SK Telecom Spins Off SK Horizon With $2.2B From KKR and IMM to Fund Korea's AI Data Center Buildout

SK Telecom announced on 27 August 2026 that it will spin off its data center and submarine cable operations — currently housed inside subsidiary SK Broadband — into a new company called SK Horizon, backed by a combined KRW 3.08 trillion (roughly $2.2 billion) equity investment from KKR and an IMM Investment-Stonebridge consortium. KKR takes a 29% stake, the IMM group 20%, and SK Telecom keeps 51% and management control. The new entity starts with 318MW across eight operating facilities and is meant to become, in the words of designated CEO Kim Seong-soo, “Korea’s leading data center operator.”

What was actually announced

Per SK Telecom’s own press release, the transaction splits SK Broadband into two companies: a surviving SK Broadband that keeps the fixed-line, media and enterprise business, and SK Horizon, which absorbs the data center and submarine cable assets. The split ratio is set at roughly 0.835 for SK Broadband and 0.165 for SK Horizon. SK Horizon’s starting portfolio is eight operating AI data centers — Seocho, two sites in Ilsan, Bundang, Gasan, Centum, Yangju and Pangyo — totaling 318MW, plus two more under construction in Ulsan and Guro. The KRW 3.08 trillion equity commitment from KKR and the IMM-Stonebridge consortium (independently confirmed by w.media and Alternatives Watch, both citing the same figure) is structured in phases tied to the spin-off’s completion, targeted for Q1 2027 pending regulatory approval.

SK Telecom frames SK Horizon as the financing vehicle for a much larger ambition: a sister entity, SK Hyper, is targeting 5GW of AI data center capacity online by 2029 and 15GW by 2035 as part of a reported roughly $91.5 billion buildout plan for Korea’s Yeongnam region. SK Horizon itself is the near-term, already-cash-flowing piece of that story — existing facilities plus committed pipeline — carved out specifically so outside infrastructure capital can be brought in without diluting SK Telecom’s core telecom business.

What this means for the buyer of power

This is a Korea-specific transaction, but the mechanism is one we’re seeing repeatedly across the region this year: telecom and utility incumbents spinning off data center assets into standalone vehicles to attract infrastructure-fund capital at scale, rather than funding hyperscale buildouts off the core balance sheet. SK Telecom retaining 51% while ceding 49% to KKR and IMM mirrors the structure used elsewhere in APAC when operators need billions for AI-grade capacity fast — capital that public telecom balance sheets can’t absorb alone.

For buyers of colocation and AI capacity in Northeast Asia, the practical signal is supply intent, not immediate price relief: 318MW operating today against a 5GW-by-2029 target means the bulk of new capacity is multiple years out. Our colocation index doesn’t yet carry a Korea benchmark, but as SK Horizon and competing Korean platforms bring capacity online, we’d expect the same pattern seen in Southeast Asia’s catalog — AI-committed capacity pre-leases well before it lands, leaving little spot availability at the point of energization. Buyers evaluating APAC options against our tracked SEA markets should treat Korea as a 2028+ market for uncommitted AI capacity, not a near-term alternative.

What we don’t know yet

SK Telecom hasn’t disclosed a per-MW valuation for the 318MW starting portfolio, nor how much of the KRW 3.08 trillion is earmarked for near-term construction versus balance-sheet strengthening. The relationship between SK Horizon (the spin-off entity) and SK Hyper (the 5GW/15GW growth vehicle) also isn’t fully specified in the announcement — whether SK Hyper’s future capacity eventually folds into SK Horizon, or remains a separate financing track, will matter for anyone trying to size the platform. Regulatory approval for the spin-off is still pending, with completion targeted for Q1 2027.