SKT "Building Korean-style AI Data Center Solutions"... Partnership Agreement with US Company

SKT, SK Hynix, and Penguin Solutions Pledge Cooperation on AI Data Center R&D
CEO Yoo Discusses AI Business Collaboration Plans

SK Telecom announced on the 10th that it has signed a cooperation agreement with SK Hynix and Penguin Solutions to jointly research and develop (R&D) artificial intelligence (AI) data center solutions.

SKT, SK Hynix, and Penguin Solutions are taking a commemorative photo after signing a cooperation agreement on the 9th (local time) in Las Vegas, USA, where CES 2025 is being held. From the left in the photo are Kim Juseon, President of AI Infrastructure at SK Hynix; Mark Adams, CEO of Penguin Solutions; and Yoo Youngsang, CEO of SKT. Photo by SKT

The signing ceremony took place the previous day in Las Vegas, USA, with the attendance of Yoo Young-sang, CEO of SKT, Kim Joo-sun, President of AI Infrastructure at SK Hynix, Mark Adams, CEO of Penguin Solutions, and other representatives from each company.

Penguin Solutions is a US-based integrated AI data center solutions company. In July, SKT signed a $200 million investment contract with Penguin Solutions, the largest AI investment to date, and formed a synergy task force to discuss specific mutual cooperation matters.

Through this agreement, the three companies will collaborate in three major areas: ▲global expansion of AI data centers ▲joint R&D and commercialization of solutions ▲development of specialized next-generation memory appliances.

First, the three companies will seek business opportunities in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, including Japan, and the Middle East for global expansion. For joint R&D and commercialization of solutions, they will complete a full software stack necessary for building and operating AI data centers and promote server demonstration and commercialization using Rebellion neural processing unit (NPU) chips.

SK Hynix and Penguin Solutions will jointly develop next-generation data center memory technology to further enhance SK Hynix’s differentiated HBM competitiveness.

SKT stated, "Through this cooperation, the three companies plan to combine various AI data center solutions owned by SK Group, including semiconductors, energy, cooling, and memory, to discover a 'Korean-style sovereign AI infrastructure business model.' This will lay the foundation for creating the world’s most economical and efficient AI data centers."

Additionally, CEO Yoo Young-sang and key executives visited CES 2025, the world’s largest home appliance and IT exhibition, to discuss AI business cooperation plans with companies such as Anthropic, Perplexity, and Supermicro.

With Anthropic, they discussed improvements to and expansion of the application scope of the telecommunications carrier-exclusive large language model (LLM) jointly developed last year and applied to SKT’s customer center. They also explored the possibility of entering major markets with SKT’s global personal AI agents utilizing Anthropic’s Claude and other technologies.

Furthermore, CEO Yoo visited global company exhibition halls such as Samsung Electronics and Panasonic to directly observe the innovations AI technology is bringing across industries.

CEO Yoo said, "Through this CES, we have demonstrated the global competitiveness of SK’s AI services, AI infrastructure, and AI semiconductors to the world. We will achieve meaningful results in AI, the core growth engine, through active cooperation with various global partners."