According to its first-quarter earnings report released on Thursday, SK Telecom posted an operating profit of 537.6 billion Korean won (US$393 million) in the first three months of this year, down 5.3 percent from a year earlier, reflecting a slump in its core telecom business.
Revenue also fell 1.4 percent to 4.39 trillion won, while net profit declined 12.5 percent to 316.4 billion won, sending its shares down 2.2 percent to 93,400 won later in the day.
Its AI data center business, however, emerged as the fastest-growing sector, with revenue up 89.3 percent from a year earlier to 131.4 billion won, driven by higher utilization at new facilities and increased demand for GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS), a cloud computing subscription service that allows individuals and organizations to rent high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs).
SK Telecom is now repositioning itself as an all-in-one AI company offering everything from underlying technology, infrastructure and AI models to consumer apps and services, in a bid to capitalize on growing demand in the emerging AI market.
Meanwhile, smaller rival LG Uplus posted stronger earnings as AI-related infrastructure and mobile service revenue supported profitability. Operating profit reached 272.3 billion won, up 6.6 percent from a year earlier. Revenue rose 1.5 percent to 3.80 trillion won and net profit increased 8.4 percent to 176.0 billion won.
Like SK Telecom, LG Uplus is rapidly expanding its AI offerings for both consumers and businesses. The company is rolling out AI-powered customer service centers, virtual call assistants and autonomous network systems to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
But shares of LG Uplus slipped 0.3 percent to 15,360 won, despite its rosy performance.
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