SK Group is moving ahead with a roughly 7 trillion won artificial-intelligence data center in Ulsan with Amazon Web Services, one of the largest infrastructure projects tied to Korea's push for domestic AI computing capacity. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is visiting the construction site to review progress as the project moves from groundbreaking into its main build phase.
The facility is being developed inside Ulsan's national industrial complex and is scheduled to begin operations in the second half of 2027. It is designed for high-performance computing based on graphics processing units, with hybrid cooling systems intended to handle the heat and power demands of dense AI workloads more efficiently than conventional data centers.
AI infrastructure meets Ulsan's manufacturing base
The project also has a regional industrial purpose. SK has said the Ulsan site should function as a hub for attracting AI companies, supporting manufacturing innovation and creating new jobs in a city whose economy has traditionally been built around autos, shipbuilding and petrochemicals. That gives the data center a role beyond cloud capacity alone, linking digital infrastructure to the modernization of an existing industrial base.
The scale also highlights the physical side of Korea's AI strategy. Training and operating large models requires substantial electricity, cooling and network infrastructure, which means data-center development increasingly intersects with power policy and industrial planning. The next milestones will be construction progress, equipment installation and whether the project begins attracting the cluster of AI companies and manufacturing users that SK expects around it.