South Korea's Biggest Telecom Just Sold Off Its Data Centers to Bankroll an AI Infrastructure Bet Worth $91 Billion

SK Telecom is splitting itself in two — and bringing in outside billions to fund what happens next.

South Korea's largest telecom operator announced this week it's spinning off its data center and submarine cable operations into a standalone company called SK Horizon, backed by KRW 3.08 trillion — roughly $2.2 billion — in fresh equity investment from global investment firm KKR and a consortium of Korean firms, IMM Investment and Stonebridge Capital.

The mechanics of the deal are fairly clean. SK Telecom's existing subsidiary, SK Broadband, will be split into two entities: the original company retains its fixed-line, media, and enterprise operations, while all data center and submarine cable assets get folded into the newly created SK Horizon. Once complete, SK Telecom keeps a controlling 51% stake in the new company, with KKR taking 29% and the IMM-Stonebridge consortium holding the remaining 20%.

SK Horizon isn't starting from scratch, either. The new company inherits eight fully operational data centers across locations including Seocho, Ilsan, Bundang, and Pangyo, representing 318 megawatts of existing capacity, plus additional AI-focused data centers currently under construction in Ulsan and Guro.

The scale of ambition behind this restructuring becomes clearer against the backdrop of SK Group's broader AI infrastructure strategy. The company has committed to a roughly $91.5 billion plan to build out AI data centers across Korea's Yeongnam region, targeting 5 gigawatts of capacity by 2029 and a striking 15 gigawatts by 2035 — a jump that would represent something like a 47-fold increase from SK Horizon's current 318 MW starting point.

Government and industry officials in South Korea are treating this buildout as more than just a corporate expansion. Officials have framed AI data center and submarine cable infrastructure as central to the country's "digital sovereignty" and long-term industrial competitiveness — language that reflects how seriously Seoul is taking the broader global race to build out AI computing capacity.

SK Broadband CEO Kim Seong-soo is expected to lead SK Horizon as well, pending formal board approval, effectively managing both companies through the transition period. Kim framed the restructuring as a deliberate strategic move: "This governance restructuring is a proactive measure aimed at strengthening expertise and enabling faster execution in the AIDC business," he said, adding that the goal is growing SK Horizon into Korea's leading data center operator.

The deal builds on momentum SK Telecom already had in motion. Just last month, the company established a separate $510 million subsidiary called SK Hyper, specifically tasked with developing new gigawatt-scale AI data center projects — meaning SK Horizon and SK Hyper will effectively work in tandem, with Horizon managing existing and near-term assets while Hyper focuses on the much larger future buildout.

The full spin-off and formal establishment of SK Horizon is targeted for completion in the first quarter of 2027, pending both shareholder approval and regulatory clearance in South Korea.

For KKR, the investment extends an already active push into Asia-Pacific infrastructure — the firm struck a separate $1.3 billion renewable energy deal with SK Inc., the broader conglomerate sitting atop SK Group, just last month. Taken together, the moves suggest South Korea's AI infrastructure buildout is drawing serious international capital, not just domestic investment — a signal of how central data center capacity has become to the global AI race.

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