South Korean Internet firm Kakao is to build a data center in Namyangju, a city in the nation's Gyeonggi province.

Though first announced in May 2025, the company this week provided further details of its plans and signed an investment agreement with local officials.

The KRW 600 billion ($442.3m) investment will see the company develop a 92,000 sqm (990,280 sq ft) AI-focused facility. Work is set to start next year, targeting a 2029 completion date.

Kakao CEO, Jeong Shin-ah, said: “In the era of popularization of AI, Kakao’s goal is to enable all citizens to easily and conveniently use AI services in their daily lives,” adding, “Kakao’s digital hub will be built as a core infrastructure for popularizing AI, and we will continue to cooperate for the development and coexistence of the Namyangju region.”

Set in the Namyangju Wangsuk Urban High-Tech Industrial Complex, it will be Kakao’s second in-house data center and second in Gyeonggi.

Kakao launched a data center in Ansan in June 2024. Located on Hanyang University's Erica campus around 30km south of Seoul, it spans 47,378 sqm (~510,000 sq ft) of data center space and is capable of housing 120,000 servers.

Namyangju Mayor Joo Kwang-deok said: “I am very pleased that through this large-scale investment by Kakao, we can begin in earnest the massive project of transforming the Namyangju industrial ecosystem that I announced last January."

He added: “I will do my best to ensure that Kakao’s decision to choose the Wangsuk Urban High-Tech Industrial Complex brings about maximum results.”

Kakao previously experienced a significant outage in October 2022 due to a fire caused by lithium-ion batteries at an SK Group data center. The outage led to a government investigation and police raids, and Kakao was required to implement an emergency response system and compensate businesses and users that were impacted by the fire.