South Korean telco SK Telecom has announced several data center-related partnerships as it looks to build out its AI offerings.

In busy week for the company at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) event in Barcelona, Spain, the telco signed agreements with Elice, Giga Computing, and Schneider Electric to further its AI efforts – with a focus on data center capacity and cooling.

SK embraces modular AI data centers with Elice

At MWC, SK Telecom signed a business agreement for cooperation in the field of AI data center modularity with South Korean firm Elice Group.

Founded in 2015, Elice provides AI education and cloud services – it provides a practice environment to learn and practice AI and a content management system to manage educational materials.

Elice also offers access to GPUs from Nvidia and NPUs from FuriosaAI – with hardware from another vendor, Rebellions, on the roadmap. It has a modular containerized data center offering – the Elice AI Portable Modular Data Center (PMDC) – and is planning to develop an AI Data center in Busan based on its modules. Elice secured $14.9 million in Series C funding last year.

The two companies will jointly build AI data center infrastructure and develop AI solutions. The firms aim to create a testbed that combines the two companies’ AI data center technologies so that “customers can quickly start their business with the Elice AI PMDC and expand the scale of the facility by adding larger capacity AI data centers in parallel to meet growing demand.”

Jae-Won Kim, CEO of Elice, said: “We will lead the next-generation AI infrastructure market through the collaboration of differentiated Elice AI PMDC technology and SKT’s AI DC solution.”

Yoo Young-Sang, CEO of SK Telecom, added: “By leveraging the strength of our modular approach, we plan to speed up the spread of AI data centers and technological innovation, and create business models that can meet the needs of diverse customers.”

SK explores liquid cooling with Giga

This week also saw SK Telecom sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Giga Computing and SK Enmove to jointly develop next-generation cooling solutions.

The three companies will collaborate on R&D efforts validating technologies to optimize liquid cooling performance and developing artificial intelligence data center solutions.

The MoU will focus on both direct to chip and immersion cooling technologies. Giga Computing will contribute its expertise in liquid cooling solutions, while SK Enmove will supply the cooling fluids.

“Our partnership will accelerate the development of liquid cooling solutions, a key next-generation technology for AIDCs,” said Yang Seung-hyun, head of AI R&D center at SK Telecom.

Daniel Hou, general manager of Giga Computing, added: “Through the collaboration with SK Telecom and SK Enmove, Giga Computing will leverage its expertise in liquid cooling solutions to drive energy efficiency and innovation in data center infrastructure.”

SK Telecom has previously partnered with Iceotope on testing liquid cooling tech.

SK joins up with Schneider on M&E for AI

This week also saw SK Telecom announce a strategic partnership with Schneider Electric.

The partners will collaborate on mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems for artificial intelligence data centers (AIDCs). The two companies will first cooperate on the construction and development of hyperscale AI data centers in key regions in South Korea, before expanding globally.

“Our partnership with Schneider Electric, one of the world’s leading AIDC solution providers, will not only strengthen SK Telecom’s competitiveness in AIDCs but also accelerate our global expansion,” said SK’s Young-Sang.

“Through this collaboration, we expect to create powerful synergies by combining SK Telecom’s expertise in AIDC operations with our advance capabilities, ultimately delivering enhanced efficiency and performance in AIDC infrastructure,” added Pankaj Sharma, EVP of Schneider Electric.

SK partners with IonQ on quantum

SK Telecom is also partnering with quantum computing firm IonQ. Under the MoU signed this week, the telco plans to integrate IonQ’s quantum computing technology with its own AI capabilities – including its Personal AI Agent (PAA) services such as A. (A-DoT) and Aster (A*), AI data centers (AIDC), GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS), and Edge AI.

Its unclear if SK Telecom will be deploying any IonQ systems.

As part of the deal, SK Telecom and SK Square will exchange their shares in ID Quantique (IDQ), a global quantum cryptography company, for shares in IonQ.

As part of its focus on AI and computing, SK Telecom has previously invested $200 million in Penguin Solutions and invested in AI cloud firm Lambda. SK Telecom opened the Gasan AI data center in cooperation with Lambda last December as part of the former’s new GPU-as-a-Service offering.

The company said last year it was planning to build gigawatt-scale artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in “key regions” throughout South Korea.

“SK Group is designing and operating eight data centers with a total capacity of 137MW, and has acquired the world’s best AI data center construction capabilities together with member companies and domestic and foreign partners, such as SK Ecoplant’s capabilities in building cutting-edge semiconductor fabs and Penguin Solutions’ optimization solutions,” Young-Sang said on stage at MWC this week.

“We are planning to promote the business through partnerships with companies that possess the highest level of domestic technology in mobile modular data centers,” he added. “Since the modular method has the advantage of rapid construction, we expect to be able to generate revenue within a short period of time.”