SK Telecom is planning construction of an AI data centre in South Korea with a total planned capacity of up to 15GW.
The project is expected to support growing domestic and global demand for AI compute power as model training and inference requirements rise, as well as establishing South Korea as a central regional hub for AI infrastructure in Asia.
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SK Telecom’s approach is aligned with the South Korean government’s “AI G3” strategy, which targets membership among the world’s top three AI powers alongside China and the US.
The company stated that the project will incorporate considerations for power, site selection, and facility operations, with an eye toward advancing balanced regional development.
This buildout will begin with the existing Ulsan AI data centre. SK Telecom plans to increase its capacity beyond 2GW across the southeastern Gyeongsang region and add 1GW in the southwestern Jeolla region.
The staged roll-out aims to reach 5GW of domestic capacity from 2029 as an initial phase, before ultimately increasing to a 15GW total.
The anticipated investment needed for developing a 1GW-class AI data centre may reach about Won70tn ($45.7bn).
SK Telecom expects to finance these projects through its own investment, in addition to participation from strategic partners, customer contracts, and project financing.
SK Group affiliates will contribute to the effort, with SK Telecom overseeing design, construction, and operations as the project lead.
SK Telecom president and CEO Jung Jai-hun said: “This AI data centre project is aimed at preemptively preparing the computing infrastructure that the global AI ecosystem needs. We will work closely with the government, industry, and local communities to help Korea grow into Asia’s core AI infrastructure hub.”
