A South Korean court has ordered Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, to pay his former wife Roh Soh-yeong 944bn won (£483m; $644m) in a divorce settlement. The high-profile case matters because SK Group is one of South Korea’s most important family-controlled conglomerates, with its chip business playing a prominent role in the global AI boom.

The revised award is lower than the 1.38tn won ordered in 2024, after the Supreme Court ruled that allegedly illegal funds linked to Roh’s late father, former president Roh Tae-woo, could not be included among the couple’s assets. Chey and Roh were married for 35 years, and their relationship broke down after it emerged that he had fathered a child with another woman; the ruling still requires finalisation. SK Group owns SK Hynix, a major Nvidia chip supplier, while the wider group recently raised $26.5bn through a New York share offering.