November 07, 2024

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SK Telecom headquarters in central Seoul (SK Telecom)

South Korea's leading mobile carrier SK Telecom said Wednesday it will open an artificial intelligence data center based on US tech giant Nvidia’s graphics processing units next month in Seoul, along with an AI data center testbed in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, in the same month.

The announcement came as the company unveiled its AI revenue model identifying three key areas for rapid monetization upon its earnings release for the July-September period: data centers, business-to-business and business-to-consumer services.

The company said the current Gasan data center in Seoul will be transformed into an AI data center, with plans to launch a subscription-based AI cloud service by the end of this year. The service aims to enhance GPU accessibility for domestic companies facing challenges in directly purchasing GPU resources.

In partnership with the US-based GPU cloud company Lambda, SKT will launch GPU-as-a-service based on the Nvidia'sH100 GPUs next month, and it plans to introduce the latest H200 GPUs by March next year, gradually scaling up supply to meet customer demand.

The Pangyo testbed will feature advanced AI components, including Nvidia's latest chips, SK hynix High Bandwidth Memory, three next-generation liquid cooling solutions, GPU virtualization solutions and AI energy optimization technology.

As part of its medium- to long-term strategy, the telecom carrier also decided to establish nationwide AI infrastructure to become a comprehensive AI technology company.

This includes introducing edge AI technology to connected communication base stations nationwide to bridge the gap between AI data centers and on-device AI, creating the AI infrastructure across the country. Edge AI integrates telecommunications networks with AI computing.

SKT’s strategy is to create a nationwide AI infrastructure superhighway by combining regional AI data centers with GPUaaS services in the capital region, accelerating the development of the AI ecosystem.

With the announcement, SKT reported that its third-quarter operating profit increased 7.1 percent on-year to 533.3 billion won ($381.5 million), while sales rose 2.9 percent to 4.53 trillion won.

Both the figures for operating income and sales were slightly higher than the consensus of 531.3 billion won and 4.49 trillion won, respectively, by local analysts provided by market intelligence FnGuide.

Net profit for the July-September period decreased 9.1 percent on-year to 280.2 billion won due to an increase in investment in a partner firm.

Its AI Assistant Service A. saw the number of subscribers increase by 1 million in just three months to 5.6 million as of September.

The number of fifth-generation communications network subscriptions came to 16.6 million over the cited period, up from 15 million a year earlier.

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)