South Korea continues to solidify its position as a regional leader in digital infrastructure, technological innovation and development with an advanced digital economy ideal for strategic investments in 5G, AI, and cloud computing, the country is fast becoming a prime location for data center expansion in Asia. 

As the demand for digital services surges, managing infrastructure growth becomes increasingly complex. These advancements are supported by government investments dedicated to design AI specific infrastructures to reduce latency and balance regional capabilities.

Upgrading DCIM: Redefining technology inside the data center for the AI era

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) is a software management system designed to monitor, measure, and manage data center infrastructure by providing a digitalized view of IT assets, power usage, cooling efficiency, and physical space. Its main objective ensures maximum uptime, energy efficiency, and capacity planning to minimize operational costs.

With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), there is a need to update or upgrade DCIM as well to ensure that data centers continue to operate, scale, and optimize facility management fully in future. AI based data center management tools enhance facility operations by providing numerous services that leverage AI/ML and big data. These include data & view consolidation, energy management, data hall monitoring, asset management, maintenance management, and standard operating procedures (SOP). Business support is crucial for maintaining company integrity and growth, especially in colocation management, which involves capacity planning for tenant services that match reports and KPI management.   

South Korea has committed to net-zero emissions by 2050. This has put pressure on the tech sector to reduce carbon emissions. DCIM with AI enables intelligent energy usage for dynamically adjusting cooling systems or leveraging renewable energy forecasts to shift workloads. With the rise of edge computing, IoT, and smart cities (Songdo), the data footprint in South Korea is growing rapidly. AI-enhanced DCIM helps operators manage dense environments without sacrificing performance or reliability. Local regulations, such as the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), demand elevated levels of data security and availability. AI and DCIM support compliance by improving system monitoring, incident response, and audit readiness.

In a recent report titled Data Centre Operation Efficiency, Leveraging AI and Robots BMS and Control systems, Onion Software said, “Finding optimal operation set points of cooling systems and finding anomaly status based on historical data can save 10% of cooling system energy with AI operation.” The report further found, “70~80% of AI Efforts originate from data preparation…with most of the High-Level Points not collected by existing BMS.”

South Korean data centers are deployed in, and serve high-density, high-demand urban regions in Seoul, Busan, and Daejeon. DCIM software functions in both colocation and hyperscale facilities; multiple colocation providers such as Equinix and Digital Realty are designing and integrating DCIM for facility management.

AI in data center operations

By integrating machine learning and AI predictive analytics into DCIM platforms, operators can move from reactive to proactive autonomous data center operations.

AI’s abilities include:

• Predict equipment failure before it occurs using sensor data.
• Optimize cooling based on real-time heat maps and weather conditions.
• Balance workloads across servers to reduce latency and power spikes.
• Automate capacity planning by forecasting future resource needs.

South Korean companies including KT, SK Broadband, and LG CNS are integrating AI into their DCIM workflows and leading initiatives to deploy AI-driven smart data centers which self-optimize and self-analyse.

Global partnerships 

SK Group, South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate has established a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to expand cloud infrastructure in South Korea. The partnership between SK Group and AWS was officially launched in June, 2025. Both companies recently broke ground for an AI-dedicated data center in Ulsan. The data center in Ulsan is scheduled to begin operations by 2027 and is expected to generate up to 78,000 direct and indirect jobs over time as the data center scales and operations expand. 

SK Group will lead the construction of the data center, while AWS will establish the AI Zone in Ulsan, which will deliver a broad selection of AWS’s leading AI and cloud capabilities to customers in South Korea.

The AI Zone in Ulsan will combine industry-leading capabilities from SK Group and AWS through a 15-year partnership to provide top-tier network operations, a semiconductor supply chain, and efficient power infrastructure. This partnership is in addition to AWS’s long-term US $ 5.88 billion planned investment in Korea by 2027.

Meanwhile, SK Telecom launched its new GPUaaS (Graphic Processing Unit as a Service) at its Gasan, AI Data Center (AIDC) Seoul, South Korea in January 2025,. The company has been preparing to launch this on-demand AI cloud service as part of its dedicated AIDC business by investing in Lambda, a global GPU cloud company, to secure stable GPU supplies and expertise. The ‘AI Cloud Manager’ launched last October, manages numerous GPU resources as if they were a single computer to maximize GPU performance and support reducing the learning time required for AI development. 

Building the world’s largest AI data center

Readers would recall that earlier this year, the Government of Jeollanam-do Province approved a 3GW mega AI data centre. The project, a collaboration between LG scion Brian Koo, Dr. Amin Badr-El-Din, and Stock Farm Road, in partnership with Jeollanam-do province. The data centre will be constructed in phases, with an initial investment of over US$ 10 billion (15 trillion KRW) and the potential scale of US$ 35 billion (50 trillion KRW). 

Construction is scheduled for completion by 2028. Upon completion the facility will be the largest AI data centre by capacity, featuring advanced cooling and energy efficiency systems, extensive regional and international fibre bandwidth and infrastructure designed to support significant variations in energy demand from investments in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, next-generation networks, big data, and quantum computing. 

The project is anticipated to generate substantial economic benefits, including job creation across multiple sectors such as energy supply and storage (ESS), renewable energy production, equipment manufacturing and research and development (R&D)

Colocation and Internet Business Exchange establishments in Seoul

Digital Realty the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions in 2022 completed construction of its Digital Seoul 1 (ICN10) data center in South Korea making it the first carrier-neutral facility in the country which will serve as a gateway to global expansion for enterprises in Korea to scale their digital business into new markets globally. The facility is designed to handle Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) workloads from NVIDIA, serving as a key launch pad to help enterprises accelerate their AI and analytics capabilities.

“South Korea is a leading technology and digital hub in Asia Pacific and is set to be one of the fastest growing data center markets in the region. It was the first country to roll out 5G in April 2019 alongside its Smart Cities initiatives, which has led to a rise of data center deployments in South Korea. The opening of our first data center in South Korea today is set to meet the growing demand from enterprises looking to scale their digital footprint across APAC and beyond, as well as deliver greater connectivity, coverage and capacity,” says Mark Smith, Managing Director of APAC, Digital Realty.

Seoul is one of the densest AI scaleup ecosystems in the world, contributing to advancements in AI deep technologies through enhanced digital capability and ecosystems to help enterprises embrace Private AI.

To address this AI growth Equinix, completed its second International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Seoul, named SL4 in Q1 2024. The new data center provides local and international businesses in Korea with the digital capabilities required to accelerate AI adoption.

Since the Equinix SL4 launch, enterprises in Korea have had access to a rich ecosystem of companies, cloud adjacency, global interconnected data ingestion locations, and strategic partnerships with market-leading AI infrastructure providers through Platform Equinix and its on-demand digital services.​

Chris Jang, Managing Director, Equinix Korea, said, “As AI technology continues to advance at a remarkable pace, it has become increasingly important for businesses to transform their IT infrastructure. At Equinix, we are committed to supporting our customers in Korea by providing them with interconnected digital ecosystems and robust digital infrastructure. By expanding our digital platform with SL4, businesses can efficiently connect with tech partners in ecosystems and advanced AI infrastructure.”

Government initiatives

In 2019 South Korea launched its National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence to accelerate strategies to become a global leader in artificial intelligence development and deployment.

Earlier this year, the administration under South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung reiterated the government’s commitment to the country’s bold ambitions when it comes to Artificial Intelligence (AI). The president not only proposed an investment of KRW 100 trillion (US$ 735 billion) into developing a sovereign AI trained on Korean cultural and historical data, also named Ha Jung-woo its first ever Chief Secretary for AI Policy.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) has selected R&D institutions to commence the first-year projects under K-Cloud Technology Development Project in 2023 to utilize domestic AI semiconductors. This role was appointed to the Hyper Accel–Rebellions consortium that composes Korea’s leading companies specializing in semiconductor design. The consortium will lead server development by integrating technologies in infrastructure and hardware domains to incorporate results from computing software and cloud domains to validate the project’s final output. The project was approved by the 5th Comprehensive Committee for National R&D Projects Evaluation in 2024. It will be implemented over six years (2025–2030) with a total budget of KRW 403.1 billion, including KRW 342.6 billion in government funding.

Conclusion

South Korea continues to accelerate its digital ambitions from AI and cloud services to semiconductor leadership. The role of intelligent infrastructure will increase AI-as-a-Service for DCIM, allowing smaller operators to access advanced analytics. 5G and edge integration, with micro data centers managed autonomously at the edge. Integrate sustainability dashboards powered by real-time AI to meet ESG goals and investor ROI. DCIM and AI are operational necessities in South Korea’s data center landscape. The country continues its ascent as a digital powerhouse, these technologies will be central to building the next generation of AI data centers.

Korea Cloud & Datacenter Convention starts on 19 September 2025 at COEX Convention & Exhibition center, Seoul, South Korea. This event explores the latest trends and developments in the South Korean data center sector and the Northeast Asia region as experts, thought leaders and key stakeholders congregate to discuss the challenges and new opportunities that are shaping future digital ecosystems.