Seoul, South Korea, November 26, 2025- KT Corporation and DigitalBridge have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the development of next-generation, AI-optimised data-centre infrastructure in South Korea, a move that industry observers say could accelerate the country’s push to host large-scale accelerated computing capacity.
The MOU covers joint market studies, site selection, design and operational collaboration across the full life cycle of AI data centre projects and contemplates building facilities tailored for high-density GPU deployments and broad cloud connectivity.
Both parties framed the agreement as exploratory rather than a binding investment commitment, with further commercial terms and project-specific financing to be negotiated following feasibility work.
DigitalBridge, which has signalled increased capital allocations toward AI-era infrastructure in recent fund announcements, said the partnership aligns with its strategy to scale purpose-built AI campuses in key APAC markets. KT presented the tie-up to bolster domestic compute capacity and improve end-to-end connectivity between telco, cloud and data-centre ecosystems. Neither side disclosed a firm timetable or dollar figures in the initial release.
Local and international wires reported the MOU within hours of the announcement, underlining broad syndication of the companies’ statements and an immediate market interest in potential follow-on projects. Analysts note the deal follows similar partnerships in the region that pair global infrastructure capital with local operators to accelerate land assembly, permitting, and grid access, the bottlenecks that typically slow large data centre builds in Asia.
Sector participants say the emphasis on AI-native design signals a shift away from incremental, rack-by-rack expansion toward campus models optimised for dense GPU clusters, advanced cooling and resilient power delivery. For Korea, which is seeking to deepen its AI ecosystem and retain more training and inference workloads domestically, such projects could reduce latency for local users and meet regulatory demands for data localisation.
The MOU gives KT and DigitalBridge a structured process to test market demand and align technical standards before committing capital. If feasibility work proves positive, observers expect subsequent announcements to specify site locations, phased capacities and potential anchor customers, the factors that will determine whether the collaboration translates into multi-site, gigawatt-scale deployments or more modest, regional campuses.
The agreement places South Korea among several APAC markets where international infrastructure investors and local operators are forging partnerships to capture the next wave of AI compute demand, marking a step toward larger, coordinated deployments should economic and regulatory conditions permit.
