SK Telecom Co. has announced a $200 million investment in SMART Global Holdings Inc. (SGH), a significant move to strengthen its position in the global AI infrastructure market. This marks the largest-ever investment by SK Telecom in an AI company.
The agreement entails SK Telecom purchasing 200,000 preferred shares in SGH at $32.81 per share, translating into a 10% stake in the Nasdaq-listed company. SGH, based in Silicon Valley, specializes in designing and operating AI clusters with large-scale GPU servers for clients such as Meta Platforms Inc. In 2023, SGH reported revenue of $1.44 billion.
SK Telecom, related to memory chip giant SK Hynix Inc., is focusing on AI semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and GPU-based AI services as part of its global AI strategy. Previous investments include $100 million in Anthropic for a Korean language-based large language model (LLM), $20 million in Lambda, a GPU cloud provider, and $10 million in Perplexity AI, a generative AI search engine startup.
SGH’s platforms support high-performance computing, AI, machine learning, and IoT, optimized for generative LLM. The collaboration with SGH is expected to enhance SK Telecom’s capabilities in deploying AI factories at scale through integrated systems, software, and managed services.
“We are thrilled to have SKT as a strategic investor,” said Mark Adams, CEO of SGH. “Today’s announcement is a testament to Penguin Solutions’ capabilities in deploying AI factories at scale. We look forward to creating value for our respective stakeholders through this strategic collaboration.”
Ryu Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom, emphasized the strategic importance of the investment, stating, “Our investment in and cooperation with SGH will boost our position in the AI value chain. In the era of AI transformation, we plan to continue making proactive investments to achieve global leadership in AI.”
SK Telecom is also looking forward to the upcoming merger between Rebellions, a semiconductor fabless startup, and Sapeon Korea Inc., an AI chip producer, to strengthen its AI semiconductor business. SK Hynix, a major shareholder of Sapeon, is expected to play a pivotal role in this expansion.
