SKT is embarking on active investment and collaboration with core AI technology companies to evolve into an 'AI company'.

SK Telecom announced on the 28th that it has acquired a stake in the domestic AI technology company Konan Technologies and signed a strategic partnership that includes AI technology cooperation between the two companies.

SKT acquired a 20.77% stake in Konan Technology held by SK Communications for 22.4 billion won (based on the closing price on October 27), becoming the second largest shareholder after CEO Kim Young-seom, who holds 23.9%.

Founded in 1999, Konan Technologies is an AI solution company specializing in search engines and unstructured big data analysis. Based on proprietary AI core technologies, we have secured technological capabilities in the fields of Text AI for Text, which processes natural language, and Video AI for Video, which analyzes video using artificial intelligence.

Konan Technologies stated that 57% of its total workforce consists of R&D personnel, and it invests 30–50% of its annual revenue in AI-related research and development. It has maintained a high growth trend, with an average annual growth rate of 18% from 2018 to 2021, and based on its 23-year history, the proportion of revenue from long-term customers (5 years or more) has reached 55%.

SKT stated that it will enhance its AI service A. (Adot) through this investment and strategic partnership. It also expressed expectations that this will accelerate the evolution of SKT into an 'AI company'.

Through this agreement, the two companies will jointly carry out various AI projects by exchanging and utilizing AI professionals.

We will drive feature differentiation and quality enhancement for A. (Adot) by leveraging Konan Technologies' search and speech synthesis technologies. We will create new B2B markets in collaboration with AI semiconductor company Sapion.

SKT plans to continue strengthening investments and partnerships with companies possessing core AI technologies and capabilities to accelerate the pace of innovation toward achieving its vision of becoming an 'AI Company'. We also plan to more actively pursue investments in startups and strategic collaborations to secure technology and talent for the AI transformation.

SKT expects that the expansion of large corporations' investments, partnerships, and personnel exchanges with AI technology companies will not only strengthen the competitiveness and broaden the base of domestic AI startups but also have a positive effect in allowing the domestic AI ecosystem to take a leap forward.

Lee Sang-ho, CTO of SKT, said, “We expect significant synergy to be created by integrating Konan’s AI technology into the expansion of SKT’s AI business, and we also anticipate that Konan Technologies will be upgraded to the next level through collaboration with SKT.”