SK Telecom and SK AX said Thursday that they have formed a strategic alliance with Amazon Web Services to jointly drive innovation in artificial intelligence infrastructure and cloud computing services.
Under the three-party agreement, the companies will pool their respective strengths — SK Telecom’s expertise in telecommunications and artificial intelligence, SK AX’s experience in deploying artificial intelligence systems across industries and AWS' global cloud infrastructure — to accelerate digital transformation in key sectors.
The partnership will focus on strengthening artificial intelligence infrastructure, promoting enterprise cloud adoption and delivering bespoke AI solutions. Drawing on their experience with AWS' tools such as Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker, SK Telecom and SK AX plan to develop customized artificial intelligence platforms tailored to specific industries, including financial services, gaming, the public sector and startup ecosystems.
One of the key initiatives is the deployment of a “hybrid AI cloud” model, which integrates SK Telecom’s graphics processing unit resources with AWS’ infrastructure. This hybrid architecture allows sensitive data to be processed locally on-premises, while still leveraging the scalability and flexibility of AWS' global cloud network -- a notable advantage for industries with stringent data privacy and sovereignty requirements, such as finance and manufacturing.
Additionally, the three companies will support enterprise clients in reducing operational costs by analyzing usage patterns of AWS, enabling real-time system monitoring and continuously refining cloud architectures. These efforts aim to lower the total cost of ownership associated with enterprise cloud infrastructure.
Looking ahead, SK Telecom and SK AX plan to work closely with AWS over the next five years to ensure the stable supply of cloud and AI services. The companies also seek to enhance their capabilities as managed service providers, reinforcing their competitiveness in the management and operation of cloud ecosystems throughout their lifecycle.
yeeun@heraldcorp.com
