'OpenAI-SK Joint Data Center'... Will Haenam or Jangseong Emerge as the Winner?

Haenam: Solaseado Offers Abundant Solar Energy
Jangseong: Superior Living Conditions Near Gwangju City

There is growing interest in whether the joint data center of OpenAI and SK Group will be established in Jangseong County or Haenam County, both located in South Jeolla Province.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Pine Data Center is taking place in Jangseong County on the 15th. Provided by Jangseong County

According to South Jeolla Province and Jangseong County on April 17, SK Group is reportedly considering two locations as candidates for the data center: the Solaseado complex in Haenam and the High-tech District 3 in Jangseong, and is currently undergoing internal discussions.

On October 1 last year, Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, to build an AI data center in the southwestern region of Korea. The data center that OpenAI and SK plan to build will have 10,000 GPUs, which is about one-sixth the scale of the SK AI Data Center Ulsan (with 60,000 GPUs), a project where SK Group is collaborating with Amazon.

Solaseado in Haenam, one of the sites being considered by SK, is evaluated as suitable for data center operations due to its abundant solar power resources and a power generation facility with a capacity of 98 MW. It also offers plentiful cooling water necessary for operating a data center, and the site is both large and inexpensive, resulting in lower fixed costs.

High-tech District 3, which stretches across Nam-myeon and Jinwon-myeon in Jangseong, is closer to the Seoul metropolitan area compared to Haenam and is also adjacent to the large city of Gwangju, which is seen as an advantage.

Compared to Haenam, Jangseong offers better living conditions, making it easier for employees to settle if the construction of the data center begins immediately. South Jeolla Province is taking a cautious stance, noting that the final site selection should be decided by the company. The provincial government plans to provide infrastructure such as substation facilities and residential complexes according to the company's requirements.

Some have speculated that since the Samsung SDS consortium has selected the Solaseado Data Center Park site in Haenam for the national artificial intelligence (AI) computing center, the OpenAI data center may instead be established near Gwangju.

Regarding this, an official from Jangseong County stated, "Jangseong County has long worked to establish an advanced industrial belt by lifting the greenbelt designation on the Nano Technology Second General Industrial Complex and through land acquisition. We understand that SK is still coordinating internally to decide between Haenam and Jangseong. Although nothing has been decided yet, Jangseong offers sufficient competitiveness, with its vast land area and abundant renewable energy."

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