본문 바로가기
bar_progress

Text Size

Close

SK Telecom Q1 Operating Profit 498.5 Billion Won... "Will Deliver AI Results" (Comprehensive)

Sales up 2.3%, Operating Profit up 0.8%
"Focusing on Achieving Results in 3 Major AI Areas"
Telco LLM Development and Commercialization 추진

SK Telecom announced on the 8th that it recorded consolidated sales of 4.4746 trillion KRW and an operating profit of 498.5 billion KRW in the first quarter of this year. Sales increased by 2.3% compared to the same period last year, and operating profit rose by 0.8%. Net profit for the period was 361.9 billion KRW, up 19.6% due to an increase in non-operating income related to investment assets.

SK Telecom Q1 Operating Profit 498.5 Billion Won... "Will Deliver AI Results" (Comprehensive) Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK (center), SKT President Yoo Young-sang (second from right), and attendees are holding a founding general meeting to develop a telecommunications company-specialized large language model (LLM) at the world's largest mobile communication exhibition, Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024, and taking a commemorative photo.
[Photo by Joint Press Corps]

SKT is attempting to leap forward as a global artificial intelligence (AI) company. It announced that it will focus on generating results in three core areas: AI infrastructure, AI transformation, and AI services. In the first quarter of this year, the data center business in the AI infrastructure sector recorded a 26% sales growth compared to the same period last year, driven by a continuous increase in utilization rates. The company plans to further develop the AI data center business, which is experiencing steadily growing demand.


Regarding the development of the telecom-specialized AI model, the 'Telco Large Language Model (LLM),' SKT plans to complete the Korean version next month and push for commercialization. The Telco LLM will be applied to customer-facing tasks such as customer centers, infrastructure operations, marketing and distribution networks, as well as internal tasks including legal affairs and HR.


Meanwhile, in the telecommunications business, as of the end of the first quarter this year, SKT secured 15.93 million 5G subscribers, 9.59 million paid broadcasting subscribers, and 6.99 million high-speed internet subscribers, leading to net growth in both wired and wireless subscribers.

SK Telecom Q1 Operating Profit 498.5 Billion Won... "Will Deliver AI Results" (Comprehensive) Yu Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom, is speaking at the CEO press briefing during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024. Photo by Joint Press Corps

Enterprise business sales grew approximately 10% compared to the same period last year. In particular, cloud business sales increased by about 40% year-on-year, driving overall enterprise growth. In the enterprise AI sector, SKT plans to continuously discover innovative products such as the recently launched AI simultaneous interpretation solution ‘Transtalker’ and nurture them as the core of its B2B business.


The subscription service T Universe surpassed 2.6 million monthly active users as of the end of the first quarter. SKT plans to develop T Universe into a 'subscription market' during the first half of the year and expand its partnership scope.


Meanwhile, SKT recently announced a shareholder return policy for the three years from this year to 2026, stating that it will return more than 50% of the adjusted consolidated net profit to shareholders. A notable feature is the removal of the upper limit on the guideline defining the scope of shareholder return funds and the improvement to base it on consolidated results rather than separate results, thereby sharing subsidiary performance with shareholders. The dividend per share for the first quarter was confirmed at 830 KRW, the same as in the first quarter of last year.


Kim Yang-seop, SKT CFO, said, “We reflected the company’s will in the new shareholder return policy to enable greater shareholder returns depending on the trend of performance improvement. We will further strengthen our solid wired and wireless foundation, focus on improving corporate health such as profitability and efficiency, and achieve corporate value enhancement through concrete AI performance creation.”


© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.

Special Coverage


Join us on social!

Top