Korea’s Leading Telco to Add NVIDIA-Powered AI Cloud Capacity Built on NVIDIA DSX AI Factory Architecture to Accelerate AI Startups, Robotics and Industrial Physical AI SK Telecom and NVIDIA today announced that SKT plans to build a gigawatt-scale AI Cloud in Korea using the NVIDIA DSX™ platform with the first AI factory coming online in 2027. An AI Cloud is large-scale AI infrastructure comprised of AI factories that manufacture tokens, building blocks of intelligence, from data. Unlike conventional large-scale providers offering general-purpose cloud services, AI Clouds specialize in GPU-based cloud computing tailored specifically for AI workloads across training, inference and agentic AI. SKT’s AI Cloud will be built on NVIDIA DSX full stack reference architecture of software, hardware and operations producing the lowest cost tokens at maximum energy efficiency. SKT’s AI Cloud will power training, inference and agentic workloads including sovereign, physical and enterprise AI services for companies and industries across Korea, with the vision to expand to greater Asia regions. The initiative reflects Korea’s role as one of the world’s most advanced pro-AI industrial economies. Korean companies lead in telecommunications, memory, semiconductors, manufacturing, robotics, mobility and consumer technology — industries where AI is moving from research labs and chatbots into secure, production-grade deployments. “Telecom networks are becoming national AI infrastructure,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “They connect people, companies, devices and machines — and now they can become the backbone of new AI clouds. With NVIDIA DSX, SK Telecom can build Korea’s AI cloud at scale and bring agents, enterprise and physical AI to the companies and industries that power Korea and the world.” “Through our close partnership with NVIDIA, we have now secured full-stack AI infrastructure capabilities, from chips to data center operations,” said Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group. “We will work with NVIDIA to tackle GPU, memory, and energy challenges and become a leading AI cloud company shaping Asia’s AI ecosystem.” SK Telecom AI Cloud to Scale Agentic and Physical AI for Industries and Enterprises The new SK Telecom AI Cloud is designed to serve rising demand for AI infrastructure, as accelerated AI computing growth continues to increase. The new infrastructure builds on SK Telecom’s leadership in physical AI and agentic AI development. At GTC Taipei last week, SK Telecom announced its latest work in applying digital twins to SK hynix semiconductor fabs using NVIDIA Omniverse™ libraries, optimizing the technology for complex, large-scale manufacturing environments. In April, SK Telecom revealed that it has adopted open source NVIDIA Nemotron™ datasets to train the A.X K1 model as part of the Korea government’s Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project. Moreover, as part of this collaboration, SKT will become an NVIDIA Cloud Partner, joining a global program through which participants use NVIDIA’s latest AI infrastructure, software and developer ecosystem to deliver excellent AI performance and economics through AI cloud services. NVIDIA DSX Platform Delivers Rapid Design, Ultraefficient Operations The NVIDIA DSX platform is engineered from the ground up with extreme codesign for AI factories, built and operated to drive lowest token cost and accelerate time to first production across NVIDIA chips, systems, software, facilities and partner technologies. NVIDIA DSX MaxLPS™ software delivers the lowest token cost by maximizing token performance per megawatt. NVIDIA DSX OS™ is the operating layer that helps providers increase revenue and improve margins with open source, modular software for lifecycle management, runtime consistency, health automation, resiliency and multi-tenant AI factory operations. NVIDIA and SK Group to Pursue Joint Research for Next-Gen AI Infrastructure NVIDIA and SK Group today announced plans to pursue joint research to codevelop nextgeneration AI factory architecture, extending their collaboration beyond infrastructure deployment. The companies will focus on silicon-to-grid innovation across accelerated computing, memory technologies and data center operations. NVIDIA and SK Group companies including SKT will also explore projects for full-stack AI factory optimization to drive more efficient, scalable and resilient AI services.

SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, hereinafter referred to as “SKT”) announced today that it has applied digital twins to SK hynix semiconductor fabs using NVIDIA Omniverse libraries, optimizing the technology for complex, large-scale manufacturing environments. Last year, SKT completed a proof of concept (PoC) for applying digital twin technology to SK hynix semiconductor fab. The company plans to proceed with commercialization in phases, aligning with SK hynix’s roadmap to establish an “Autonomous Fab” by 2030. Digital twins recreate actual factories and equipment in virtual environments, enabling companies to simulate and verify the impact of process changes and equipment layout adjustments in advance. By enabling simulation of a wide range of scenarios in virtual environments, digital twins are gaining attention as a core physical AI technology that reduces trial and error while supporting data-driven decision-making. Using the NVIDIA Agent Toolkit, SKT has also developed “Agentic Digital Twin Modeling” technology, which automates and intelligently processes diverse data—such as equipment and spatial structures at manufacturing sites—for digital twin environments. This technology enhances the efficiency of data conversion, scene optimization, and performance improvement tasks that arise during the development and operation of digital twins in manufacturing environments. In particular, SKT is enhancing its platform by integrating NVIDIA Omniverse libraries to improve the loading speed of large-scale OpenUSD-based 3D scenes, execution performance, and GPU and memory usage efficiency. Through this, the company plans to implement a stable and scalable digital twin environment even in complex manufacturing environments with massive data volumes, such as semiconductor fabs. “Semiconductor fabs are among the most challenging manufacturing environments, combining massive amounts of 3D data, complex equipment structures, and the need for high level optimization,” said Mike Geyer, head of industrial digital twins at NVIDIA. “SKT has demonstrated a high level of technical capability in applying and validating NVIDIA Omniverse libraries, as well as the NVIDIA Agent Toolkit in real-world industrial settings within this environment.” “Through our collaboration with NVIDIA, we have validated that manufacturing digital twins can evolve beyond simple 3D visualization into a physical AI platform capable of understanding and optimizing large-scale 3D manufacturing data,” said Cho Ik-hwan, Head of Physical AI at SKT. “Going forward, SKT will continue to expand its role as a physical AI technology partner with NVIDIA across various industrial sectors, including semiconductors.” Meanwhile, as a provider equipped with end-to-end AI solutions — from AI infrastructure and models to services — SK Telecom plans to expand and strengthen its business targeting the enterprise and public sectors.

SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, hereinafter referred to as “SKT”) announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of National Defense (MND) on “Applying the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT)’s Sovereign AI Foundation Model to Defense Sector” to accelerate defense AI transformation (AX). The agreement marks the first application of MSIT’s Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project in the defense sector. The initiative represents a public-private-military collaboration aimed at expanding the AI ecosystem and strengthening the nation’s AI competitiveness. The signing ceremony was held at SKT’s headquarters in Seoul with the attendance of Kim Myung-gook, Head of Industrial AI Office at SKT, and Jeon Joon-boem, Director General of the Defense AI Planning Bureau at MND. Under the MOU, SKT and MND will cooperate on developing and demonstrating defense specialized AI models based on the Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project; collecting and utilizing publicly available defense data; and utilizing GPUs provided as part of MSIT’s National AI Project. This partnership is expected to significantly improve the efficiency of defense administrative operations. This MOU was established as a follow-up measure under MSIT’s Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project, aimed at accelerating digital transformation by applying AI to the defense sector. This milestone builds on the SKT Consortium’s success in January, when it qualified for the project’s second phase with ‘A.X K1’ — Korea’s first hyperscale AI model, featuring more than 519 billion parameters. This collaboration is significant in that it goes beyond model development to validate real-world applicability. SKT will spearhead the development of defense-specialized AI models, leveraging its capabilities in large language model (LLM) development and GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) infrastructure. The company plans to apply lightweighting technologies to its A.X K1 and A.X K2, the next model in the A.X K series currently in development, and further train them with defense-specific data to create AI models optimized for the defense environment. In particular, the defense sector is uniquely characterized by its demand for the highest levels of security and data sovereignty. This collaboration carries significant meaning as it represents the first step toward introducing sovereign AI to safeguard national defense autonomy. SKT plans to provide MND with lightweight versions of its models, optimized for reduced size and faster processing speed. MND will provide SKT with GPU resources secured through MSIT’s National AI Project during the second quarter of this year. SKT will leverage these resources to develop and pilot high performance AI models, while strengthening the collaborative framework built on national R&D infrastructure. “Through this agreement, we expect to rapidly develop and demonstrate a defense specialized AI model based on the Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project, which could serve as a turning point for taking defense AI transformation to the next level,” said Jeon Joon-boem, Director General of the Defense AI Planning Bureau at MND. “To effectively introduce AI across the defense sector, we will continue to expand cooperation with the private sector, including SKT.” “This collaboration will serve as a pivotal moment for our proprietary AI technology to be deployed at scale across the defense sector,” said Choi Dong-won, Director General of the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Policy Bureau at MSIT. “We will actively support defense AI transformation by combining the private sector’s outstanding technological capabilities with the government’s GPU infrastructure, and in doing so, create a virtuous cycle that energizes the AI ecosystem in Korea.” It is deeply meaningful to contribute to strengthening Korea’s national defense competitiveness based on SKT’s integrated capabilities spanning AI technology, data centers, and telecommunications,” said Kim Myung-gook, Head of Industrial AI Office at SKT. “Going forward, we will continue to expand AI adoption across sectors where data sovereignty and security are paramount — including finance, manufacturing, healthcare, and the public sector — to further advance Korea’s AI competitiveness.”

SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM, hereinafter referred to as “SKT”) today announced its consolidated earnings for the first quarter of 2026, based on Korean International Financial Reporting Standards (K-IFRS): revenue of KRW 4.3923 trillion, operating income of KRW 537.6 billion, and net income of KRW 316.4 billion. Revenue increased 1.5% quarter over quarter (QoQ), driven by a recovery in the wireless business and growth in the AI Data Center (AIDC) business. Through company-wide productivity improvement efforts, operating income exceeded KRW 500 billion on a quarterly basis for the first time since the first quarter of last year. Following a period of subdued performance last year, SKT posted a clear turnaround in the first quarter of 2026, driven by efforts to innovate customer value and restore trust. The company’s AI business, built on a strategy of focus and selectivity, also improved its profitability and delivered tangible results. On a non-consolidated basis, the company reported revenue of KRW 3.1058 trillion, operating income of KRW 409.5 billion, and net income of KRW 332.7 billion. SKT also reinstated its quarterly dividend, with a dividend of KRW 830 per share for the first quarter. Handset subscribers up 210,000 as trust restoration efforts bring customers back SKT achieved net additions of approximately 210,000 handset subscribers in the first quarter of 2026. Mobile service revenue increased 1.7% QoQ. These results are attributable to the company’s commitment to placing customers at the core of its business and implementing a range of measures to strengthen fundamental competitiveness. SKT recently revamped its membership program to expand customer benefits and improve ease of use. The company is also advancing a restructuring of its rate plans to further enhance customer choice. SK Broadband, the company’s fixed-line subsidiary, recorded revenue of KRW 1.1498 trillion and operating income of KRW 116.6 billion, up 3.2% and 21.4% year over year (YoY), respectively, driven by growth in high-speed internet subscribers. AI Data Center business accelerates, fuelling full-scale push into AI B2B market SKT’s AI business is delivering tangible results through its strategy of focus and selectivity. The AIDC business, a key growth engine, recorded revenue of KRW 131.4 billion in the first quarter, surging 89.3% YoY. Performance was driven by higher utilization rates at data centers including the Gasan (Seoul) data center, as well as increased revenue from GPUaaS (GPUas-a-Service)*, adding further momentum to the business. *A service that provides GPU resources in a cloud-based model according to customer demand As AI infrastructure demand from global Big Tech companies accelerates rapidly, SKT plans to reinforce its competitiveness across the full AIDC value chain and continuously expand its infrastructure footprint. The company will also broaden its push into the AI Business-to-Business (B2B) market. As the only domestic provider with full-stack capabilities spanning AI infrastructure, models, and services, and drawing on its accumulated experience in the enterprise business, SKT plans to make a full-scale entry into the AI B2B market going forward. To this end, the company has recently established an integrated organization to drive enterprise business, reporting directly to the CEO. In the AI Business-to-Consumer (B2C) space, SKT plans to enhance its fundamental competitiveness by creating synergies between the AI agent business and the telecommunications industry. In particular, its flagship AI service ‘A.’ (pronounced “A-dot”) is set to enhance its performance by leveraging a sovereign AI foundation model on par with leading global models, thereby strengthening its standalone competitiveness. “The first quarter of 2026 was a meaningful period in which we delivered tangible results in line with this year’s goals — strengthening fundamental competitiveness centered on customer value and restoring profitability through a focused AI business,” said Park Jong-seok, CFO of SK Telecom. “Going forward, we will make every effort to restore our earnings by generating sustained results.” ※ The conference call in regard to SKT’s 1Q 2026 earnings results can be heard via SKT’s webpage on Thursday, May 7, from 16:00 Seoul Time. https://irsvc.teletogether.com/skt/skt2026Q1_eng.php ※Attachment 1.Summary of Consolidated Income Statement(Unit: KRW billion) Type 26.1Q 25.1Q YoY 25.4Q QoQ Revenue 4,392.3 4,453.7 △1.4% 4,328.7 1.5% Operating Income 537.6 567.4 △5.3% 119.1 351.3% Net Income 316.4 361.6 △12.5% 97.0 226.2% ※Attachment 2.Summary of Non-Consolidated Income Statement(Unit: KRW billion) Type 26.1Q 25.1Q YoY 25.4Q QoQ Revenue 3,105.8 3,167.5 △1.9% 3,083.7 0.7% Operating Income 409.5 482.4 △15.1% 130.8 213.2% Net Income 332.7 474.6 △29.9% 106.0 214.0%

SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM, hereinafter referred to as “SKT”) announced today that its new AI recommendation model, which more accurately identifies customers’ true preferences, was presented at a leading AI conference, the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) 2026. ICLR, along with the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) and the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), is regarded as one of the world’s top three AI conferences. Technologies presented at these events see industrial application within a few years or become benchmarks for academic research and product development, making them key indicators of the future direction of AI. The research paper, titled “More Than What Was Chosen: LLM-Based Explainable Recommendation Beyond Noisy User Preferences,” centers on SKT’s proprietary ConflictAware Direct Preference Optimization (C-APO) technology. The technology filters out conflicting preference signals, enabling more accurate recommendations of products that customers genuinely desire. To achieve this, SKT introduced the concept of “coherent preference” — reflecting recurring patterns and contextual coherence across a customer’s overall behavior. Through this approach, the model distinguishes coherent preferences from revealed preferences derived from single actions, such as accidental clicks or one-time, unintentional choices. This approach increases the learning weight when the two preference signals align, reinforcing the recommendation. When the signals conflict, the model treats the discrepancy as noise and lowers the learning weight, enabling it to identify the most appropriate recommendations. Conventional AI recommendation systems have struggled to interpret conflicting preference signals — for example, a customer who typically watches romance films may receive only action recommendations after watching even a single action movie based on a friend’s suggestion. SKT’s new recommendation model, however, filters out such inconsistencies to identify the customer’s true preferences. SKT plans to apply this research to future agent-based customer recommendation systems that integrate AI for interpreting usage context, generating recommendation candidates, and refining results through an orchestration layer. The company aims to deliver more advanced and personalized recommendations tailored to each customer’s needs and behavior. “The technology lays the foundation for delivering personalized recommendations by better understanding customers’ true preferences,” said Seok Ji-hwan, Head of AI/DT Data Office at SK Telecom. “The presentation at ICLR 2026 marks a milestone in SKT’s AI transformation to enhance customer experience, and we will continue to advance AI technologies that customers can benefit from.”

SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, hereinafter referred to as “SKT”) announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Arm and Rebellions to drive innovation in next-generation AI infrastructure. Through this agreement, the three companies will jointly develop a solution that combines Arm’s newly launched AGI CPU and Rebellions’ upcoming RebelCard™, scheduled for release in the third quarter of this year, to enhance AI inference performance. The solution will be tested and verified in SK Telecom’s AI data centers. Arm AGI CPU is optimized for high-density inference environments and large-scale AI deployment. Rebellions’ ‘RebelCard™’ is an AI accelerator chip specialized for large-scale AI inference. Recently, heterogeneous computing architectures that combine CPUs and AI accelerator chips are gaining significant attention in the AI server market. In this structure, the CPU handles general-purpose computing such as data processing and system operation, while the AI accelerator chip is dedicated to AI inference computation. Compared to GPU-based servers, this architecture offers higher power efficiency and processing efficiency for AI inference tasks, as well as reduced operating costs. As a result, it is recognized as an efficient server architecture for data centers running large-scale AI services. SKT plans to deploy servers equipped with this solution in its AI data centers to validate performance and stability. In particular, the company is reviewing the possibility of operating its sovereign AI foundation model, A.X K1, on these servers. Through this collaboration, SKT aims to secure low-power, high-efficiency AI inference infrastructure and further strengthen its competitiveness in the AI data center business. Arm is a leading AI compute platform powering the world’s most advanced technologies. While Arm has traditionally focused on chip design, the company on March 24 announced the launch of its first Arm-designed silicon, Arm AGI CPU — a data center CPU optimized for high-density inference environments and large-scale AI deployment. In March, at the “Arm Everywhere” event, Arm and Rebellions combined their respective chips to deliver a live demonstration of an agentic AI service based on OpenAI’s GPT OSS 120B, highlighting the potential applicability of this heterogeneous CPU–accelerator architecture to large-scale data center workloads. Lee Jae-shin, Head of AI Business Development at SK Telecom, said, “By offering a full package that combines infrastructure optimized for inference with our sovereign AI foundation model A.X K1, we will further enhance the competitiveness of our AI data centers.” Eddie Ramirez, Vice President of Go-to-Market, Cloud AI Business Unit, Arm, said, “The rapid growth of AI inference is driving demand for new data center infrastructure designed for large scale deployments. Partners like SK Telecom and Rebellions played an important role in helping us build the Arm AGI CPU and modernize AI inference infrastructure.” Oh Jin-wook, CTO of Rebellions, said, “By providing our ‘RebelCard’—which offers overwhelming performance and power efficiency—alongside our full-stack software, Rebellions has become a core pillar supporting next-generation AI data centers. We expect this ‘one-team’ collaboration of experts to serve as a significant precedent in the industry for building AI-specialized infrastructure.”

SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, hereinafter referred to as “SKT”) and Japan’s leading mobile operator NTT DOCOMO, INC. today announced the release of a white paper on the key enabling features for vRAN1¹evolution and the path to AI-RAN2²(the white paper), as the latest outcome of their ongoing technical cooperation. The white paper reviews the prospects for further enhancement and advancement of vRAN and AI-RAN – which means intelligent RAN utilizing AI capability – for mobile operators, as well as the associated technical requirements and enabling technologies based on the two companies’ combined experience in mobile network construction and operation. It aims to promote the evolution of vRAN and AI‑RAN by encouraging closer collaboration between mobile network operators and equipment vendors in the development of vRAN software. The white paper analyzes three key technical requirements that are essential to maximizing the benefits of advanced vRAN and AI-RAN. 1. Strict separation of hardware and software to accelerate new feature introduction By functionally separating RAN software from specific hardware and virtualization platforms, vRAN allows software to be deployed independently from underlying infrastructure, thereby accelerating software‑driven innovation. Such strict separation of hardware and software is identified as a critical factor in the advancement of vRAN and AI‑RAN. 2. Resource pooling for flexible infrastructure and improved resource utilization In addition to strict hardware-software separation, resource pooling technologies can enable capacity improvements and reductions in power consumption, without compromising service quality, by realizing flexible infrastructure and improving resource utilization. The further development and adoption of this feature could help mobile operators strengthen their competitiveness by supporting more efficient and adaptable network operations. 3. Realization of AI computing capabilities (AI-RAN) by leveraging vRAN systems Leveraging resource orchestration technologies and an xPU³‑based architecture enables base stations to provide AI computing capabilities without compromising the quality of mobile communication services. This approach aims to evolve vRAN from a mobile communication platform into an integrated AI platform capable of delivering both mobile communication connectivity and AI services. “This white paper is a meaningful achievement as it presents, from a mobile operator’s perspective, the key features essential for maximizing the benefits of vRAN adoption and for the future evolution toward AI-native networks. We are pleased to have delivered this outcome through our close collaboration with DOCOMO, and we hope it will serve as a catalyst for fostering the broader ecosystem and contribute to the global advancement of next‑generation mobile networks,” said Yu Takki, Head of Network Technology Office at SK Telecom. “We are pleased that as a result of the technical collaboration with SKT, which began in November 2022, we have jointly published the white paper on the key enabling features for vRAN evolution and the path to AI-RAN. We hope to further strengthen cooperation between the two major mobile operators in East Asia and to share advanced concepts and innovative technologies with the world to realize the 6G era,” said Masafumi Masuda, General Manager of Radio Access Design Department, Senior Vice President, NTT DOCOMO, INC. DOCOMO and SKT signed a cooperation agreement in November 2022⁴to advance technology studies of next-generation telecommunications infrastructure for 5G Evolution and 6G. In February 2023⁵, they jointly released two white papers on power-saving technologies for mobile networks and related technologies, as well as 6G requirements. Furthermore, in February 2024⁶, they published a white paper on key considerations for vRAN deployment and operation, focusing on L1 accelerator selection aligned with network design and requirements. Going forward, DOCOMO and SKT will continue their technical cooperation in various fields, including enhancing the competitiveness and operational efficiency of 5G, as well as international standardization and technology verification towards 6G. Through these efforts, they aim to share their knowledge and innovative technologies with the world and contribute to the further advancement of 5G Evolution and 6G mobile communications. ※ Read the white paper, “Key Enabling Features for the Evolution of vRAN and the Path to AI-RAN”: https://bit.ly/4sunsGB ¹Technologies that operate mobile base stations as software using general-purpose servers, hardware accelerators, and virtualization platforms. ²Technologies that integrate AI into the RAN (Radio Access Network) by running AI applications on the RAN infrastructure. ³A general term for information processing units such as CPU and GPU. ⁴SKT Joins Hands with NTT DOCOMO for Comprehensive Cooperation in ICT (November 21, 2022)https://www.sktelecom.com/en/press/press_detail.do?idx=1549, NTT DOCOMO and SK Telecom to Collaborate on Technological Advancement of Metaverse, Digital Media and 5G/6G (November 22, 2022)https://www.docomo.ne.jp/info/news_release/2022/11/21_00.html(in Japanese only) ⁵SK Telecom and DOCOMO Release White Papers on Green Mobile Networks and 6G Requirements (February 22, 2023)https://www.sktelecom.com/en/press/press_detail.do?idx=1557&, NTT DOCOMO and SK Telecom Release White Papers on Green Mobile Networks and 6G Requirements (February 22, 2023)https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2023/0222_00.html ⁶SK Telecom and NTT DOCOMO Release White Paper on Key Considerations for vRAN (February 20, 2024)https://news.sktelecom.com/en/559, NTT DOCOMO and SK Telecom Release White Papers on Base Station Equipment Utilizing Virtualization Technology (February 20, 2024)https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2024/0220_00.html

SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, hereinafter referred to as “SKT”) and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen their collaboration on mobile network technologies spanning 5G to future 6G. The agreement underscores the two companies’ shared commitment to driving innovation in next-generation connectivity. Under the agreement, the two companies will explore joint initiatives across key technology areas, including: · AI-powered Radio Access Networks (AI-RAN) to enhance performance, security, and energy efficiency by autonomously learning, predicting, and optimizing channel conditions, as well as managing resources more efficiently. · 5G advancements to unlock new business opportunities and enable next-generation services. · Open and autonomous networks to improve productivity and operational efficiency., aiming to enhance productivity and operational efficiency in multi-vendor environments. · End-to-end security built on zero trust architecture and continuous monitoring, providing stronger protection and real-time threat response across both 5G Advanced and 6G environments. · 6G standardization and future technologies such as spectrum strategy, extreme MIMO evolution, energy efficiency, and Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC). Through joint research, SKT and Ericsson aim to strengthen their global collaboration framework and secure a leading position in the 6G technology ecosystem, driving the evolution of next-generation AI-powered networks. This collaboration will establish a framework for ongoing technology evolution, enabling the practical deployment of innovations in the 5G era while laying the foundation for long term 6G research and standardization. The MoU is effective until March 2, 2031, and focuses on joint exploration and validation of cutting-edge network technologies. “Our collaboration with Ericsson will be a core engine propelling the evolution of AI-powered networks, paving the way toward 6G,” says Yu Takki, Head of Network Technology Office at SK Telecom. “Through research focused on global standardization and real-world validation, we aim to secure world-class technological leadership in AI-powered network evolution and 6G.” Mårten Lerner, Head of Networks Strategy and Product Management at Ericsson, said: “We’re pleased to deepen our partnership with SK Telecom to accelerate AI‑powered RAN, 5G monetization, open autonomous networks and zero‑trust security — while laying the groundwork for AI‑native 6G. Together we’ll move rapidly from standards and trials to commercial solutions that boost performance, energy efficiency and security — strengthening South Korea’s leadership in next‑generation connectivity.”

SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, hereinafter referred to as “SKT”) announced that its Recommendation, “Signalling Requirements and Architecture for Artificial Intelligence Data Centers (AIDC),” was officially approved as an international standard at the ITU-T* Study Group 11 (SG11) meeting held in Geneva earlier this month. *ITU-T, the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union, is a leading global body responsible for developing international standards for information and communication technologies, with participation from 190+ member states and 900+ organizations. With the approval of this standard, a global benchmark for AIDC system interconnection has been established, further strengthening the foundation for the development and operation of AI infrastructure worldwide. SKT proposed a standardization work item titled “Interconnection Structure and Methods for AI Data Centers” to ITU-T in May 2024, which was approved as a new standardization project. Following related discussions, the final standard was officially approved at the ITU-T SG11 meeting in March 2026. ■ Increasing Complexity of Data Centers with AI Expansion Calls for Interconnection Standards With the increasing complexity of data center system interconnection architectures driven by the proliferation of AI services, there is a growing need for global standards to define interconnection and signalling requirements for data center operations. In particular, AIDCs are complex infrastructures that not only handle large-scale computational processing, but also integrate various systems such as power, cooling, storage, security, and resource management. This results in a higher structural complexity compared to conventional data centers. Amid these changes, the industry has consistently called for global standards that define signalling and interconnection methods among internal AIDC systems. This newly approved standard organizes the interconnection structure and signalling requirements among internal AIDC systems, providing a global technical benchmark for data center operation and service delivery. ■ Defining AI Data Center Architecture Based on Three Layers: Service, Management, and Infrastructure The new standard classifies the main functions of AIDCs into a three-layer architecture—Service, Management, and Infrastructure—and systematically defines the roles and functions of each layer, as well as the signalling requirements for interconnection between them. The Service Layer is responsible for functions such as service-level authentication and authorization, service status monitoring, and overall service management. The Management Layer handles data center-level authentication and authorization, operational management, resource allocation, and cybersecurity. The Infrastructure Layer encompasses the core AI infrastructure, energy systems, and cooling systems that support operations of the data center. Together, these layers serve as higher-level concepts that organize various components and function blocks, ensuring that the AIDC operates efficiently and securely through clearly defined roles and systematic interconnection. This can be likened to an airport, where airlines, air traffic control, and runway infrastructure coordinate operations by exchanging signals—similarly, the standard defines how internal systems within an AIDC interoperate organically through signalling. SKT expects that the approval of this standard will serve as a catalyst for the global adoption of AIDCs by enterprises and organizations. The company also explained that this achievement was made possible through collaboration with various SK Group affiliates and years of accumulated expertise and technology development in the AI and ICT fields. “The approval of this standard is significant as it recognizes SKT’s accumulated expertise and operational know-how in AI Data Centers,” said Choi Dong-hee, Head of AI Strategy Planning Office at SK Telecom. “Moving forward, SKT will continue to strengthen its technological competitiveness across AI infrastructure, operations, and services through SK Group’s capabilities and global collaboration, contributing to international standardization and the expansion of the global AI ecosystem.”

SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, hereinafter referred to as “SKT”) today announced that it has been honored at the prestigious GSMA Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO) 2026, held during MWC Barcelona 2026 (MWC26), for its ‘Haein’ GPU cluster. With this latest achievement, SKT has won the ‘Best Cloud Solution’ category for three consecutive years at the GLOMO Awards, once again demonstrating its proven competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and cloud services on the global stage. The award-winning Haein is a high-performance GPU infrastructure built as a single cluster integrating more than 1,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. Through this infrastructure, SKT provides GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS), delivering a stable and scalable computing environment optimized for large-scale AI model training and inference workloads. In addition, Haein has also been selected for the Ministry of Science and ICT’s program to strengthen the foundation for the utilization of AI computing resources and is currently supporting the development of Korea’s Sovereign AI Foundation Models. “We are deeply honored that our Haein cluster has been recognized at the globally renowned GLOMO Awards,” said Kim Myung-gook, Head of GPUaaS Business at SK Telecom. “We will continue to expand Korea’s sovereign AI ecosystem and further strengthen the nation’s position in the global AI landscape.” SK Telecom’s Evolution Reflected Through Its GLOMO Recognition A review of SK Telecom’s GLOMO award history — from its first win in 2013 to a total of 24 awards as of this year — clearly illustrates the company’s strategic evolution from a network innovator, through its expansion into service platforms, to its current position as an AI infrastructure powerhouse. Phase 1: Network Technology Leadership (2013–2018) During this period, SKT gained global recognition for its leadership in network technology, driven by its pioneering commercialization of LTE and LTE-A. Receiving the CTO’s Choice Award validated both the company’s technological excellence and its successful commercialization achievements. Subsequent awards for network virtualization and next-generation management solutions further solidified SKT’s leadership in transforming telecommunications infrastructure from a hardware-centric architecture into a software-defined infrastructure. Key award-winning technologies: · LTE-A network technology (2014) · Quality of Experience (QoE)-based SDN control technology (2016) Phase 2: Expansion into Data-Driven Service Platforms (2019–2021) Building upon its strong network capabilities, SKT expanded into data-driven platform businesses spanning mobility, content and social value initiatives. During this phase, the company went beyond advancing telecommunications technologies to applying its capabilities to address social challenges, linking technological innovation with ESG-based sustainable growth strategies. Key award-winning services: · T Map (2019) · Happy Coding School for Adolescents with Special Needs (2020) Phase 3: Transformation into an AI Company (2022–Present) SKT is accelerating its transformation into an AI-centered company, expanding its business scope from AI-driven services to AI infrastructure. By integrating AI across diverse domains including mobility, security, and cloud, the company is extending AI beyond service innovation into broader industrial applications. Leveraging AI platforms and cloud infrastructure, SKT is advancing AI as a core technology that drives both industrial competitiveness and ESG value, while accelerating its transition into an AI-native enterprise. Key award-winning solutions: · Litmus (2023) · Petasus AI Cloud (2025)