South Korea's three major cloud service providers—NHN, Naver, and KT—posted solid growth last year, driven by surging demand for artificial intelligence data centers.
NHN reported its technology division, which includes cloud services, generated 460.9 billion won ($317 million) in revenue last year, up 11.3% from 414.3 billion won in 2024, according to an earnings call on Feb. 12. Fourth-quarter revenue for the division reached 139.1 billion won, a 17.4% year-over-year increase.
The strong performance was largely attributed to NHN Cloud's success in GPU services and public cloud migration projects. NHN Cloud has operated GPU services at the Gwangju National AI Data Center since 2023. Building on this experience, the company was selected as the largest contractor for the government's "GPU Procurement, Construction, and Operation Support Project" last year and is currently installing 7,656 Nvidia B200 GPUs at a data center in Yangpyeong-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.
NHN Cloud's fourth-quarter revenue jumped 30.7% year-over-year, achieving its first quarterly operating profit.
"We expect remarkable growth in GPU services this year," said Ahn Hyun-sik, NHN's Chief Financial Officer. "Disaster recovery projects are also expected to grow continuously."
The disaster recovery initiative aims to upgrade government administrative service recovery systems to real-time redundancy following last year's fire at the National Information Resources Service. Cloud technology will play a central role in this effort.
"NHN is also supplying GPUs to Krafton, which will drive significant growth this year," Ahn added. "Our internal goal is to achieve operating profit in the cloud division and establish a solid structure for profitability."
Naver's Enterprise division, responsible for cloud and B2B services, also posted double-digit growth. According to Naver's disclosure on Feb. 6, enterprise revenue reached 171.8 billion won in the fourth quarter, up 16.6% year-over-year excluding one-time effects such as LY (Line Yahoo) settlement payments. Full-year revenue totaled 587.8 billion won, a 4.3% increase from 2024.
Growth was driven by global revenue from projects including a Saudi Arabian super app development and digital twin solutions, as well as new GPUaaS (GPU as a Service) revenue reflecting increased AI infrastructure demand. GPUaaS allows customers to rent GPU capacity through the cloud rather than purchasing and operating hardware directly.
"GPUaaS customer acquisition is progressing smoothly, with revenue reflected starting in the fourth quarter," said Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon during the earnings call. "We are actively engaging with various customers to secure additional references and orders."
KT Cloud showed the most pronounced growth among KT Group subsidiaries. According to KT's earnings disclosure on Feb. 10, KT Cloud's annual revenue reached 997.5 billion won, up 27.4% from 2024—the largest increase among group companies including BC Card, KT Skylife, content subsidiaries (KT Nasmedia, KT Studio Genie), and KT Estate. Fourth-quarter revenue was 277.9 billion won, a 25.8% year-over-year increase.
The strong results stemmed from increased data center utilization by global customers and higher public AI cloud usage. KT Cloud has been expanding AI cloud project orders, particularly in the public sector.
The company aggressively expanded infrastructure to support this growth. In May last year, it completed Korea's first public-private cooperative AI cloud data center in Yecheon, North Gyeongsang Province. In November, it opened the nation's first liquid-cooled AI data center in Gasan, Seoul. The company is also advancing infrastructure capabilities at its AI Innovation Center in Yongsan, Seoul, demonstrating liquid cooling and energy-saving technologies.
"We expect AI and data center-driven growth to continue this year," said Jang Min, KT's CFO.