SK Telecom will invest $480 million (about 738.3 billion won) in "AI Company," an artificial intelligence (AI) investment entity that SK hynix is pushing to establish in the United States. With SK Telecom joining SK Innovation in committing funds, AI Company is expected to emerge as a key platform that bundles SK Group's investments in AI Semiconductor, power, and data centers.
According to ChosunBiz reporting compiled on the 25th, SK Telecom held a board meeting this afternoon and approved a plan to invest $480 million in AI Company, which SK hynix is establishing in the United States. The amount is about 738.3 billion won. The investment will be executed through a capital call over the next four years, with payments made in tranches whenever actual investment demand arises.
AI Company will be a U.S. entity under SK hynix and is set to function as an investment platform overseeing overseas AI-related investments and equity within the group. Rather than directly running specific businesses, it will focus on managing overseas investment assets across the AI industry—such as AI Semiconductor, data centers, power infrastructure, energy, and software—and on sourcing new investment opportunities.
In January this year, SK hynix signed an investment commitment of up to $10 billion (about 15.43 trillion won) to AI Company and is leading the entity's formation. With SK Telecom's participation, the main SK Group affiliates joining AI Company now include SK hynix, SK Corp., SK Innovation, and SK Telecom.
Earlier, SK Innovation approved in a February board resolution an investment commitment of $380 million (about 557.3 billion won) to AI Company. SK Corp. also decided in February to contribute $250 million (about 366.6 billion won) worth of AI-related investment assets to AI Company. Adding SK Telecom's $480 million investment, the total asset size that major affiliates, excluding SK hynix, will inject into or transfer to AI Company comes to $1.11 billion (about 1.67 trillion won).
AI Company is reportedly being set up by reorganizing Solidigm, SK hynix's existing U.S. subsidiary. SK Group plans to consolidate AI-related overseas investment assets scattered across affiliates into AI Company to speed up investment decision-making and boost expertise.
SK Telecom's participation is expected to broaden AI Company's scope. If SK hynix handles competitiveness in AI Semiconductor, including high bandwidth memory (HBM), and SK Innovation takes charge of energy and power infrastructure to meet AI data center power demand, SK Telecom will serve as the link connecting AI data centers with AI service demand. Rather than a telecom affiliate joining merely as a financial investor, it effectively joins as an AI data center infrastructure operator to help build the group's AI ecosystem.
The market SK Group is targeting through AI Company is not limited to semiconductors. Since the spread of Generative AI, large-scale data centers and power infrastructure have emerged as core elements of AI competitiveness, prompting the need for a group-level investment control tower. The aim is to find investment opportunities across the AI infrastructure value chain—centered on AI Semiconductor and spanning data centers, power, energy, and software.
SK Innovation views its AI Company investment as part of a strategy to respond to the era of "electrification." With power demand from data centers rising rapidly due to AI's spread, it aims to secure first-mover advantages in power infrastructure and energy businesses. SK Innovation's funding commitment will be carried out via capital calls for four years starting Mar. 1 this year.
AI-related investment assets that SK Group is pursuing overseas are also expected to be transferred to AI Company in stages. Equities in Terrapower, a U.S. Small Modular Reactor (SMR) corporation held by SK and SK Innovation, are reportedly among the candidates. Terrapower, a next-generation nuclear power corporation founded by Bill Gates, is seeing its corporate value reassessed amid rising power demand tied to the spread of AI data centers.
In business circles, AI Company is seen as more than a simple overseas investment entity and is expected to become a core pillar for building SK Group's AI infrastructure value chain. Because AI competitiveness is not determined by semiconductor performance alone and must be combined with power, data centers, software, and service ecosystems, this is interpreted as a strategy to unite the roles of SK hynix, SK Innovation, and SK Telecom within a single investment platform.
AI Company's investment direction is also expected to tilt toward strategic investment (SI) premised on technology cooperation and business linkage, rather than purely financial investment (FI). By combining SK hynix's AI Semiconductor competitiveness, SK Innovation's power and energy infrastructure, and SK Telecom's AI data center demand, the group expects to broaden its investment opportunities in the U.S. AI infrastructure market.
An industry official said, "The AI industry is not a market completed by semiconductors alone, but an ecosystem where power, data centers, and software move together," adding, "If SK hynix, SK Innovation, and SK Telecom participate together, AI Company will take on the role of a platform overseeing SK Group's AI infrastructure investments."