"Beyond Telecom to AX Company": KT Launches 18 Trillion Won Future Investment Plan

KT has announced its ambition to transform into an AI Transformation (AX) platform company that leads South Korea's transition to artificial intelligence.

KT CEO Park Yoon-young held his first press conference since taking office on July 6 at the Pullman Ambassador Seoul East-In in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, where he unveiled the core strategies for this transformation.

KT has established two main pillars for its AX platform company: Zero Trust information security, IT, and network infrastructure, and AX infrastructure, B2B, B2C, and new growth AX services.

First, KT will invest 12 trillion won in information security, IT, and networks over the next three years.

Under the principle of Zero Trust, KT plans to redefine its company-wide security system and invest 4 trillion won in information security and IT innovation, a two-fold increase compared to the previous three years.

The company will also invest 8 trillion won in the network sector over the same period.

The plan is to proactively improve network quality to strengthen user experience and competitiveness, while securing leadership in core future network technologies such as 6G, satellite communications, and data center interconnection.

In particular, the company aims to secure South Korea's communication sovereignty by directly controlling and operating multiple geostationary (GEO) and low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites, providing uninterrupted communication networks even in disaster or security situations.

In terms of AI infrastructure, KT will invest 5 trillion won to build an additional 1 gigawatt (GW) capacity AI data center (DC).

By connecting central AI DCs that handle large-scale learning and inference demands with AI edges expanded near industrial sites, the company plans to provide a nationwide ultra-low latency, real-time inference environment essential for the era of physical AI and autonomous driving.

Furthermore, as global demand for submarine cable traffic is expected to surge, KT plans to invest 1 trillion won to increase its submarine cable supply capacity by more than 90 Tbps (terabits per second).

In the service sector, the company will provide industry-specific B2B AX execution tools for fields such as finance, public services, manufacturing, and healthcare.

In the financial sector, KT will expand agentic AI, such as AI Contact Centers (AICC) and sales agents, across different sectors based on its achievements in financial digital transformation (DX) projects.

In the public sector, it will target the government's AX demand, while in the manufacturing and healthcare sectors, it will expand its physical AI business by participating in government pilot projects, such as the Ministry of Science and ICT's robot foundation model verification.

In the B2C area, KT will introduce hyper-personalized B2C AX that puts the control of products and services into the hands of customers.

To resolve inconveniences in existing communication services, the company will implement customer-designed rate plans and benefits, as well as customized services based on usage pattern analysis.

Additionally, KT has decided to launch its token factory and stablecoin businesses in earnest.

Token costs are emerging as a new economic unit in the AI era, as they are considered the biggest bottleneck for AI businesses.

KT will combine its 1 GW-scale AI DCs distributed nationwide with a token optimization engine.

Based on this, the company plans to build a token factory capable of supporting token generation, brokerage, and billing, and grow it into one of KT's representative AX business models.

For stablecoins, the company plans to enter the digital financial platform market.

CEO Park Yoon-young emphasized, "Even in the AX era, where the objects of connection are expanding centered on AI, the essence of KT, which is responsible for South Korea's connectivity, will not change." He added, "We will further solidify the essence of our telecommunications business and, based on that foundation, achieve clear growth to lead South Korea in leaping forward as an AX powerhouse."
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.