SK Telecom aims to make S. Korea AI data center hub for Asia-Pacific region: CEO

SK Telecom Co., the telecommunications arm of SK Group, will push to create an artificial intelligence (AI) data center hub for the Asia-Pacific region in South Korea, its chief executive said Monday.

SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang outlined the vision, dubbed the “AI infrastructure superhighway,” centered on creating comprehensive AI infrastructure integrating AI data centers, graphic processing units as a service (GPUaaS) and edge AI.

“SK Telecom is working to build the AI infrastructure superhighway to help South Korea make a leap and become one of three global leaders in AI,” Ryu said at an annual technology conference hosted by the SK Group, named SK AI Summit 2024 this year.

Under the plan, the mobile carrier will build a hyperscale AI data center with an electricity capacity of over 100 megawatts in the country and later expand the capacity to a gigawatt level.

A gigawatt-level data center can attract at least 50 trillion won (US$36.5 billion) worth of new investments, and create more than 550,000 jobs and an economic effect worth more than 175 trillion won, the company explained.

A testbed for the AI data center will first open in Pangyo, just south of Seoul, next month and will be equipped with the latest chips developed by Nvidia Corp., and cutting-edge technologies related to AI chips and data centers.

The Korean company also plans to transform its data center in western Seoul into an AI data center and provide GPUaaS in cooperation with global cloud provider Lambda starting in December.

Ryu also said SK Telecom will invest a combined 100 billion won into developing a sovereign AI tailored to the needs of the Korean market starting next year.

SK Telecom will also work to develop edge AI technology, which refers to a technology integrating telecommunications networks and AI computing, as part of efforts to apply the AI infrastructure on the sixth-generation network, he added.