**Sales increased by 2.94% year-on-year to KRW 4.5321 trillion; Net profit decreased by 9.1% to KRW 280.2 billion; 3rd quarter dividend set at KRW 830 per share**
SK Telecom announced on the 6th that its operating profit for the third quarter, based on its consolidated financial statements, was KRW 533.3 billion, up 7.09% year-on-year. During the same period, sales rose by 2.94% to KRW 4.5321 trillion, while net profit fell by 9.1% to KRW 280.2 billion. The dividend for the third quarter was set at KRW 830 per share.
A company representative explained, “Sales grew by 2.9% compared to the same period last year due to balanced growth in roaming and enterprise sectors, and operating profit improved by 7.1% year-on-year thanks to efficiency gains from company-wide AI adoption and the effects of structural improvements through strengthening intrinsic competitiveness (OI).”
Since its corporate restructuring in November 2021, SK Telecom has been concentrating its company-wide capabilities over the past three years to lay the groundwork for becoming a global AI company. This year, SKT is accelerating its transition into an AI enterprise by focusing on three rapidly monetizable businesses—AI data centers, AI B2B (business-to-business), and AI B2C (consumer services)—and is speeding up the establishment of an AI revenue model.
The data center business particularly stood out, achieving a 14% sales growth year-on-year with an increasing utilization rate. SK Telecom plans to further enhance its business growth rate by developing the AI data center business, which is experiencing a surge in demand.
The Nvidia GPU-based AI data center being prepared at the Seoul Gasan facility aims to open in December, and the subscription-based AI cloud service GPUaaS is slated to launch within the year. The subscription-based AI cloud service is expected to strengthen GPU accessibility for domestic companies that find it challenging to purchase GPU resources directly.
SK Telecom also plans to open an AI data center testbed in Pangyo in December. The new AI data center testbed will bring together a variety of solutions from SK Group and its partners, including advanced AI semiconductors such as Nvidia HBM and next-generation liquid cooling solutions.
Additionally, SK Telecom’s mid- to long-term strategy includes establishing nationwide AI infrastructure. Centered around regional AI data centers and GPUaaS in metropolitan areas, the plan is to evolve into a nationwide AI infrastructure by introducing edge AI technology to base stations. The strategy is to proactively build an ‘AI infrastructure super highway’ that connects the nation, serving as key infrastructure to accelerate the activation of the AI ecosystem.
The telecom-specialized LLM, being developed with members of the Global Telco AI Alliance, will be commercialized next year and will first be applied to SKT customer services such as customer centers and T World. The AI personal assistant service ‘A..’ saw its cumulative subscribers increase by 1 million within a quarter due to a major revamp in August, surpassing 5.5 million by the end of September. In October, SK Telecom introduced ‘A.. Call,’ integrating AI features into T Phone, and the PC version of ‘Multi LLM Agent,’ rapidly expanding the scope of AI personal services from calls to LLM searches.
In the mobile business, the 5G subscriber base reached 16.58 million as of the end of September, with 5G customers accounting for 73% of the total. The company has 9.62 million pay-TV subscribers and 7.11 million high-speed internet subscribers. Roaming customers in the third quarter increased by 23% year-on-year to approximately 1.36 million, and the company continues to attract new customers through differentiated roaming services, such as ‘Club T Roaming’ and family roaming plans launched last year.
The enterprise business witnessed 8% growth year-on-year, driven by the expansion of data center and cloud businesses, with cloud business sales alone showing a 30% increase year-on-year. The enterprise AI segment is expected to become a major pillar of future B2B business, given its meaningful contract performance in various industries.
SK Telecom CFO Kim Yang-seop stated, “We are focusing our efforts on the three AI businesses anticipated for rapid monetization, while continually enhancing corporate value through the growth of both telecommunications and AI as key businesses, and maximizing shareholder returns.”