In a high-stakes saga dubbed South Korea’s "divorce of the century," the Seoul High Court ordered billionaire SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to pay his former spouse, Roh Soh-yeong, 944 billion won (approximately 4 million). The ruling effectively denied her attempt to capture a massive windfall created by the global artificial intelligence boom.Who Are the Figures at the Center of the Dispute?The legal battle involves two prominent South Korean figures: Chey Tae-won, the chairman of SK Group—a powerhouse conglomerate that oversees memory chip giant SK Hynix—and Roh Soh-yeong, a digital art museum director and daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo. The couple tied the knot in 1988 at the presidential Blue House in a lavish ceremony celebrated across the nation as the "wedding of the century". However, the union collapsed publicly in 2015 when Chey sent a letter to national media admitting to having a child out of wedlock and expressing his desire to separate, setting off years of contentious legal fights.What Sparked the Battle Over AI Profits?The center of the financial tug-of-war shifted dramatically as SK Hynix emerged as a pivotal player in the artificial intelligence landscape. As a crucial supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips to tech giants like Nvidia, the valuation of SK Group surged dramatically. Roh argued in court that the division of marital property should reflect the company's inflated market capitalization in 2026, which would have entitled her to billions of dollars. She claimed that her father’s political influence and financial backing decades ago laid the groundwork for SK Group’s historical growth, justifying her claim to the company's current valuation.Why Did the Court Reject the Updated Valuation?The judiciary ruled against applying the current market values to the divorce settlement. The Seoul High Court determined that marital assets must be frozen and evaluated as of the conclusion of the appellate hearings in 2024, before the AI-driven rally drove stock values up multi-fold. Furthermore, a prior Supreme Court directive instructed lower courts not to factor in financial contributions allegedly linked to her late father, ruling those past capital injections legally invalid for property division calculations. The court finalized a one-third to two-thirds division ratio in favor of Chey, capping Roh's payout significantly below her sought amount.How Does the Verdict Impact High-Net-Worth Separations?The decision sets a major precedent for how fast-appreciating digital assets, technology stocks, and boom-driven equity are handled during lengthy matrimonial litigations. By pinning property values to earlier procedural dates, the court established that spouses cannot automatically claim post-separation market surges driven by broader macroeconomic trends. Though the 4 million judgment remains one of the largest cash divorce settlements in Asian history, it ultimately insulates the tech tycoon's enterprise from being partitioned due to market spikes.also read :Volkswagen Profits Drop 10% Amid Massive Job Cuts Threat
