SK Telecom Accelerates Expansion of Its AI Data Center Initiative

SK Telecom announced that it is evolving into a comprehensive artificial intelligence data center developer and entering the global market. Jung Jaihun, the newly appointed CEO of SK Telecom, unveiled the company’s vision during his keynote speech at the SK AI Summit 2025.

Establishing major AIDC hubs in key regions of Korea with energy-specialized solutions for expansion into Asia

SK Telecom plans to build additional global partnerships and make further investments in its Ulsan AIDC, expanding it to a 1 GW-scale capacity. The company aims to replicate this model by establishing additional AIDCs, encouraging global capital investment in Korea, and positioning the country as Asia’s biggest AI hub.

In October 2025, SK Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a strategic partnership for building an AIDC in the southwestern region of Korea.

With this, SK Telecom secures AIDC hubs across three major regions of Korea: the Seoul metropolitan area (Gasan), the southern region (Ulsan) and the southwest region. This accelerates the establishment of key AI infrastructure nationwide.

“Following the unveiling of the Ulsan AIDC, global enterprises have begun to take notice of SK Telecom’s AIDC development capabilities,” CEO Jung said. “We are laying the foundation for South Korea to become Asia’s AI infrastructure hub.”

Additionally, Jung revealed plans to enter the Southeast Asian market by leveraging energy-specialized AIDC solutions alongside SK Group affiliates.

For instance, in collaboration with SK Innovation, SK Telecom plans to build an AIDC in Vietnam that ensures a stable power supply through a liquefied natural gas power plant and utilizes cold energy for data center cooling systems.

“As AI services expand, the network infrastructure that telecom companies have built is being re-evaluated,” CEO Jung said. “Utilizing nationwide telecom infrastructure, telecom companies can uniquely bridge the gap between AIDC and on-device AI through Edge AI1 and intelligent telecom technologies like AI-RAN.”

To accelerate the implementation of Edge AI, SK Telecom has established a medium-to-long-term R&D partnership with Amazon Web Service, combining SK Telecom’s expertise in Korea’s AI infrastructure with AWS’s global cloud technology capabilities.

Furthermore, in collaboration with NVIDIA and partners from the government and academia, SK Telecom aims to demonstrate AI-RAN technology, which involves intelligent network embedded with AI from their design phases. AI-RAN is expected to serve as critical infrastructure for Physical AI and bolster Korea’s manufacturing competitiveness.

SK Telecom also plans to acquire more than 2,000 NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPUs to build a Manufacturing AI Cloud.

Jung highlighted that the Manufacturing AI Cloud will be utilized for AI transformation in SK Group’s key manufacturing arms, such as SK hynix, serving as core infrastructure for innovations like digital twins2 and robotics AI in manufacturing facilities.

“SK Telecom is committed to expanding its role in the AIDC business and evolving into a comprehensive AIDC developer overseeing the entire AIDC project — including design, construction and operation,” CEO Jung said.

SK Telecom plans to commercialize an AIDC solution package, streamlining and speeding up AIDC construction by internalizing four key AI infrastructure technologies in collaboration with global leaders. These include:

1. Out-rack solution: Managing external server facilities such as cooling, power and security

2. Clustering solution: Optimizing server interconnection

3. In-rack solution: Enhancing server-level efficiency

4. Energy solution: Increasing efficiency in power and thermal management

Over the past year, SK Telecom has laid the foundation for its evolution into a comprehensive AIDC developer by achieving key milestones such as signing an MoU with AWS for the SK AIDC in Ulsan, establishing Korea’s largest GPU cluster, ‘Haein,’ and being selected by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) for the Proprietary AI Foundation Model Project.

“AI infrastructure is a core driver of both corporate and national competitiveness,” CEO Jung said. “As Korea’s leading AI company, SK Telecom will work hand in hand with the government to achieve Global Top 3 status in AI.”

Source: SK Telecom media announcement