SK Telecom has significantly increased its operating profit in the second quarter (April–June) of this year, freed from the cost burden related to last year’s USIM hacking incident. Revenue from its artificial intelligence (AI) data centers also nearly doubled compared with the same period last year.

SK Telecom announced on the 5th that, on a consolidated basis for the second quarter, it posted revenue of KRW 4,359.1 billion and operating profit of KRW 566 billion. Net profit came in at KRW 466 billion. Compared with the same period last year, revenue rose 0.5% and operating profit increased 67.3%. As profits had declined in the second quarter of last year due to expenses related to resolving the USIM hacking incident, the growth in operating profit this year appears even larger.

The most notable growth was in the AI data center business. As operating capacity expanded, second-quarter AI data center revenue reached KRW 136.2 billion, up 92.5% from the same period last year. SK Telecom established a dedicated data center subsidiary, “SK Hyper,” last month. Centered on this entity, the company plans to sequentially open AI data centers with a total capacity of 5GW (gigawatts) by 2029. An SK Telecom official said, “As demand for high-performance computing is rapidly increasing with the spread of generative AI, the ability to supply the infrastructure that customers want in a timely manner is becoming ever more important.”

In the telecommunications business, supported by an increase in foreign customers, the number of mobile subscribers rose by 12,000 in the second quarter. The second-quarter dividend was set at KRW 830 per share, the same level as in the first quarter (January–March).

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