SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang introduces the company’s AI strategy during a press conference at the company's headquarters in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of SK Telecom
SK Telecom will triple its investment in AI technology in next five years as part of the domestic telecommunications giant’s plan to provide enhanced services with AI competitiveness and generate sales of 25 trillion won ($18.5 billion) by 2028, its CEO said Tuesday.
“The hyperscale AI revolution, sparked by OpenAI’s ChatGPT service last November, has been met with some skepticism lately. However, the AI market is still in its infancy, and the way the industry is moving and the technology is evolving, I believe the gold rush for AI businesses has begun,” SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang said during a press conference in Seoul.
By concentrating more on AI, the CEO said the telecommunications company will be able to get a better market valuation.
“SK Telecom has invested heavily in AI services, technology and infrastructure over the past five years. We have invested 12 percent of our capital in AI, and we plan to increase it to 33 percent over the next five years until 2028, and increase our sales to 25 trillion won by 2028 so that we can be better valued by the market,” the CEO said.
Sharing the company's AI business strategy, Ryu said it will employ what it calls an "AI Pyramid" strategy to transform its business around three areas: AI infrastructure, transformation to AI ― which he called AIX ― and AI services.
Through taking steps such as upgrading its own AI capability, creating AI services to provide enhanced services to customers and cooperating with AI partners, SK Telecom will be able to become a truly global AI company.
“The AI Pyramid strategy is to create new value through AI in our existing businesses in addition to enhancing our AI service, A. (pronounced as ‘A dot’). We established the AI Pyramid strategy not as a concept to abandon our existing businesses, but as a strategy to embrace them all,” the CEO said.
At the bottom of the pyramid, which is the AI infrastructure part, the company will promote the expansion of AI data centers, AI semiconductors and various large language models (LLMs). The CEO said that its AI chip affiliate Sapeon’s latest AI chip X330 will be released later this year, taking on rival Nvidia.
SK Telecom also unveiled its LLM, A.X, and said that in addition to its own LLM, the company will pursue a two-track strategy by cooperating with domestic and overseas AI players such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Konan Technology.
For AIX, at the middle of its AI Pyramid, the company will transform productivity and customer experience by embedding AI across core businesses and expand its AI capabilities into mobility, AI health care, media and advertising technology. For AI services, which is the top of the AI Pyramid strategy, the company will provide improved AI-powered personal assistant service with its A. AI assistant.
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