SEOGWIPO, Jeju Island — SK Group and Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Chairman Chey Tae-won warned Friday that Nvidia may lose its dominant position in a couple of years’ time, if the artificial intelligence (AI) technology industry fails to guarantee enough profitability.

Comparing the recent enthusiasm toward AI to the gold rush, the head of Korea’s major chipmaker and the largest business lobby anticipated that the U.S. firm would maintain its lead at least over the next three years, just as the sellers of pickaxes and jeans did during the mass migration of miners to the west of North America in the 19th century.

“When there was no more gold, the sellers became unable to sell pickaxes,” Chey said during a talk with Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon and Chong Song, head of KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI, during the 47th KCCI Jeju Forum.

“Without making money, the AI boom could vanish, just as the gold rush disappeared.”

The SK chairman noted that Microsoft, Google and Amazon, all of which produce their own chips, may stop using Nvidia’s products after weighing the benefits against the costs.

“If AMD, Arm and other competitors of Nvidia sell high-quality chips for lower prices, Nvidia’s business model may fall apart,” he said.

His remarks came a few weeks after he traveled to the U.S. to meet the CEOs of Amazon, Intel, Microsoft and Open AI. In April, he also met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

“U.S. Big Tech showed demand for AI data centers equipped with our semiconductors and energy solutions,” Chey said. “Although it is impossible for 커뮤니티 to supply all components for AI data centers, we are still tasked with building more efficient AI data centers by using our technologies and materials.”