• SK Telecom reported Q2 AIDC revenue of KRW136.2bn, up 92.5% year on year, while consolidated revenue reached KRW4.3591tn
  • SK Hyper is responsible for securing sites, building and operating substations and acquiring customers for phased 5GW openings from 2029

The fact

SK Telecom reported consolidated revenue of KRW4.3591tn for the second quarter of 2026. Revenue from its artificial intelligence data centre (AIDC) business reached KRW136.2bn, up 92.5% from a year earlier. The company described AIDC as its fastest-growing business segment and said the increase was driven by expanded operations.

In July, SK Telecom established SK Hyper, a wholly owned company dedicated to AIDC development, and approved KRW750bn of investment through 2030. SK Hyper is responsible for securing sites, building and operating substations and acquiring customers. SK Telecom plans to bring AIDCs online in phases from 2029, targeting a combined 5GW initially before expanding towards 15GW by 2035. It has identified Ulsan, Chungcheong and Honam as regions for GW-scale developments.

The assessment

SK Hyper changes who is responsible for turning SK Telecom’s capacity target into projects that can be built. Site acquisition, substation development and customer acquisition now sit with one dedicated company. Those tasks have to move forward before planned capacity can progress towards construction and operation.

The Q2 revenue and the 5GW target therefore describe different stages of the business. The KRW136.2bn is revenue from existing AIDC operations, while 5GW is planned future capacity. SK Telecom has approved KRW750bn through 2030 for SK Hyper, but its disclosures do not set out the full capital required for the 5GW target or how that capacity will be divided among individual projects.

For BTW readers, SK Hyper now carries the early development work behind SK Telecom’s 5GW plan. The target becomes more concrete as the company secures specific sites, advances substations and attaches customers to individual projects.

What to watch

The next milestones are specific project sites, power and substation arrangements, customer commitments, funding and construction dates. SK Telecom says phased openings towards its 5GW target will begin from 2029. For the existing AIDC business, future revenue, operating-capacity and utilisation figures would show how the current business is growing while SK Hyper develops the expansion plan.