By Hamza Faisal

South Korea's SK Hyper wants to build one of the biggest AI data centers in the world, and it is shopping the plan around to some of the deepest pockets in tech. CEO Chung Suk-geun told Bloomberg Television that the company is in talks with major technology companies and financial investors to help finance an envisioned $350 billion AI data center buildout.

SK Hyper is the data center unit of SK Group, established this July under SK Telecom. Chung made the comments on Bloomberg Tech Asia, saying the company hopes to close its first external funding round by late 2026 or early 2027.

Phase one alone carries the $350 billion price tag

The eye-popping number covers just the first phase: 5 gigawatts of capacity. The full ambition is 15 gigawatts of AI data center capacity in South Korea by 2035, with the initial phase alone requiring $350 billion including equipment costs. Parent firm SK Telecom plans to invest 750 billion won (about $567 million) into SK Hyper by 2030 — a drop in the bucket next to the total, which is exactly why the company is courting outside capital.

Chung said the plan is to share the broader capital burden with outside investors and future data center tenants, and that SK Hyper will pace actual spending according to customer demand. "We are going to manage our risk appropriately, meeting with market demand," he said.

Fundraising kicks off this year

SK Hyper expects its first external funding round to land by late 2026 or early 2027, followed by more fundraising over the next three to four years. Construction is already in motion: the company is developing a 900-megawatt facility in Ulsan alongside a previously announced 100-megawatt project for Amazon Web Services, with the first data centers scheduled for completion in 2029.

One more megaproject in the AI building boom

The announcement joins a global rush to roll out AI infrastructure that has investors both excited and nervous. The $350 billion figure is an ambition under discussion, not capital raised or committed — a distinction that matters after this week's $800 billion AI-spending selloff showed how quickly the market turns on open-ended capex promises. But the AWS project signals that real hyperscaler demand is behind at least part of the plan.

Whether outside investors will shoulder a bill that large remains to be seen. The first funding round, expected within months, will be the market's verdict.

By Hamza Faisal