SK Telecom and NVIDIA are teaming up to build a massive AI cloud in South Korea, aiming for a gigawatt-scale facility by 2027. The project will use NVIDIA's DSX platform to speed up AI innovation and push industrial applications forward.
What the partnership involves
Under the plan, SK Telecom brings its telecom infrastructure and local market know-how, while NVIDIA supplies its DSX (NVIDIA DGX SuperPod? The facts say NVIDIA DSX — likely referring to the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD or a similar AI infrastructure platform). The AI Cloud is designed to handle high-intensity computing workloads that power everything from autonomous driving to smart factories. Neither company has disclosed the exact location in Korea, but the timeline is set for completion within the next three years.
Scale and ambition
A gigawatt-scale facility isn't just big — it's enormous. Typical data centers run in the megawatt range; a gigawatt is a thousand megawatts. That level of power would put this AI Cloud among the largest compute facilities in the world, comparable to the energy draw of a small city. The partnership signals a bet that demand for AI compute will keep soaring, especially in Asia's tech-heavy markets.
SK Telecom, one of Korea's biggest telecoms, has been pivoting from pure connectivity into AI and data services. Teaming up with NVIDIA gives them a direct line to the most sought-after hardware for training large language models and running AI inference at scale. NVIDIA's DSX stack includes both the hardware (GPUs, networking) and software (CUDA, AI frameworks) that developers need. The Korean AI Cloud will likely serve domestic firms as well as global companies looking for compute outside of China and the U.S.
For NVIDIA, it's another anchor customer in a region where governments are pouring billions into AI clusters. South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT has been pushing for homegrown AI capacity, though this project appears to be purely commercial at this point.
Building a gigawatt facility takes years, and the 2027 target is ambitious. Permitting, construction, and grid connections alone can take 12 to 18 months. Getting the NVIDIA hardware in place, plus cooling and power distribution for that many GPUs, will require careful planning. SK Telecom hasn't said how much it's investing, but projects of this scale often run into the billions of dollars.
Both companies are expected to share more details later this year. For now, the clock is ticking toward 2027.
