SK Telecom (017670.KS) posted declines in both revenue and operating profit in the first quarter compared to a year earlier. However, the company is recovering from the weak results caused by last year's cyber breach incident, with both revenue and operating profit improving from the previous quarter.
SK Telecom announced through a regulatory filing Wednesday that it recorded consolidated revenue of 4.39 trillion won ($3.2 billion) and operating profit of 537.6 billion won ($394 million) in the first quarter. The figures represent decreases of 1.38% and 5.25%, respectively, from a year earlier. Compared with the fourth quarter of last year, however, revenue rose 1.47% and operating profit surged 351.25%. Notably, quarterly operating profit exceeded 500 billion won for the first time in a year.
The quarter-on-quarter improvement was driven by a recovery in the wireless business and growth in the artificial intelligence (AI) data center business. SK Telecom said it added approximately 210,000 net mobile phone subscribers in the first quarter. Mobile revenue also rose 1.7% from the previous quarter. SK Broadband, which handles the fixed-line business, recorded revenue of 1.15 trillion won and operating profit of 116.6 billion won, supported by growth in high-speed internet.
In the AI business, the AI data center operation, a key growth driver, stood out. SK Telecom's AI data center revenue reached 131.4 billion won, a 89.3% surge from a year earlier. The gain was driven by higher utilization rates at AI data centers in locations such as Gasan, along with a significant increase in GPU-as-a-service (GPUaaS) revenue.
SK Telecom plans to accelerate its push into the AI business-to-business (B2B) market. The company intends to expand its AI B2B market presence based on its "full-stack" capabilities, which encompass AI infrastructure, models and services, as well as its enterprise business experience. To support this, it recently established an enterprise integration task force reporting directly to the CEO. In the AI business-to-consumer (B2C) segment, SK Telecom plans to strengthen its fundamental competitiveness through synergy between its AI agent business and telecommunications business.
"The first quarter was a meaningful period in which we delivered tangible results aligned with our goal this year of strengthening fundamental competitiveness centered on customer value and restoring profitability through a refined AI business," SK Telecom Chief Financial Officer Park Jong-seok said. "We will continue to focus on earnings recovery by generating sustained results."
