SK Telecom has launched a GPU as a Service (GPUaaS) offering in South Korea.
The company is the latest to begin offering AI-cloud services and will host the GPUs in its AI Data Center in Gasan, Seoul, South Korea.
Dubbed "SKT GPUaaS," the offering is in partnership with GPU cloud company Lambda, in which SK Telecom is investing to secure "stable GPU supplies and expertise."
The GPUaaS will initially be based on Nvidia H100 GPUs, with Nvidia H200 GPUs expected to be introduced during the first quarter of 2025. SK Telecom will use its AI Cloud Manager, launched in October 2024, to manage GPU resources as if there were a single computer to improve performance.
“The introduction of GPUaaS marks the first instance of our AI Data Center business actively reaching out to customers. This is a crucial step in positioning SK Telecom as a major force in the AI infrastructure arena,” said Kim Myong-gook, head of SK Telecom’s GPUaaS business. “Our goal is to boost our clients' competitiveness by leveraging our GPU as a platform for their AI services.”
Lambda and SK Telecom first announced plans for the collaboration in August 2024, with the companies stating they would deploy Lambda’s AI Cloud platform in SK's Gasan data center later that year, with plans to eventually scale up to support thousands of GPUs.
The Gasan data center launched in 2021, with 10 stories above ground and another five basement floors. At the time, it could support 46MW of IT Load across 69,300 square meters (745,940 sq ft). SKT said that the site can currently support up to 44 kilowatts per rack.
November 2024 saw SK Telecom revealing plans to build gigawatt-scale artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in "key regions" throughout South Korea. The company is reportedly also looking to launch an Edge AI solution.
2024 saw a spate of GPUaaS launches, including by the likes of Singtel, Telekom Malaysia, Lenovo, and Rackspace Technology, among many others.