SK Group’s telecom carrier SK Telecom and investment unit SK Square are investing 50 billion won ($39 million) in game maker Haegin to strengthen its competitiveness in the AI and metaverse service, companies said Friday. 

With each contributing 25 billion won, the two ICT subsidiaries of SK Group will step up as the third largest shareholder of Haegin. 

Haegin, a games company established in 2017 by Lee Young-il, has launched four games globally such as Play Together, a Korean version of Roblox. Play Together allows users to program and play games created by other users. Haegin has garnered over an accumulated 100 billion won in funding. 

SK Telecom and SK Square said that such an investment was part of their scheme to secure future business competitiveness in emerging platform sectors such as “AI-Verse,” a combination of artificial intelligence and the metaverse. 

SKT said it would closely cooperate with Haegin on upgrading game content with immersive setup through devices and technology. The firm aims to extend the concept of the “multiverse” by sharing spaces and avatars with Haegin, as well as launching digital assets that can be used on both of their metaverse platforms. 

“Our collaboration with a global games firm will be a big boost for SKT’s penetration into the global market with AI-Verse, as well as strengthening our service competitiveness,” said Lee Hyun-ah, manager at SKT’s AI&CO. 

“SK Square will seek to secure leadership in the Web 3.0 era with investment in the next platform business,” said Ryu Byung-hoon, SK Square’s managing director.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)