[South Korea's SK Telecom Bets on AI Infrastructure with the Establishment of SK Hyper, Investing 750 Billion KRW in Large-Scale AIDC Expansion] Odaily Planet Daily News – South Korea's SK Telecom (SKT) has announced the establishment of a new company specializing in artificial intelligence data centers (AIDC), named "SK Hyper." The company plans to invest a total of 750 billion KRW to drive the expansion of large-scale AI data center operations. The market believes this move could strengthen the company's competitiveness in AI infrastructure and bring new growth expectations for its stock price. SK Telecom will initially invest 330 billion KRW and plans to cumulatively invest 750 billion KRW by December 2030, holding 100% equity in the company. This organizational adjustment aims to accelerate the execution of SK Telecom's medium- to long-term large-scale AIDC construction plans. The newly established SK Hyper will be responsible for the development and commercialization of future large-scale AI data center projects, including site selection, securing power infrastructure, and early-stage customer business collaborations. In terms of business division, SK Telecom's existing 137MW data center assets, along with the 100MW Ulsan AIDC project expected to be fully operational by 2029, will continue to be managed by SK Broadband. Meanwhile, the new 900MW Ulsan AIDC project and the long-term goal of securing 15GW-scale super data center projects will be led by SK Hyper. SK Hyper will adopt a "development-led" business model rather than the traditional model of directly owning data center assets. The company will secure key resources such as land and power grids in advance and will establish special purpose companies (SPCs) for the construction, ownership, and operation of data centers. This model is expected to reduce the financial pressure associated with large-scale capital investments. SK Hyper plans to bring in external funding through financial investor (FI) equity investments and project financing (PF), transferring construction costs, capital expenditures, and depreciation pressures to the project companies. At the same time, it will generate revenue through development service fees and operational profit-sharing. Analysts believe that the market previously questioned the feasibility of SK Telecom's plan to build large-scale AIDCs exceeding 5GW, which would require tens of trillions of KRW in funding. The establishment of this specialized entity provides a more realistic path for expansion. Coupled with the South Korean government's support for power supply and approval processes, as well as SK Group's SK Hynix's advantages in memory chip supply, the speed of AIDC project advancement and commercialization potential is expected to improve. iM Securities researcher Shin Hee-chul stated that the SK Hyper model, by focusing on early-stage development and leveraging external capital for construction and operations, can minimize SK Telecom's financial burden while balancing the speed of AI data center expansion with profitability potential. (Ket)