South Korea’s SK Telecom invests 750 billion won in AI infrastructure to establish SK Hyper, boosting its large-scale AIDC strategy

Odaily reports that South Korea's SK Telecom (SKT) has announced the establishment of a new artificial intelligence data center (AIDC) specialty company called "SK Hyper," with plans to invest a total of 750 billion KRW to drive the large-scale expansion of AI data center operations. The market believes this move is likely to strengthen the company’s competitiveness in AI infrastructure and bring new growth expectations for its stock price.

SK Telecom will initially invest 330 billion KRW and plans to have invested a cumulative total of 750 billion KRW by December 2030, retaining 100% ownership of the company. This organizational adjustment aims to accelerate the execution of SK Telecom’s mid- and long-term major AIDC construction plans. The newly established SK Hyper will be responsible for the development and commercialization of future large AI data center projects, including preliminary work such as site selection, securing power infrastructure, and establishing commercial partnerships with customers.

In terms of business division, SK Telecom’s existing 137MW data center assets, as well as the 100MW Ulsan AIDC project scheduled for full operation in 2029, will continue to be operated by SK Broadband. However, the new 900MW Ulsan AIDC project and the super data center project targeted to reach 15GW in scale over the long term will be led and advanced by SK Hyper.

SK Hyper will adopt a "development-led" business model instead of the traditional direct ownership of data center assets. The company will preemptively secure key resources such as land and power grids and, through project special purpose companies (SPCs), will be responsible for the construction, ownership, and operation of the data centers.

This model is expected to reduce the financial burden caused by large-scale capital investment. SK Hyper plans to introduce external funding through financial investor (FI) equity investment and project financing (PF), transferring construction costs, capital expenditures, and depreciation pressure to project companies, while generating revenue through development service fees and profit sharing from operations.

Analysts believe that the market previously questioned the feasibility of the tens of trillions of KRW needed by SK Telecom to build AIDC projects exceeding 5GW, and the establishment of this dedicated entity offers a more realistic path for expansion. Combined with the Korean government's support for power supply and approval processes, and SK Group’s subsidiary SK Hynix’s advantage in memory chip supply, the speed of project development and commercialization potential for AIDC are expected to increase.

iM Securities researcher Shin Hee-chul stated that the SK Hyper model, by focusing on early-stage development and utilizing external capital for construction and operations, can minimize SK Telecom’s financial burden while balancing the speed of AI data center expansion with profitability potential. (Ket)