SK Telecom 第三季營業利潤增逾十一倍，AI 數據中心收入按季跌 7.4%

SK Telecom’s third-quarter 2026 earnings summary. (Source: SK Telecom)

SK Telecom has recovered profitability after last year’s hacking incident weighed on its earnings. However, revenue from its artificial intelligence (AI) data center business declined from the previous quarter.

SK Telecom said Nov. 4 that it recorded third-quarter revenue of 4.4973 trillion won, operating profit of 552.3 billion won and net profit of 411.8 billion won.

Revenue increased 13% from a year earlier, while operating profit surged 1,040%. Operating profit remained above 500 billion won for the third consecutive quarter since the beginning of this year. Compared with the previous quarter, however, revenue rose 3.2% while operating profit declined 2.4%.

The earnings recovery partly reflected a low comparison base following last year’s hacking incident. After the cyberattack in April 2025, SK Telecom provided customer compensation and discounts on service fees. As a result, operating profit plunged to 48.4 billion won in the third quarter of last year.

A comparison with the third quarter of 2024, before the hacking incident, provides a clearer picture of the recovery. Operating profit was 533.3 billion won at the time, meaning this year’s third-quarter figure was about 3.6% higher. Revenue, however, was 34.8 billion won lower than the 4.5321 trillion won recorded in that period.

The telecommunications business maintained stable performance. Third-quarter mobile revenue increased 21% from a year earlier to 2.5697 trillion won. The sharp year-on-year increase appears to reflect the low comparison base created by customer compensation last year.

The number of 5G subscribers reached 18.094 million, up 121,000 from the previous quarter. Average revenue per user (ARPU) increased 0.7% quarter-on-quarter to 29,297 won.

Subsidiary SK Broadband also contributed to the earnings improvement. Third-quarter revenue rose 2.6% from a year earlier to 1.1728 trillion won, while operating profit increased 51% to 134.7 billion won. Growth in broadband internet subscribers and cost-efficiency measures supported the results.

In contrast, growth in the AI data center business slowed.

According to SK Telecom, third-quarter AI data center revenue increased 6.2% from a year earlier to 126.1 billion won but declined 7.4% from 136.2 billion won in the previous quarter.

The company explained that revenue grew as utilization rates at existing data centers increased and submarine cable traffic expanded. However, a revenue gap emerged in its graphics processing unit-as-a-service (GPUaaS) business during the transition to new long-term contracts.

Revenue from AI services for enterprises and individual consumers reached 70 billion won, up 27% from a year earlier and 14% from the previous quarter.

Combined revenue from AI data centers and AI services for enterprises and consumers totaled 196.1 billion won. That represented a 12% year-on-year increase but a 0.7% decline from 197.5 billion won in the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, SK Telecom is pursuing organizational restructuring and capital investment to expand its AI data center business.

In July, the company established SK Hyper, a specialist in AI data center business development. In August, it announced plans to separate SK Broadband’s data center and submarine cable businesses into a new company, SK Horizon.

SK Telecom signed agreements to secure a total of 3.08 trillion won in investment for SK Horizon from global investment firm KKR and a consortium of IMM Investment and Stonebridge. The company aims to complete the business separation and establish the new entity in the first quarter of 2027.

During the quarter, SK Telecom and SK Broadband spent 461.4 billion won on capital expenditure. An additional 148.6 billion won was invested in SK Hyper’s data center business development, bringing the combined total to 610 billion won.

The company plans to expand its data center infrastructure capacity from the current 137 megawatts (MW) to more than 318 MW after 2030. It intends to scale up the business by building new data centers in Ulsan, the Seoul metropolitan area and other locations.