SK AI Data Center to become Korea's largest AI facility by 2027

Seoul [South Korea], November 3 : Dozens of workers and five pieces of heavy equipment busily engaged in foundation work at a construction site of SK AI Data Center in Ulsan in the Ulsan Mipo Industrial Complex late last month, as per a report by Pulse, the English service of Maeil Business News Korea.

This facility is SK Group's AI Data Center, currently being built in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Though still in the excavation phase, by 2027, it will become the country's largest AI-dedicated data center.

"The site covers more than 20,000-pyeong (66,000 square meters) and the completed building will be five stories above ground, reaching a height of 47.7 meters. When completed in 2027, SK AI Data Center Ulsan will be capable of housing up to 60,000 graphics processing units (GPUs), over 60 times the capacity of SK Telecom Co.'s currently operating Haein cluster, which has about 1,000 GPUs," the report said.

The main focus of this data center is cooling efficiency. Unlike conventional server data centers, this facility is designed to run not only CPUs but also GPUs and MPUs in parallel.

Creating an entirely new cooling and power infrastructure was the top priority as the high-performance processors generate more than 10 times the heat and power consumption of CPU-based systems.

The report stated that SK introduced a hybrid cooling system that combines air and liquid cooling. The Ulsan data center uses direct liquid cooling technology, in which coolant is circulated directly over the chips inside the servers.

The refrigerant comes into direct contact with heat-generating components such as GPUs and CPUs.

"The DLC method precisely controls chip temperatures, ensuring a stable training environment," the report quoted an on-site manager at SK ecoplant.

He added that SK leveraged synergies among its affiliates to establish a reliable power supply network.

"AWS is also heavily invested in this project. Matt Garman, who recently took over as CEO of the U.S. cloud giant, personally visited the Ulsan construction site to inspect progress while attending the APEC CEO Summit," the report said.

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