Korea Investment & Securities is joining the development of an artificial intelligence data center in Gunsan as both a financial investor (FI) and lead financing arranger. With a prolonged slump in the real estate project financing (PF) market, the firm is expanding its PF business into new growth infrastructure such as AI and data centers to diversify its revenue sources.
Korea Investment & Securities said on the 26th that it had signed an investment agreement with North Jeolla Special Self-Governing Province, the city of Gunsan and SGC Energy, among others, to develop the Gunsan AI data center.
The signing ceremony, held the previous day at the North Jeolla provincial government office, was attended by Korea Investment & Securities CEO Kim Sung-hwan, North Jeolla Governor Lee Won-taek, Gunsan Mayor Kim Jae-jun, Moon Moon-chul, head of the North Jeolla regional office of the Korea Industrial Complex Corporation, SGC Energy CEO Lee Woo-sung, Na Tae-jun, head of Hyundai Engineering's building sales division, and Ahn Ki-cheong, head of KT's Honam corporate business unit.
The participating institutions agreed to work together to break ground on a 60-megawatt (MW) AI data center in Gunsan within the year. They plan to gradually expand the data center's capacity to 300MW, the largest in the Honam region, to build up North Jeolla's AI industry base.
Korea Investment & Securities will invest directly in the project's dedicated corporate entity while also handling PF financing arrangements. The data center will be built using a modular approach on a site owned by SGC Energy. The firm said the project carries higher stability than typical real estate developments because tenants have been secured in advance.
Korea Investment & Securities has recently been diversifying its PF portfolio around "new economy" infrastructure, including data centers. Since 2021, its cumulative data center PF arrangements have totaled about 2.9 trillion won ($2.1 billion), or roughly 27% of the domestic data center PF market.
The move is seen as a strategy to grow high-potential AI and data center infrastructure financing into a new revenue stream, at a time when uncertainty has deepened in the traditional development PF market amid the real estate downturn.
"We will use the financial expertise the company holds to help North Jeolla Special Self-Governing Province and the city of Gunsan build competitiveness in AI infrastructure," Korea Investment & Securities CEO Kim Sung-hwan said.
