Billionaire Chey's SK Group Partners With Amazon To Build A $5 Billion AI Data Center In Korea

Forbes

23-06-2025

Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group. SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
South Korean billionaire Chey Tae-won's SK Group has teamed up with Amazon Web Services, the cloud service arm of Amazon, to invest 7 trillion won ($5.1 billion) to build an AI data center in South Korea.
The AI data center will be located in the southern Korean city of Ulsan, a major industrial hub, the country's Ministry of Science and ICT said in a statement on Friday. The facility will begin construction in September and be fully operational by early 2029 with a capacity of more than 100 megawatts. AWS will contribute $4 billion to the project, the ministry added.
In a separate statement on Sunday, SK Group said the Ulsan data center is a 15-year project between the semiconductor-to-telecoms conglomerate and AWS to support Korea's AI development with fast networks, advanced computer chips and efficient energy systems.
Chey, chairman of SK Group, wrote in a LinkedIn post on Sunday that the Ulsan data center will accelerate AI development and that his company 'is uniquely positioned' to meet the demands for AI infrastructure.
'At the Ulsan AI Data Center, this synergy will be realized through SK Hynix's high-bandwidth memory, SK Telecom and SK Broadband's extensive operational expertise, and SK Gas and SK Multi Utility's support for stable power and infrastructure—all coming together to deliver the scale and performance needed for AI's exponential growth trajectory,' Chey wrote.
SK Group is among the Korean companies investing heavily in AI and related infrastructure. Last year, the conglomerate said it will invest 82 trillion won by 2026 in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which are essential components for AI chips, as well as data centers and personalized AI assistant services.
SK Group has also been investing in AI startups, including search engine Perplexity and video search company Twelve Labs in the U.S., as well as Korean large language model developer Upstage. Meanwhile, its AI chip startup Sapeon last year merged with rival Rebellions in a deal that valued the combined entity at 1.3 trillion won.
Other Korean companies joining the AI race include billionaire Kim Beom-su's Kakao. The internet giant said earlier this month it will invest about 600 billion won to build an AI data center in Korea. It came on the heels of Kakao's partnership with OpenAI, including a deal to use the ChatGPT maker's technology to power its new personalized AI tool and to co-develop new products tailored to Korean users. MORE FROM FORBES Forbes South Korea's AI Chip Champion Is Poised To Carve Out Global Niche By John Kang Forbes Billionaire Chey's SK Backs Korean AI Startup, Eyes Synergies In Databases, Home Appliances And Hotels By John Kang Forbes Korea's Kakao Teams Up With OpenAI To Develop AI Products By Zinnia Lee