SEOUL: SK Telecom Co., the telecommunications arm of SK Group, plans to transform South Korea into a central hub for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in the Asia-Pacific region, as announced by its CEO, Ryu Young-sang, on Monday. The ambitious project, termed the “AI infrastructure superhighway,” aims to integrate comprehensive AI infrastructure, including AI data centers, graphic processing units as a service (GPUaaS), and edge AI.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Ryu shared the company’s vision at the SK AI Summit 2024, an annual technology conference organized by SK Group. The strategy involves constructing a hyperscale AI data center in South Korea with an initial electricity capacity exceeding 100 megawatts, with plans to eventually expand this to a gigawatt level. Such a facility is expected to attract investments of at least 50 trillion won (approximately US$36.5 billion) and generate over 550,000 jobs, yielding an economic impact of more than 175 trillion won.

The first phase of this projec
t is set to launch next month in Pangyo, located just south of Seoul, with a testbed for the AI data center. This facility will feature advanced chips developed by Nvidia Corp. and cutting-edge AI chip and data center technologies. Additionally, SK Telecom intends to convert its existing data center in western Seoul into an AI data center, offering GPUaaS in partnership with global cloud provider Lambda starting this December.

Ryu further elaborated on SK Telecom’s intentions to invest 100 billion won in developing a sovereign AI tailored specifically to the Korean market, beginning next year. The company will also focus on advancing edge AI technology, which combines telecommunications networks with AI computing, as part of its efforts to implement AI infrastructure on the upcoming sixth-generation network.