South Korea’s top 3 telcos reinvent themselves as “AI Companies;” growth strategies revealed
Overview:
South Korea’s telecommunications industry is rapidly shifting its center of gravity to AI, with SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus all declaring their transformation into AI companies. Industry officials describe this as a restructuring process.
- SK Telecom is pushing a full-stack AI strategy spanning infrastructure, models and services.
- KT is accelerating a B2B-focused push to become an “AX” platform company.
- LG Uplus is positioning itself as an AI software company through its ixi-O agent, stressing safety and security. Industry officials say the next test is profitability.
Ryu Jong-heon, SKT’s CEO, wrote in a letter sent to shareholders ahead of last month’s annual general meeting, “If our AI business so far was about incubating various areas, we will now focus more on businesses where SKT can be competitive and secure sustainability in AI competition that is expanding without limit.”
- Next-Gen Compute: Strategic collaboration with Arm and Rebellions for AI CPU/NPU innovation.
- Infrastructure & Power: Agreements with Supermicro and Schneider Electric to optimize AIDC efficiency and server density.
- Model Scaling: With A.X K1 outperforming benchmarks like DeepSeek V3.1, SKT plans to transition to multimodal capabilities and trillion-parameter scaling to secure market dominance across B2B and B2C segments.
2. KT Corporation – Transitioning to an AX Platform Operator:
Under the leadership of CEO Yun-young Park, KT is accelerating its AX (AI Transformation) strategy with a sharp focus on the B2B sector. Following a structural reorganization that established the AX Future Technology Institute and the AX Business Division, KT is positioning itself as a platform enabler rather than a mere solution provider. Despite perceived lags in proprietary model development (e.g., the mi-deum LLM), KT is pursuing a pragmatic “practical gains” strategy. By partnering with Microsoft, KT is adopting a “detour” approach to rapidly integrate global-standard AI capabilities into its existing corporate customer base. CEO Yun-young Park explained, “If AI services are actors on a theatre stage, we are an AX platform company that builds that stage.”
3. LG Uplus -Move to AI-Driven Software and Security:
LG Uplus, led by CEO Beom-sik Hong, is leveraging security and reliability as its primary competitive differentiators. The company is transitioning into an AI-centric software (SW) company, focusing on high-margin service architectures over raw infrastructure. The cornerstone of this strategy is ixi-O, a voice AI agent. The upcoming ixi-O Pro will feature advanced behavioral analytics, including tone and emotional state detection, to provide proactive customer engagement. Hong stated, “We will become an AI-centred software (SW) company that leads solutions in telecommunications and AX technology,” signaling a two-track global expansion strategy involving both service exports and technology stack licensing.
References:
SKT 6G ATHENA White Paper: a mid-to-long term network evolution strategy for the AI era
SK Group and AWS to build Korea’s largest AI data center in Ulsan
South Korea has 30 million 5G users, but did not meet expectations; KT and SKT AI initiatives
McKinsey: AI infrastructure opportunity for telcos? AI developments in the telecom sector
WSJ: 5G in South Korea has not lived up to expectations
South Korea government fines mobile carriers $25M for exaggerating 5G speeds; KT says 5G vision not met
KT and LG Electronics to cooperate on 6G technologies and standards, especially full-duplex communications
SK Telecom (SKT) and Nokia to work on AI assisted “fiber sensing”
SKT Develops Technology for Integration of Heterogeneous Quantum Cryptography Communication Networks
SKT with Global Telcos to Expand Metaverse Platform in US, Europe and Southeast Asia
South Korean telcos to double 5G network bandwidth with massive MIMO; Private 5G
Omdia: ARPU declining or flat for South Korean 5G network operators
3 South Korean mobile operators to share 5G networks in remote areas
LG U+ first to deploy 600G backbone network in Korea with Ciena’s ROADM equipment
