SK Hyper’s first 5GW of planned AI data centres in South Korea would cost US$350 billion including equipment, its chief executive Chung Suk-geun said in a Bloomberg Television interview on 23 October, as the company seeks partners to finance a wider 15GW buildout, Bloomberg reported. SK Hyper, established in July as a unit of SK Telecom, is in discussions with technology companies and financial investors about the project.
Key points
- The first 5GW phase would require US$350 billion, including equipment, Chung said.
- SK Hyper aims to raise its first external capital by the end of 2026 or early 2027.
- The company plans to share costs with data centre customers and outside investors.
- Its plans include a 900MW project in Ulsan and a previously announced 100MW project for Amazon Web Services.
SK Hyper seeks its first external capital
Chung said SK Hyper aims to secure its first round of outside capital by the end of 2026 or early 2027, with further fundraising over the following three to four years. The company intends to share the overall cost with tenants and external investors. The US$350 billion figure covers the initial phase, rather than the full 15GW plan.
SK Telecom plans to invest 750 billion won (US$567 million) in SK Hyper by 2030. That planned investment sits alongside the search for external finance. Chung said construction and investment would be paced against actual demand instead of committing the entire programme’s capital at once.
The financing drive comes amid investor concern that spending on AI services may not support the scale of computing infrastructure under development, Bloomberg reported. Chung identified securing global customers and raising construction capital as the project’s main challenges, Seoul Economic Daily reported. SK Hyper plans to adjust its investment plans as it checks demand with large technology companies.
Ulsan projects anchor the capacity plan
SK Hyper is developing a 900MW project in Ulsan, a southern industrial city, alongside a previously announced 100MW project for Amazon Web Services. Chung said the company was also discussing additional sites with the government. Seoul Economic Daily reported plans for a cluster of more than 2GW in the Yeongnam region, beginning with Ulsan, and further facilities in the Chungcheong and southwestern regions.
The customer search extends beyond South Korea. Chung put the country’s existing data centre market at about 1GW, according to Seoul Economic Daily. SK Hyper wants to serve demand elsewhere in Asia, including Japan and Taiwan, alongside domestic AI customers.
Chung said SK Hyper was talking with global hyperscalers about locating AI inference hubs in South Korea. It also wants to attract computing infrastructure for training AI models. Those plans depend on drawing customers from outside a domestic market Chung described as smaller than the capacity SK Hyper intends to develop in its first phase.
Chung says revenue could start in 2027
Chung said SK Hyper could begin generating revenue as early as 2027, before the planned completion of its initial data centres in 2029. The company is also exploring a combined offering of computing capacity and AI models for governments in Asia and the Middle East, Bloomberg reported.
Chung said SK Group affiliates’ work in semiconductors, energy and telecommunications could help improve computing efficiency and offset relatively high electricity costs. Chung said the cost of producing AI output had become more important than solely securing graphics processors.
For the initial 5GW, Chung said he did not expect major difficulty securing power and sites. He identified global demand and the capital needed to build the centres as the harder tasks. SK Hyper plans to begin phased operations in 2029 and expand to 15GW by 2035 depending on demand from global customers.
