South Korea Artificial Intelligence (AI) Optimised Data Center Market Size
| Study Period | 2019 - 2030 |
| Base Year For Estimation | 2024 |
| Forecast Data Period | 2025 - 2030 |
| Market Size (2025) | USD 58.10 Million |
| Market Size (2030) | USD 18.91 Million |
| CAGR (2025 - 2030) | 26.61% |
| Market Concentration | Medium |
Major Players*Disclaimer: Major Players sorted in no particular order |
South Korea Artificial Intelligence (AI) Optimised Data Center Market Analysis
The South Korea Artificial Intelligence Optimised Data Center Market size is estimated at USD 58.10 million in 2025, and is expected to reach USD 18.91 million by 2030, at a CAGR of 26.61% during the forecast period (2025-2030).
South Korea is actively expanding its AI data center infrastructure to meet the growing demands of artificial intelligence applications. The country is enhancing its computational capabilities to support various sectors, including healthcare, manufacturing, and finance. This expansion is part of a broader strategy to position South Korea as a leading hub for AI development in the Asia-Pacific region.
The South Korean government has launched several initiatives to strengthen AI infrastructure. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced plans to double the domestic cloud market’s size to 10 trillion won (7.29 billion USD) by 2027, aiming to boost competitiveness in the global AI era. Efforts include easing network separation regulations, expanding tax benefits for AI and cloud companies, and developing a homegrown AI chip for data centers. Additionally, a national AI computing center with a capacity of more than 1 Exaflop is planned to support AI research and development.
Significant investments are being made to enhance AI data center capabilities. SK Telecom announced plans to build gigawatt-scale AI data centers across key regions in South Korea. The initiative includes launching GPU as a Service (GPUaaS) and Edge AI offerings. A testbed AI data center is set to open in Pangyo, featuring advanced cooling technologies and AI semiconductors. Furthermore, SK Telecom plans to convert its Gasan data center into an AI facility, offering access to Nvidia H100 GPUs through a partnership with Lambda.
South Korea aims to become a central hub for AI data centers in the Asia-Pacific region. SK Telecom’s vision includes creating an “AI Infrastructure Superhighway,” integrating AI data centers, GPUaaS, and Edge AI technologies. The company plans to build a hyperscale AI data center with an electricity capacity exceeding 100 megawatts, eventually expanding to a gigawatt level. This development is expected to attract substantial investments and generate significant employment opportunities.
South Korea Artificial Intelligence (AI) Optimised Data Center Market Trends
Growth in Colocation Services and Edge AI Deployment Across Sectors
South Korea's AI data center landscape is rapidly evolving, with significant advancements in colocation services and edge AI deployments across various sectors. For instance, in February 2024, KakaoBank partnered with Digital Realty to set up an AI lab at Seoul's ICN10 data center. This facility enhances KakaoBank's fintech R&D, enabling the bank to refine its AI-driven services and tailor content for its mobile banking users.
ICN10 offers high-density colocation services, supporting up to 70 kilowatts per rack, and utilizes advanced Air-Assisted Liquid Cooling (AALC) technologies. These innovations ensure efficient heat dissipation and robust support for high-performance GPU servers, essential for advanced AI tasks like generative AI and language modeling. With Digital Realty's flexible design, KakaoBank quickly launched its AI projects, leaving room for future growth.
Data is crucial for AI, and Digital Realty's global platform, PlatformDIGITAL®, promotes private cloud utilization. It guarantees secure, high-speed data access across an enterprise's ecosystem. Moreover, ICN10's dedicated AWS Direct Connect allows KakaoBank to seamlessly connect its private infrastructure to AWS's Asia Pacific (Seoul) Region, providing a fast, secure, and cost-effective connectivity option.
Located in Seoul's Digital Media City, ICN10's strategic position and network-neutral approach give KakaoBank a distinct advantage. This setup minimizes latency and expands connectivity options to financial institutions' data centers across the country. Such strategic benefits enhance KakaoBank's ability to deliver rapid and reliable AI-driven services to its customers.
Surging Demand for AI-Specific Hardware Like HBM and Server Chips
The rapid expansion of AI applications and services is driving a significant trend in South Korea's data center industry, with a growing demand for specialized hardware such as High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and server chips.
SK Hynix, a leading memory chip manufacturer in South Korea, is experiencing a surge in demand for its HBM chips, which are already fully booked for 2024 and nearly sold out for 2025. To address this trend, the company plans to begin mass production of its advanced 12-layer HBM3E chips in the third quarter of 2024. This increasing demand is fueled by the global adoption of AI services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which require high-speed, high-capacity, and energy-efficient memory solutions.
The rising need for AI-specific memory has also translated into record-breaking financial performance for SK Hynix. In Q3 2024, the company reported its highest-ever quarterly operating profit of USD 5.1 billion, with total revenues reaching USD 12.8 billion. HBM sales accounted for approximately 30% of the total DRAM revenues during this period, and this share is expected to grow to 40% in the following quarter.
To capitalize on this trend, SK Hynix has announced a substantial USD 75 billion investment plan through 2028, with 80% of the funds allocated to HBM technology development. This strategic investment aims to strengthen the company’s capabilities in AI-related advancements, including AI data centers and voice assistant technologies.
Samsung Electronics, another major player in South Korea, is also responding to the growing demand for AI hardware. The company plans to triple its HBM chip production in 2024 compared to the previous year, focusing on advanced memory chips designed for servers and storage systems to meet the increasing requirements of AI devices.
The South Korean government is actively supporting this upward trend in the semiconductor industry, aiming to ensure that 80% of the country’s data centers utilize domestically produced AI semiconductors by 2030. This initiative is backed by a USD 612 million investment in research and development for high-performance, low-power processing-in-memory (PIM) technology, further solidifying South Korea’s position in the global AI hardware market.
South Korea Artificial Intelligence (AI) Optimised Data Center Industry Overview
South Korea's AI data center market is rapidly evolving, driven by increasing demand for advanced digital infrastructure to support artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and other emerging technologies. Key players in this market include SK Telecom, Digital Realty, Fir Hills Inc., KT Cloud Data Center, and Equinix. These companies are actively investing in expanding data center capacities, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to meet the growing needs of AI-driven applications and cloud services. The market's growth is further bolstered by the South Korean government's initiatives, which aim to enhance AI capabilities and foster innovation within the country. Together, these factors position South Korea as a significant player in the global AI data center landscape, with robust growth prospects in the coming years.
In March 2025, SK Telecom, a leading South Korean telecommunications company, is advancing its AI data center capabilities through a partnership with Elice Group. The collaboration focuses on developing modular AI data centers, including the Elice AI Portable Modular Data Center (PMDC), and aims to establish an AI data center in Busan. Both companies plan to integrate their technologies to enable rapid deployment and scalability of AI data centers, addressing the growing demand for AI infrastructure in South Korea.
In February KakaoBank, a leading mobile bank in Korea, has established an artificial intelligence (AI) lab at Digital Realty's ICN10 data center in Seoul. This initiative leverages Digital Realty's advanced data center infrastructure to accelerate KakaoBank's AI-driven service enhancements, develop personalized content, and support research and development for innovative financial services, ensuring secure and convenient mobile banking solutions for consumers.
South Korea Artificial Intelligence (AI) Optimised Data Center Market Leaders
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KT Corp. IDC
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SK Broadband / SK C&C
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LG CNS
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Naver Cloud
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Kakao Enterprise
- *Disclaimer: Major Players sorted in no particular order
South Korea Artificial Intelligence (AI) Optimised Data Center Market News
- March 2025: KT Cloud is set to establish an AI Data Center Demonstration Center in Seoul, South Korea. Scheduled to launch in November 2025, the center will be located at KT's Mok-dong DC 2 Center in the Yangcheon District. It will focus on implementing AI-based automated data center operation technologies, optimizing power consumption, cooling, and network operations, and incorporating renewable energy and liquid cooling systems.
- March 2025: Fir Hills Inc., a new venture, plans to develop a 3GW AI data center in South Korea, with an estimated investment ranging from USD 10 billion to USD 35 billion. The company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Governor Kim of Jeollanam-do Province for the project, which is expected to include advanced cooling infrastructure to manage energy load variations typical of AI workloads. Construction is expected to begin in winter 2025, with completion targeted for 2028. The project aligns with South Korea's broader efforts to expand its data center capacity, following similar announcements in Jeollanam-do and Gangwon Provinces in recent years.
South Korea Artificial Intelligence (AI) Optimised Data Center Industry Segmentation
The research encompasses the full spectrum of AI applications in data centers, covering hyperscale, colocation, enterprise, and edge facilities. The analysis is segmented by component, distinguishing between hardware and software. Hardware considerations include power, cooling, networking, IT equipment, and more. Software technologies under scrutiny encompass machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. The study also evaluates the geographical distribution of these applications.
Additionally, it assesses AI's influence on sustainability and carbon neutrality objectives. A comprehensive competitive landscape is presented, detailing market players engaged in AI-supportive infrastructure, encompassing both hardware and software utilized across various AI data center types. Market size is calculated in terms of revenue generated by products and solutions providers in the market, and forecasts are presented in USD Billion for each segment.
| By Data Center Type | CSP Data Centers | ||
| Colocation Data Centers | |||
| Others (Enterprise and Edge) | |||
| By Component | Hardware | Power | |
| Cooling | |||
| IT Equipments | |||
| Others | |||
| Software Technology | Machine Learning | ||
| Deep Learning | |||
| Natural Language Processing | |||
| Computer Vision | |||
| Services - (Managed Services, Proffesional Services, etc) | |||
| CSP Data Centers |
| Colocation Data Centers |
| Others (Enterprise and Edge) |
| Hardware | Power |
| Cooling | |
| IT Equipments | |
| Others | |
| Software Technology | Machine Learning |
| Deep Learning | |
| Natural Language Processing | |
| Computer Vision | |
| Services - (Managed Services, Proffesional Services, etc) |
South Korea Artificial Intelligence (AI) Optimised Data Center Market Research FAQs
How big is the South Korea Artificial Intelligence Optimised Data Center Market?
The South Korea Artificial Intelligence Optimised Data Center Market size is expected to reach USD 58.10 million in 2025 and grow at a CAGR of 26.61% to reach USD 18.91 million by 2030.
What is the current South Korea Artificial Intelligence Optimised Data Center Market size?
In 2025, the South Korea Artificial Intelligence Optimised Data Center Market size is expected to reach USD 58.10 million.
Who are the key players in South Korea Artificial Intelligence Optimised Data Center Market?
KT Corp. IDC, SK Broadband / SK C&C, LG CNS, Naver Cloud and Kakao Enterprise are the major companies operating in the South Korea Artificial Intelligence Optimised Data Center Market.
What years does this South Korea Artificial Intelligence Optimised Data Center Market cover, and what was the market size in 2024?
In 2024, the South Korea Artificial Intelligence Optimised Data Center Market size was estimated at USD 42.64 million. The report covers the South Korea Artificial Intelligence Optimised Data Center Market historical market size for years: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The report also forecasts the South Korea Artificial Intelligence Optimised Data Center Market size for years: 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030.
South Korea Artificial Intelligence (AI) Optimised Data Center Industry Report
Statistics for the 2025 South Korea Artificial Intelligence (AI) Optimised Data Center market share, size and revenue growth rate, created by Mordor Intelligence™ Industry Reports. South Korea Artificial Intelligence (AI) Optimised Data Center analysis includes a market forecast outlook for 2025 to 2030 and historical overview. Get a sample of this industry analysis as a free report PDF download.
