KT Cloud said it will build 1 gigawatt of artificial intelligence data center capacity within five years, laying out a phased development plan. The company said it aims to win global big tech firms and neocloud operators as customers through a region-specific expansion strategy.
KT Cloud outlined the plan at the KT Cloud Summit 2026, held on Sept. 15 at the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas in Seoul's Gangnam district. "The basic principle of our AI data center supply strategy is to match supply to actual demand," said Kim Bong-kyun, chief executive of KT Cloud. "We plan to add 1 gigawatt of capacity by 2031." Kim said the company will draw on its experience operating the largest number of data centers in Korea over the past 25 years to advance businesses such as liquid cooling and modular data centers.
The company also detailed how it will reach the 1-gigawatt target. KT Cloud will build new AI data centers in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, next year, in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, in 2028 and in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, in 2029. Capacity confirmed so far as of 2029 totals 200 megawatts.
To reach the target, KT Cloud has drawn up separate expansion strategies for the capital region and the provinces. In the capital region, it will expand existing data centers into clusters. Facilities in Seoul's Yeouido and Yeongdeungpo areas would be grouped into a finance-focused cluster, while centers in Cheongna, Incheon, and Bucheon would form a cluster for big tech firms that need large-scale AI storage capacity.
Outside the capital region, expansion potential is the key criterion for development. The aim is to secure large sites and high-power infrastructure to attract major customers. In the Yeongnam region, the company is planning a project centered on Busan that would create synergies between KT's submarine cable infrastructure and AI data centers. In the Honam region, development is focused on sites where land can be easily expanded. By building new data centers nationwide, KT Cloud aims to attract domestic and overseas big tech firms, cloud service providers and neocloud operators as clients.
KT Cloud also announced progress in liquid cooling technology for graphics processing unit servers. The company said it recently became the first Korean firm to begin providing direct-to-chip cooling services for GPU servers to a global big tech client. Direct-to-chip cooling attaches a cold plate carrying coolant directly to the GPU chip to dissipate heat.
