$200 Million Investment in SGH
Collaboration for AI Infrastructure Business
Overseas Expansion through AI Competitiveness
SK Telecom, aiming to become an artificial intelligence (AI) company, has made a large-scale investment in the AI infrastructure sector. It has made a bold investment of $200 million (approximately 280 billion KRW) in SGH (Smart Global Holdings), a U.S.-based AI data center integration solutions company. The strategy is to establish a foundation for securing leadership in the AI infrastructure business through cooperation between the two companies.
On the 16th, SKT announced that it signed a convertible preferred stock investment agreement worth $200 million with SGH and plans to secure about a 10% stake through future conversion to common stock. This is the largest investment by SKT in AI since last year. Additionally, through this agreement, both companies have decided to pursue cooperation in the AI infrastructure business sector.
Headquartered in Silicon Valley, USA, SGH is a specialized AI data center integration solutions company that designs, builds, and operates AI clusters composed of large-scale graphics processing unit (GPU) servers. It is recognized as one of the few companies worldwide that have built large-scale AI clusters. Last year, it built Meta’s 'Research Super Cluster' with 16,000 GPUs. Recently, it was selected as the operator of a 24,000 GPU-scale AI cluster for Voltage Park, a next-generation GPU cloud service provider in the U.S., further proving its AI data center solution capabilities. Currently, the cumulative number of GPUs deployed reaches 75,000.
In South Korea, there is currently no company capable of building large-scale AI clusters like SGH. With this investment, SKT has secured a strong ally for entering the global AI data center market.
In Los Altos, California, USA, SKT CEO Yu Sang-young (left) and CEO Mark Adams (right) are signing an investment contract and taking a commemorative photo. [Photo by SKT]
The two companies plan to further specify their cooperation across the entire AI infrastructure business area, including AI data centers, edge AI, and future memory solutions, by signing additional partnership agreements this year.
SKT, actively pursuing entry into domestic and international AI data center markets, expects synergy effects to multiply when SGH’s AI cluster construction and operation capabilities are combined with SKT’s data center management systems and immersion cooling solutions. They also plan to jointly develop telecommunications company-specialized edge AI solutions by integrating communication infrastructure and AI into industrial specialized edge solutions.
SKT intends to actively explore overseas markets by confirming market demand together with members of the 'Global Telco AI Alliance.' The Global Telco AI Alliance includes SKT, Deutsche Telekom, e& Group, Singtel Group, SoftBank, and others. The alliance members operate in countries across Asia, Europe, and the United States, collectively serving 1.3 billion subscribers worldwide.
Since last year, SKT has invested in various AI fields including semiconductors, infrastructure, and services. It has made strategic investments in global AI innovation companies such as Anthropic, a U.S. generative AI company ($100 million), Lambda, a GPU as a Service company ($20 million), Perplexity, a generative AI search engine startup ($10 million), and SGH, an AI data center integration solutions company ($200 million).
Mark Adams, CEO of SGH, said, "We look forward to strategic cooperation with SKT in the AI data center solutions area, which will create new value for stakeholders." SKT CEO Yoo Young-sang stated, "This investment and cooperation is an opportunity to solidify competitiveness in the AI infrastructure value chain. In the era of AI transformation, we will continue proactive investments and collaborations to secure global-level leadership in the AI infrastructure business."
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