SK Telecom is betting big on becoming Asia’s AI infrastructure backbone. The South Korean telecom giant plans to build up to 15 gigawatts of AI data center capacity by 2035, a scale so enormous it rivals the total power consumption of some small nations.
The first phase, targeting 5 GW of capacity, is scheduled to begin operations in 2029.
The Nvidia connection and the money behind it
SK Telecom’s parent company, SK Group, and Nvidia announced a joint AI project on June 7, 2026. The partnership centers on leveraging Nvidia’s DSX platform to construct gigawatt-scale AI cloud infrastructure.
SK Telecom has already spun up a dedicated subsidiary called SK Hyper, established in July 2026, to lead the data center initiative. The company’s board approved an initial investment of KRW 750 billion, roughly $506 million to $510 million, to be deployed by 2030.
