통신 3사, AI 데이터센터 2분기 매출 ‘훌쩍’…두 자릿수 성장률

This year, South Korea's three major telecom companies reported two-digit growth rates in AI data center-related sales, marking a significant milestone. However, concerns have been raised about investment recovery due to supply overabundance in the data center business, as telecommunications firms and IT companies have been increasingly entering this market.

KT reported a connection-based sales revenue of 6.6799 trillion won and an operating profit of 64.83 billion won for the second quarter of this year. The earnings dip compared to last year was 10.1% for sales and 36.1% for operating profit, primarily due to a one-time gain from real estate development in the previous quarter. While the growth of traditional telecom businesses slowed down, sales from data centers and content continued to grow at a two-digit rate.

KT's subsidiary, KT Cloud, recorded 2.654 trillion won in revenue for the second quarter, up 19.8% year-over-year, thanks to the full-scale operation of a Seoul data center and the expansion of data center design, construction, and operation (DBO) projects. KT plans to invest 5 trillion won over the next five years to build AI data centers of 1 gigawatt (GW) scale.

To accelerate decision-making in data center projects, KT is considering merging KT Cloud, a subsidiary established in 2022, as its headquarters. SK Telecom and LG Uplus, which also reported strong data center growth, saw a 92.5% year-over-year surge in AI data center sales, reaching 1.362 trillion won. SK Telecom, which recently launched a data center-specific subsidiary, 'SK Hyper,' plans to invest 203 billion won by 2030, eventually operating a 5 GW-scale data center.

LG Uplus recorded a 3.9% increase in operating profit, though its sales decreased by 3.9% year-over-year. The company has invested 2 trillion won to build four 200 MW-gigabyte data centers in Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do, with operations set to begin in the second half of next year. Market analysts warn of over-investment concerns due to the high initial investment required for data centers.

Securing enough customers is crucial, as insufficient demand may delay investment recovery. SK Telecom maintains that its principle is to secure customers before building data centers, while LG Uplus is pursuing a model of reducing assets through asset light operations to improve capital efficiency.