By Ju-min Park

GYEONGJU, South Korea, (Reuters) -The explosive growth in artificial intelligence data centres is creating "bottlenecks" for chips and other key supplies, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said on Tuesday.

"I believe these rapid developments and changes are ultimately leading to bottlenecks around the world," said Chey, who heads the large South Korean conglomerate that includes memory chipmaker SK Hynix and leads the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"Now, a lot of AI data centres need to be built, and for everything that goes into them, from chips to services, they are creating bottlenecks, I think," Chey said at a business side-event for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit this week in South Korea.

Chey said global competition over AI was so intense that major economies such as the U.S. and China had released national AI strategies to take the lead.

Chey and other global business leaders are gathering in the ancient South Korean town of Gyeongju for APEC events ahead of the arrival of U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.