SK Hyper Secures Management to Drive AI Data Center Business; Targeting 15GW by 2035

SK Telecom is hitting the gas. Having completed the management roster for its dedicated AI data center subsidiary, 'SK Hyper,' the company is fully launching its efforts to build a massive AI center complex with a capacity of 15 gigawatts (GW) by 2035.

Centering around CEO Jung Seok-geun, SK Hyper has completed its internal ecosystem covering business development and fundraising by recruiting key personnel including SK Broadband data center experts CSO Cho Jeong-min and CTO Lee Dong-gi, along with CFO Yu Jae-ho, who brings investment and M&A experience.

SK Telecom's equity investment will be limited to 750 billion won by 2030. Considering that building 1GW requires tens of trillions of won, securing large-scale external capital through financial investor (FI) attraction and project financing (PF) has emerged as the critical variable for success.

To minimize burden, SK Telecom is pursuing a 'demand-first, build-later' strategy that prioritizes securing customers. CEO Jung stated, "We are already conducting various discussions regarding AI DCs with global Big Tech firms," signaling that the company intends to leverage actual contracts with these firms as a link for fundraising.

SK Hyper plans to establish the technical foundation necessary for building ultra-large AIDCs by combining the group's power and construction capabilities, data center construction and operation experience, and state-of-the-art AI infrastructure technologies such as GPU clusters. SK Hyper plans to first secure 5GW by 2029 as initially scheduled, then gradually scale up to achieve the 15GW target by 2035.