Among the three telecom carriers, only SK Telecom was found to have reduced research and development (R&D) expense this year. SK Telecom, which has put AI-based new businesses at the forefront and declared a leap to become a "global AI company," has in fact cut the R&D investment that would support it.
◇ SKT cut R&D investment by 19.9 billion won… KT increased it by 128.2 billion won
Comparing the quarterly reports for the first to third quarters of this year for SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus on the 21st, ChosunBiz confirmed that only SK Telecom reduced R&D expenditure from last year. SK Telecom's cumulative R&D investment for the third quarter this year was about 273.4 billion won, down about 7% from the same period a year earlier (about 293.3 billion won). The industry expected that SK Telecom, which recently secured more than 10 million monthly active users (MAU) for its AI service "adot" and was selected for the elite team of the government's "national AI project," would have significantly increased R&D investment to strengthen its AI-centered detelecom strategy.
Inside and outside the industry, many say the cost-control stance to improve earnings following the hacking fallout that surfaced in April influenced the R&D reduction. On the other hand, there is also talk that SK Telecom increased external collaboration for AI model and service development, which reduced its own research and development expenditure. SK Telecom has equity investment and strategic cooperation with global AI company Anthropic, and in Korea it is jointly developing AI models with external partners through the "K-AI Alliance."
An SK Telecom official said, "The quarter-to-quarter fluctuations in R&D expense are only changes depending on the timing of investment execution, and R&D investment in future core businesses is continuing. We will continue R&D investment to strengthen technological competitiveness and service innovation such as AI data centers and 6G."
In contrast, KT, which was not selected for the elite team of the national AI project, executed the most R&D expense among the three carriers. KT's R&D expenditure for the first to third quarters this year was 280.5 billion won, up about 85% from the same period last year (152.3 billion won). LG Uplus also invested 106.6 billion won in R&D, up about 7% from last year (99.9 billion won).
◇ The three carriers shouted "AI company"… R&D investment under 1 trillion won
The combined R&D investment of the three carriers for the first to third quarters this year was 660.4 billion won, up 106 billion won (about 20%) from the same period last year (554.4 billion won). Although the investment scale increased, criticism is emerging that the carriers' strategy to "lead the AI era" is just a slogan, given that the total R&D still falls short of 1 trillion won.
In particular, the carriers have steadily reduced capital expenditure (CAPEX) in recent years to expand their core fixed and mobile networks. Although they cited reallocating resources to AI investment, the reduction in capital expenditure did not fully shift to R&D. The combined capital expenditure of the three carriers for the first to third quarters this year was 3.692 trillion won, down about 7% from the same period last year (3.9724 trillion won). While the carriers' capital expenditure fell by 280.4 billion won this year, the increase in R&D was only 106 billion won.
Kim Kyung-won, a distinguished professor in the business administration department at Sejong University, said, "In the AI business, true competitiveness is determined by R&D investment, but increasing the R&D share is a burden on short-term earnings," adding, "For professional managers, if performance deteriorates they can be replaced at any time, so increasing R&D investment from a long-term business perspective is inevitably a burden."