The announcement was made by CEO Jung Jaihun during his keynote speech at the SK AI Summit 2025, where he outlined the company’s strategy for global market entry and technology leadership.
The company’s flagship Ulsan AIDC will be expanded to a 1GW-scale capacity, supported by energy-specialised solutions designed for scalability across Asia. This expansion follows an October 2025 MoU between SK Group and key partners to establish a strategic AIDC in Korea’s southwestern region.
With the addition of these projects, SK Telecom will operate AIDC hubs across three major regions, Gasan (Seoul metropolitan area), Ulsan (southern region) and the southwest region, creating a nationwide foundation for next-generation AI infrastructure.
“Following the unveiling of the Ulsan AIDC, global enterprises have begun to take notice of SK Telecom’s AIDC development capabilities,” said Jung. “We are laying the foundation for South Korea to become Asia’s AI infrastructure hub.”
The operator also revealed plans to expand into Southeast Asia, starting with Vietnam, in collaboration with SK Innovation. The Vietnamese AIDC project will integrate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plant to ensure energy stability and use cold energy for efficient data centre cooling.
Driving innovation through AWS and Nvidia collaborations
“As AI services expand, the network infrastructure that telecom companies have built is being re-evaluated,” Jung said. “Utilising nationwide telecom infrastructure, telecom companies can uniquely bridge the gap between AIDC and on-device AI through Edge AI and intelligent telecom technologies like AI-RAN.”
To advance these capabilities, SK Telecom has established a medium-to-long-term R&D partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), combining its domestic AI infrastructure with AWS’s global cloud technology.
In parallel, SK Telecom is collaborating with Nvidia, government agencies and academic partners to demonstrate AI-RAN, a network architecture embedding AI from its design phase. This innovation aims to support Physical AI applications and enhance Korea’s manufacturing competitiveness.
The company also plans to deploy more than 2,000 Nvidia RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPUs to power its Manufacturing AI Cloud, which will serve key SK Group subsidiaries such as SK hynix, enabling digital twins and robotics-driven factory automation.
Becoming a full-scale AIDC developer
“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,” Jung said.
To accelerate deployment, SK Telecom will commercialise an AIDC solution package that integrates four core infrastructure technologies:
- Out-rack solutions for external facility management;
- Clustering solutions for server interconnection;
- In-rack solutions for server efficiency; and
- Energy solutions optimising power and cooling performance.
The company’s progress builds on a series of milestones, including an MoU with AWS for the Ulsan AIDC, the launch of Korea’s largest GPU cluster ‘Haein,’ and selection 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,” Jung concluded. “As Korea’s leading AI company, SK Telecom will work hand in hand with the government to achieve Global Top 3 status in AI.”
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