SK Telecom CEO Unveils Trillion-Won AI Infrastructure Investment Plan

"If we miss the golden time to adapt to the new innovation called artificial intelligence, we die. If we fail to keep up with AI, we will ultimately perish."

SK Telecom President Jeong Jae-heon declared an "AI transformation" and announced plans to expand investment to the trillions of won. The vision is to transform the telecom company into an "AI-native enterprise" and pursue monetization through AI infrastructure development and AI service exports.

Jeong held a press conference during MWC 2026 in Barcelona, Spain, on March 1 (local time) and unveiled the "AI Native" innovation strategy. This was his first official media briefing approximately four months after taking office.

Jeong diagnosed that Korea's current telecommunications infrastructure does not meet the demands of the AI era. He explained that legacy IT systems and network infrastructure not designed with AI in mind have limitations in collecting data and providing AI-based services.

Accordingly, SK Telecom will completely overhaul its integrated computing system—the foundation of telecommunications services—into an AI-optimized structure. The plan is to redesign all areas including sales computing, line management, and billing systems around AI to offer hyper-personalized rate plans and membership programs. Furthermore, zero-trust-based information protection systems will be applied to all systems, with security levels strengthened through network segmentation and AI-based integrated security control.

"Massive changes and investment are inevitable to further solidify our customer base, which is the essence of the telecommunications business," Jeong said. "While it's difficult to disclose specific amounts, the investment scale will exceed trillions of won."

He also presented the goal of expanding the parameter scale of "A.X K1," selected for the sovereign AI foundation model project, from the current 519 billion to the 1 trillion level. "Only a few countries including the United States, China, and France have implemented models with more than 519 billion parameters," he said. "We need to reach this level to create market demand."

However, he drew a line, saying, "This is not a concept of going head-to-head with global big tech." Instead, he said, "From a sovereign AI perspective, there is a high possibility that more countries will want to build their own AI," adding, "SK Telecom's AI model could be exported to these regions."

He also unveiled the blueprint for a manufacturing AI project in collaboration with SK Hynix and Nvidia. "We are developing solutions using Nvidia's AI models, and SK Hynix is identifying applicable manufacturing domains," Jeong explained. The strategy is to reduce defect rates and maximize equipment efficiency through manufacturing-specialized AI solution packages that analyze process data in real time.

AI infrastructure investment will proceed in parallel. The company plans to build ultra-large AI data centers totaling more than 1 gigawatt nationwide, nurturing them into Asia's largest AI hub.

On March 2, Jeong visited Samsung Electronics' MWC 2026 booth and met with Samsung Electronics President Roh Tae-moon (head of DX Division). Roh introduced the privacy display featured in the Galaxy S26 Ultra, saying, "You can selectively hide specific apps or specific areas." Jeong responded, "It seems like you made it to match what customers need," adding, "Screen protector companies must be ruined."

After also visiting booths of Meta from the United States and Xiaomi from China, Jeong told reporters, "Technologies from Korea, the United States, and China seem to have much interest in integrating devices." He added, "Xiaomi in particular demonstrated well that it can connect everything including automobiles and telecommunications."