SKT Posts Q3 Operating Profit of KRW 498 Billion... Data Centers and Cloud Drive Growth

On November 8, SK Telecom announced that its consolidated revenue for the third quarter of this year was KRW 4.4026 trillion, with an operating profit of KRW 498 billion. Compared to the same period last year, revenue increased by 1.4% and operating profit by 7.0%.

On a separate basis, revenue was KRW 3.1484 trillion, and operating profit was KRW 407.1 billion. SK Broadband reported revenue of KRW 1.0692 trillion, a 2.4% increase compared to the same period last year. Operating profit rose by 4.4% to KRW 83.2 billion.

Growth was driven by enterprise businesses such as data centers and cloud services. The data center business maintained its strong growth trajectory, with revenue increasing by 32.5% year-on-year. Cloud business revenue grew by 38.7% compared to the same period last year. Notably, recurring revenue accounted for over 90% for six consecutive quarters, establishing a stable revenue model.

SKT's board of directors confirmed the third-quarter dividend at KRW 830 per share, the same as the previous quarter. The company is also in the process of repurchasing KRW 300 billion worth of treasury shares, as announced in July. After the buyback is completed, SKT plans to cancel treasury shares worth KRW 200 billion.

SKT plans to strengthen its own competitiveness across three key areas: AI infrastructure, AIX, and AI services, with the goal of driving innovation throughout all industries and aspects of daily life. In line with this, the company declared its ambition to become a 'Global AI Company' in September and announced the 'AI Pyramid Strategy,' which involves simultaneously pursuing 'self-empowerment' to build closer relationships with customers and 'collaboration' with AI alliances and global big tech companies.

Under this strategy, SKT aims to secure and advance infrastructure capabilities that form the foundation of an AI company, including AI data centers, AI semiconductors, and multi-large language models (LLMs). 'AIX' seeks to use AI to innovate existing wired and wireless communications, media, and enterprise businesses, as well as to expand AI applications into areas such as urban air mobility (UAM) and healthcare. In the AI services sector, SKT plans to build close relationships with customers through a world-class AI personal assistant and to expand its scale through cooperation with global telecommunications companies.

The company will also continue efforts to advance and expand overseas its technologies and services such as the AI assistant 'A. (A dot)', the metaverse platform 'ifland', the AI semiconductor 'SAPEON', and urban air mobility (UAM).

Kim Jinwon, SKT's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), stated, "We will strive to ensure that SKT's growth as a global AI company through the AI Pyramid Strategy leads to the maximization of both corporate and shareholder value."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.