[테크월드뉴스=김태윤 기자]  SKT expects its equity investments into AI to be around $250 million this year, and has expressed its ambition to visualize AI results in the second half of the year. SKT aims to generate more than $50 million in annual revenue.

SKT achieved 3.3 billion USD in revenue and 402 million in operating profit in the second quarter, according to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on 6th Aug. The figures were up 2.7% and 16.0% year-on-year, respectively. In the mobile business, the company recorded 16.23 million 5G subscribers as of the end of June, with the share of 5G customers exceeding 70 percent. SKT also added 9.6 million paid broadcasting subscribers and 7.05 million high-speed internet subscribers.

Enterprise business revenue grew 11% year-on-year to 325 million USD, driven by higher data center utilization rates and increased cloud orders.

On the conference call, Yang-Seob Kim, CFO of SKT, commented on the growth factors in the second quarter, saying, "In the wired and wireless telecommunications business, we are seeing steady growth in 5G subscribers and the paid broadcasting market, while new AI growth industries, including AI data centers, are becoming visible." "We are making efforts to improve our company-wide structure, and as a result, we are actively promoting efficiency in all areas, which is also a major factor in improving profitability."

Based on these results, SKT plans to accelerate the construction of AI value chains such as AI data centers and AI services in the second half of the year and secure competitiveness. In addition, it will focus on creating AI results.

To this end, the company is continuing to make AI investments under its AI pyramid strategy and is working with investment firms and the Global Telco AI Alliance to become a global AI company.

So far, SKT has invested $100 million in open AI competitor Anthropic last August, $20 million in GPU cloud company Lambda, $10 million in generative AI search engine startup Perplexity, and $200 million in AI data center integration solutions company SGH this year.

"We will focus our investments on areas where we can make money under the 'AI Pyramid' strategy," said CFO Kim. "In the past two years, we have invested in Anthropic, Lambda, Perplexity, and SGH, which are areas where AI can be monetized, such as large language models and AI DC. This year, we expect to invest around $224 million in AI-related equity investments."

"The pace of AI evolution is so fast that it requires astronomical investment. Therefore, we have chosen the path of collaborating with leading AI companies at home and abroad, and are making appropriate investments in the necessary elements." "We are making choices and focusing on Telco's inherent AI competitiveness," he added.

In particular, he emphasized edge AI. "Edge AI is about providing AI computing and communication services by utilizing the equipment that telco operators have," SKT explained.

"Recently, decentralized AI solutions such as on-device AI have been spreading," said Jeong-hwan Ryu, CTO, Infrastructure Strategy & Technology, SKT. "However, there are constraints such as battery and performance, so edge AI has emerged to compensate for these shortcomings, and we believe it will be an opportunity for telecom operators."

"We are working with global big tech and telco operators to identify ways to provide efficient AI computing and continue to standardize the technology," he said, adding, "We believe that if it is successfully established, it will be possible to expand the AI business cost-effectively."

In addition, the company also announced its intention to establish a telco-centric AI ecosystem.

In June, SKT agreed to establish a joint venture with DT, Singtel (Singapore Telecommunications), e&, and Softbank. The joint venture is scheduled to start operations in 2025 after going through the process of establishing a legal entity, and will promote the commercialization of telco LLM. It is believed that each company's vast data and customer pool will enable it to compete with big tech and AI.

Currently, SKT has completed the development of Korean Telco LLM and is in the process of upgrading and applying the service. It is expected to significantly improve business efficiency in various areas such as customer center, infrastructure, marketing and distribution network, legal, and HR through Telco LLM.

"We aim to achieve more than 45 million USD in annual sales this year by providing solutions such as generative AI, AICC, and AI data to the public, financial, and manufacturing sectors," said SKT.