SKT Commits to Yeongnam Hyperscale AI Data Centers
South Korea's SK Telecom will invest 140 trillion won ($91.5 billion) to build hyperscale AI data centers across the Yeongnam region, CEO Jung Jai-hun said at a July 3, 2026 briefing with President Lee Jae Myung. The buildout starts with a 100-megawatt facility in Ulsan targeting fourth-quarter 2027 operations, then scales to 5 gigawatts of capacity by 2029 and a longer-term goal of 15 gigawatts nationwide. According to Yonhap, the initial 5-GW phase alone requires roughly 3 million GPUs and 2.4 million HBM units, a scale that signals tightening near-term supply and longer lead times for accelerators and memory. The investment is part of a broader 312 trillion won southeastern Korea package spanning Hanwha, Hyundai, Samsung, and SK, announced the same day.
For ML infrastructure teams, this is a capacity-planning signal as much as a corporate announcement: a single operator committing to 5 gigawatts of AI data-center capacity by 2029, requiring an estimated 3 million GPUs and 2.4 million HBM units for the first phase alone, adds concentrated demand to an already tight global accelerator and memory supply chain. Teams planning multi-year GPU and HBM procurement, or evaluating Asia-Pacific colocation and cloud capacity, should treat Yeongnam's buildout timeline as a new data point in regional supply forecasts.
What happened
SK Telecom will invest 140 trillion won ($91.5 billion) to develop South Korea's southeastern Yeongnam region into an AI hub, CEO Jung Jai-hun announced at a July 3, 2026 briefing in Jinju presided over by President Lee Jae Myung, according to Yonhap and The Korea Times. SKT will start with a 100-megawatt hyperscale AI data center in the port city of Ulsan, targeting operations by the fourth quarter of 2027, then add 900 megawatts plus a further 1 gigawatt elsewhere in the region. The company plans to reach 5 gigawatts of AI data-center capacity by 2029, which Jung called the first step toward a longer-term goal of 15 gigawatts nationwide. Jung said the initial 5-GW phase would require about 2,500,000 square meters of land, roughly 3 million GPUs, about 2.4 million HBM units, and around 350 trillion won in investment. "The massive AI data centers could transform the region into a hub for the verification and expansion of manufacturing AI, when combined with the manufacturing capabilities in the region," Jung said.
Industry context
The SKT plan is one piece of a coordinated 312 trillion won ($201.7 billion) southeastern Korea investment package announced the same day by the finance ministry, with Hanwha (55 trillion won, space and defense data centers), Hyundai Motor (42 trillion won, autonomous-driving and manufacturing AI), and Samsung (60 trillion won, humanoid robots and batteries) unveiling parallel commitments. The government frames this under President Lee Jae Myung's "tripolar mega projects," following similar announcements for southwestern and central Korea earlier in the week, part of a broader push to anchor Korea's chip and AI supply chain around regional manufacturing clusters.
For practitioners
Colocating hyperscale AI capacity next to manufacturing hubs is a pattern worth tracking for on-premise training, simulation, and digital-twin workloads that need low-latency access to industrial data. Procurement and infrastructure teams should factor Yeongnam's GPU and HBM demand into 2027-2029 capacity and cost models, particularly if they depend on Korean fabs such as Samsung and SK hynix for memory supply.
What to watch
Confirmation of financing and land or zoning approvals for the Ulsan facility, SKT's choice of GPU and HBM suppliers for the 5-GW phase, and whether the broader 312 trillion won package attracts the "overseas partners" SK says it is collaborating with on the data center buildout.
Key Points
- 1SK Telecom will invest 140 trillion won ($91.5 billion) to build hyperscale AI data centers across South Korea's Yeongnam region by 2029.
- 2The plan concentrates demand for roughly 3 million GPUs and 2.4 million HBM units, tightening global accelerator and memory supply and lead times.
- 3The announcement is part of a 312 trillion won government-backed package with Hanwha, Hyundai, and Samsung to anchor AI and chip manufacturing regionally.
Scoring Rationale
A verified, government-backed $91.5B single-company commitment to build up to 5GW (targeting 15GW long-term) of AI data-center capacity is a major regional infrastructure signal with direct GPU/HBM supply-chain implications for ML practitioners; corroborated across Yonhap and The Korea Times with a verbatim executive quote, and contextualized within a broader 312 trillion won national investment push.
Sources
Public references used for this report.
Practice with real Telecom & ISP data
90 SQL & Python problems · 15 industry datasets
250 free problems · No credit card
See all Telecom & ISP problems
