en.Wedoany.com Reported - SK Broadband (SKB) has increased its corporate bond issuance from the initially planned 110 billion won to 160 billion won to advance the Ulsan Artificial Intelligence Data Center (AIDC) project.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 9th, SKB submitted an amended securities registration statement reflecting the results of the demand forecast from institutional investors conducted on the 4th. Due to demand significantly exceeding the offering amount, the company increased the originally planned 110 billion won by 50 billion won, ultimately setting the total issuance at 160 billion won. The proceeds from this issuance are specifically earmarked for the construction of the Ulsan AIDC, a project with a total estimated investment of 550 billion won, of which 390 billion won has already been invested, with the current phase involving 160 billion won. The original plan was to raise only 110 billion won through bonds, with the shortfall covered by the company's own funds, but strong institutional demand prompted the increase.
SKB plans to invest the entire 160 billion won in the Ulsan AIDC, which is being built in collaboration with SK Group and Amazon Web Services (AWS), for construction and equipment procurement. This data center is a mega-scale project jointly invested by SK Group and AWS, with a total investment of 7 trillion won, and will deploy over 60,000 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). SK Telecom (SKT) is leading AI solution development and global cooperation, while SKB is responsible for the data center construction. The funds are expected to be primarily utilized between the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year.
SKB's increased investment in data centers is driven by the reality of slowing growth in its media business. In the first quarter of this year, sales from the media business division, including IPTV and cable TV, amounted to 471.9 billion won, a 1.3% decrease year-on-year. In contrast, sales from the wired communication business division, which includes data centers and superfast internet, reached 677.9 billion won, a 6.7% increase year-on-year, becoming the main driver of performance growth. The AIDC is being positioned as SKB's core growth engine. Since entering the Internet Data Center (IDC) market in the early 2000s, SKB has accumulated experience in power and cooling equipment management and corporate customer service. In 2021, the Gasan data center became operational, formally responding to cloud demand. With the surge in AI demand, SKB has expanded its business from IDCs housing general servers to AIDCs operating GPUs.
The company's role as an AI infrastructure provider has been strengthened through governance restructuring. Since SKB officially became a wholly-owned subsidiary of SKT on May 29, the linkage between the two has become closer, further expanding SKB's role as an AI infrastructure provider within the group. AIDC assets within SK Group are being consolidated under SKB. Last year, SKB acquired the 30-megawatt (MW) Bundang data center operated by SK AX for 506.8 billion won. Including this center, SKB currently operates nine AIDCs located in areas such as Bundang and Gasan. Non-core businesses have begun to be divested; the company recently signed a contract to sell all shares of its subsidiary "Media S," which operates broadcasting and cable TV businesses. This move is interpreted as a strategic step to downsize the media business and focus on new growth areas like AIDCs. An SKB official stated that AIDCs represent an opportunity for technological advancement and are key infrastructure in the AI era.
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