
And are you when you meet a new company, is it
and you go through an assessment, is there a
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different process if or does it go to a
different team if it's a a partnership versus a
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venture investment versus, oh, wow.
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00:21:02,990 --> 00:21:06,430
This looks pretty interesting, and we actually
may wanna acquire this business.
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Are those different teams that you're working
with different business units and you guys are
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really handled handling the the direct
investment portion?
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Are you having influence over partnerships and
over, acquisition opportunities as well?
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So I would say, at our company, we are usually,
the first group that the startup encounters,
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and we have a introductory session and have the
initial evaluation and make introductions as
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deemed fit to the right organization, be it
partnerships.
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00:21:46,115 --> 00:21:54,674
And I think consideration for acquisition
happens at a later stage because it's a more
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serious transaction than a partnership or an
investment.
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00:21:59,789 --> 00:22:06,589
So it's something that would perhaps then be
taken as a next step.
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00:22:07,630 --> 00:22:13,275
And and in line with that, Renee, how are you
sort of measuring your own performance at the
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end of the year?
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How do you know you had a great year?
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00:22:15,515 --> 00:22:22,394
Is it that the portfolio that you invested in
grew in value or you provided some strategic
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addition to SK Hynix, or is there some other
metric from a KPI standpoint?
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How do you think about, you know, sort of your
own performance this year?
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00:22:31,369 --> 00:22:39,914
So you know how they say that investing and
venture investing is an art form.
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I think measuring our performance is also an
art form.
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A lot of it is qualitative, although there are
quantitative KPIs that can be taken into
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00:22:51,994 --> 00:22:58,849
account such as, you know, deal, number of
deals, number of investments, the value
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00:22:59,569 --> 00:23:02,049
increase of the portfolio company.
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00:23:03,089 --> 00:23:09,954
And but, you know, be be given that we are a
strategic investor, much of it is qualitative.
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So number of partnerships, joint
collaborations, POCs, joint research papers,
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and so on and so forth.
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00:23:21,150 --> 00:23:29,230
So, it's a it's a holistic, evaluation that we,
do on ourselves.
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It's an art, not a science.
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Yeah.
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I hear you loud and clear.
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Okay.
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Last couple of questions before we run out of
time.
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Just wanted to understand if we're looking out
over the next few years, are you excited about
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defense tech?
294
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Are you excited are you excited about robotics,
humanoids, or any of those areas?
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Are there other areas that seems to be a lot of
corporate interest in those areas?
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What you and I have mostly talked about today
is obviously the data center and AI
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infrastructure.
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Is there anything else when we think about SK
Hynix that we should be thinking about by
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industry sector that you're really excited
about?
300
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Mhmm.
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00:24:03,825 --> 00:24:11,505
So I represent SK Hynix, and we're focused on
the semiconductors and AI data center space.
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At the SK group level, we are open to all sorts
of technologies and industries.
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And I think for me personally, I am curious to
see how AI will impact our society and how it
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will also help me improve as an individual in
the coming years.
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And at the same time, I'm also concerned about,
you know, how the society will evolve as, there
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is concentration of, AI based power.
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Very helpful.
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Well, on behalf of the team at CIBC and the
Kaufman fellows, thanks to Renee Doe for
309
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spending a little bit of time with us.
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Really appreciate you today.
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And thank you very much for having me.
