SK, HD Hyundai bolster ties with TerraPower on advanced nuclear projects

South Korea and the US are deepening their strategic nuclear partnership as Korean industrial leaders, including SK Group and HD Hyundai, expand their presence in the fast-growing small modular reactor (SMR) market.

On Friday, Korean Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan met with Bill Gates, founder and chairman of TerraPower, who visited Seoul for the first time since last August. The two discussed ways to integrate Korean suppliers into the US nuclear developer’s global SMR supply chain.

SK Group and HD Hyundai have had collaborative ties with TerraPower for years. While SK became TerraPower’s second-largest shareholder with a $250 million investment in 2022, HD Hyundai invested $30 million in the same year, followed by an agreement in May to supply sodium-cooled reactors.

In addition, other Korean firms such as Doosan Enerbility are participating or bidding for equipment manufacturing, construction and operational roles in TerraPower’s domestic and global projects.

TerraPower is building its Natrium reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming, targeting commercial operation by 2031. The Natrium system integrates a molten-salt energy storage system with a sodium-cooled fast reactor to enhance both safety and power flexibility compared with traditional reactors that use high-pressure water systems.

During the meeting, Minister Kim emphasized that the execution capabilities of Korean companies — including their ability to deliver projects on time and within budget — will be critical to supporting TerraPower’s leading position in the SMR market.

“To lower costs and standardize SMR deployment worldwide, combining TerraPower’s standardized reactor design with Korea’s highly reliable mass-manufacturing supply chain is essential,” Kim noted. "With over 50 years of experience building and operating nuclear facilities, Korea has established a ‘foundry-grade’ manufacturing and construction ecosystem, making it the ideal partner for TerraPower.”

The Minister urged TerraPower to leverage Korea’s advanced manufacturing resources — including both major conglomerates and highly specialized small-to-medium suppliers — as a key global production base and supply chains.

After the meeting, SK Innovation and TerraPower signed a heads of agreement to establish key terms for joint business opportunities, attended by Minister Kim, Gates and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won.

The agreement focuses on expanding SK Innovation’s role in TerraPower’s US SMR projects, leveraging Korea’s supply chains, developing a Korean Natrium SMR market and exploring business opportunities in global markets.

The high-level meeting, where Chey and Gates met again after a year, signals that SK Innovation’s role is expanding from a major equity investor into a direct operational developer.

Under the deal, SK Innovation will deepen its involvement in TerraPower’s Kemmerer Unit 1 project in Wyoming as well as subsequent commercial projects. The partnership will leverage Korea’s manufacturing, design and supply chains to jointly pursue SMR opportunities across the US and key Asian markets, including Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Chey and Gates also met for a high-level dinner later in the day to discuss strategies for capturing the surging electricity demand for AI data centers, advancing next-generation nuclear technology and fostering broader US-Korea nuclear cooperation.

For SK Group, the agreement serves as a major strategic pillar for Chey’s vision of an “AI Full-Stack.” By combining SK Hynix’s AI memory chips, SK Telecom’s data center infrastructure, SK On’s battery energy storage systems and SK Innovation’s liquefied natural gas and SMR capabilities, the conglomerate is creating a comprehensive AI value chain.

Under this strategy, LNG and ESS will handle immediate power demand for AI data centers, while SMRs will eventually provide long-term, zero-carbon electricity.

SK Innovation CEO Choo Hyeong-wook emphasized that the agreement marks a critical step toward evaluating Natrium SMR’s domestic application for the power needs of AI data centers, while securing project development and operational expertise through TerraPower’s US deployments.

Separately, HD Hyundai Chairman Chung Ki-sun met Gates for the first time in seven months to advance their ongoing cooperation on the Natrium reactor project.

HD Hyundai said TerraPower CEO Chris Levesque and Hyundai E&C CEO Lee Han-woo also attended the meeting, marking the first gathering of all three companies’ chief executives since they signed a memorandum of understanding in May.

During the meeting, the executives reviewed progress on their joint initiatives and held in-depth discussions on strategies to commercialize onshore reactors.

To prepare for commercial-scale deployment, HD Hyundai plans to accelerate investments in its production facilities, targeting an annual supply capacity of two to three reactor vessels.

The strategy focuses heavily on the US, the world’s largest nuclear energy market with approximately 95 gigawatts of generating capacity, roughly 25 percent of global output. With many of the US' nuclear plants dating back to the 1970s and facing aging infrastructure, replacement demand is expected to climb sharply, alongside a rapid surge in electricity demand from AI data centers.

In May, HD Hyundai was designated as the preferred bidder to manufacture and supply core equipment for TerraPower’s main Natrium reactor system.

The three partners agreed to accelerate the commercial rollout of the Natrium reactor, with TerraPower supplying the technology and reactor designs, HD Hyundai manufacturing key equipment, and Hyundai E&C leading engineering, procurement and construction.