Hyosung Chairman Cho Hyun-joon is joining hands with STT GDC (ST Telemedia Global Data Centres), a data center operating corporations rapidly growing across Asia and Europe, to target the domestic data center market.
On the 17th, Hyosung-STT GDC, a joint venture between Hyosung Heavy Industries and STT GDC, said it opened "STT Seoul 1," a hyperscale data center to support cloud and AI, in Gasan-dong, Geumcheon District, Seoul.
STT Seoul 1 was built by combining Hyosung Heavy Industries' power solution capabilities with STT GDC's global standards across design, operations, and services. Designed as a 30MW hyperscale data center, it supports a range of cloud and AI deployment needs.
A key feature of STT Seoul 1 is its ability to provide up to 30MW of IT capacity in Seoul. Located in the Gasan Digital Complex, "STT Seoul 1" is close to major business hubs such as Gangnam and Yeouido, minimizing data transmission latency.
Security and stability were also strengthened to global levels. Global security standards were applied to prepare for various incidents such as external intrusions and natural disasters. It was designed so servers do not go down even during equipment inspections or failures, ensuring a high level of service continuity and operational stability.
Attending the opening ceremony, Chairman Cho said, "I have long been convinced that data will become the 'oil of the 21st century,'" and added, "In an era when AI competitiveness is national competitiveness, we will grow the data center business, which will serve as the heart of AI, into Hyosung's new growth engine."
In line with the chairman's special directive to "focus the group's core capabilities on the AI data center business," Hyosung is building a differentiated AI data center business model based on synergy among its affiliates.
First, Hyosung Heavy Industries will secure both operational stability and power efficiency for AI data centers based on power equipment such as ultra-high-voltage transformers and circuit breakers, as well as energy efficiency technologies. Leveraging construction capabilities in areas such as liquefaction plants and hydrogen charging stations, it plans to secure AI data center-specific technologies and construction know-how.
Hyosung ITX will apply its existing IT business know-how across cloud, CDN (content delivery network), and DX solutions to overall AI data center operations. By building traffic optimization and security management systems, it plans to enhance the technical reliability and stability of AI data centers.
The chairman formed a data center task force (TF) in 2017 and reviewed data centers as a future business. Cooperation with STT GDC began with a meeting in Seoul in 2019 between the chairman and CEO Lopez. In 2021, they signed a strategic partnership and established the joint venture Hyosung-STT GDC to jointly develop and operate AI data centers.
Based in Singapore, STT GDC is a global data center specialist corporations operating a portfolio of more than 100 data centers across 12 countries in Asia and Europe, with approximately 2.3GW of IT capacity.
The collaboration is seen as a result of the chairman's global management. The chairman personally visited more than 20 key global sites across some 10 countries, including the United States, Europe, Japan, and India, last year. In particular, the chairman is said to have discussed in depth the structural changes in the industry and opportunities for cooperation with key figures in the global power and energy industry.