[THE INVESTOR] SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won plans to visit Japan next week as the group’s chip-making arm SK hynix has joined the race to take over the memory division of Japanese tech giant Toshiba, industry sources said on April 21.

During his stay in Japan, Chey plans to meet executives of Toshiba to explain SK Group’s vision on the chip industry, according to the sources. 

Chey Tae-won, SK Group Chairman.

Toshiba has put its entire stake in its memory operations up for sale as it struggles with losses from its nuclear power business in the US. The Japanese firm initially only intended to sell around a 20 percent stake.

Toshiba is the world’s second-largest maker of NAND flash memory chips, mainly used in smartphones and other mobile devices. The chip is used to store data even when devices’ power goes off.

SK hynix has been moving to bolster its NAND flash memory operations. If it wins the deal, the company will become the No. 2 player worldwide.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)