SK Telecom has set up a dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) investment entity in the Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory. Following its large valuation gains from investing in Generative AI startup Anthropic, the company has established an overseas AI investment base to ramp up global AI investments.
According to the industry on the 23rd, SK Telecom established "Forest AI Investment" in the Cayman Islands in September last year as a dedicated AI investment entity. The entity was set up as a subsidiary of Atlas Investment, SK Telecom's investment arm founded in 2011. The initial capital is said to be in the 20 billion won range.
This is the first time SK Telecom has created a separate, dedicated AI investment entity. It is different in nature from "Astra AI Infra LLC," which SK Telecom established in the United States in September 2024. Astra AI Infra is a special-purpose company (SPC) formed for a strategic investment in Penguin Solutions, a company building AI solutions for corporations. Through this SPC, SK Telecom signed a $200 million (about 291.5 billion won) convertible preferred share investment agreement with Penguin Solutions in Dec. 2024.
The Cayman Islands, which impose no corporate or capital gains taxes, are a representative tax haven and are regarded as a favored financial hub for global investment funds. With relatively few constraints in terms of foreign exchange controls and investment structure design, it is seen as advantageous for co-investments involving many institutional investors.
The industry views the establishment of this entity as a more advanced strategy that goes beyond simply expanding financial investments. Because an AI-only base has been set up within the existing overseas investment framework, some interpret this as envisioning roles such as co-investments with overseas investors, fund formation, and serving as a platform to discover promising AI corporations. There is also a view that the move aims to broaden the scope of investments beyond simple equity stakes to the entire AI value chain, including AI models, agents, and data centers.
Attention is also focusing on potential linkages with the "K-AI Alliance" that SK Telecom has built up. SK Telecom has described the K-AI Alliance as a collaboration axis with domestic innovative AI startups. More than 40 corporations are participating in the K-AI Alliance led by SK Telecom. The industry believes this network could expand beyond simple technology cooperation to investments in promising corporations, linkage with overseas capital, and joint commercialization.
The establishment of a dedicated AI investment entity also aligns with SK Telecom's push to expand its AI infrastructure. The Ulsan AI data center is being pursued as a joint project with Amazon Web Services (AWS), and the company has also signaled a groundbreaking for an additional data center in Seoul. This is why some analysts say the new AI investment entity could serve not only for equity investments in startups but also as a financial hub for joint investments in AI infrastructure and attracting global capital.
Anthropic's investment performance also underpins the establishment of this AI investment entity. SK Telecom participated as a strategic investor in Anthropic in 2023 with $100 million (about 130 billion won at the time). As Anthropic raised its valuation through successive funding, the book value of the equity held by SK Telecom swelled to about 1.38 trillion won at the end of last year. That means the equity value has grown more than tenfold compared with the initial investment. The market also expects that if Anthropic pursues an initial public offering (IPO), SK Telecom's equity value could rise to the 2 trillion to 3 trillion won range.
An industry official said, "As SK Telecom has proven results with its Anthropic investment, it is highly likely to move more aggressively into global AI investments," adding, "The establishment of the Cayman AI investment entity can be seen as a move with an eye toward large-scale investments or joint fund formation."
Meanwhile, several other domestic conglomerates have also set up entities in the Cayman Islands. Samsung Electronics established and operates two fund entities in the Cayman Islands (Samsung Global SME Private Equity Manager Fund, Samsung Private Equity Fund 2022 GP) and one investment entity (Samsung Co-Investment 2021 GP). Hyundai Motor also has one fund entity (China Mobility Fund, L.P) and one holding entity (China Millennium Corporations) in the Cayman Islands.
An investment industry official said, "The Cayman Islands are located in the Caribbean near the United States and have no direct tax such as corporate tax, inheritance tax, gift tax, or income tax," adding, "It is spotlighted as a tax haven because it is easy to establish corporations and has the advantage of low financial expense."