Brian Koo, the son of the late Koo Ja-hong, the first chairman of LS Group, has announced that his co-founded company will construct the world's largest artificial intelligence (AI) data center in South Jeolla Province. Koo is the grandson of Koo Tae-hee, the honorary chairman of LS Cable & System and the younger brother of Koo In-hui, the founder of LG Group.
The American venture company Stock Farm Road posted a press release on its website on the 19th, stating that it plans to build a data center in South Jeolla Province with a power capacity of 3 gigawatts (GW) by 2028. Power capacity refers to the maximum amount of electricity that the data center can be supplied. Operating a data center requires massive amounts of electricity, and a power capacity of 3 GW means that three nuclear power plants, each with a capacity of 1 GW, could be dedicated to this data center. If the plan goes ahead, it will be the largest in the world.
Stock Farm Road is an American corporation established this year to invest in South Korea. It was co-founded by Brian Koo, a third-generation member of the Koo family with connections to LG, and Amin Badr-El-Din, the founder and CEO of BADR Investment, based in London and Jordan. There are currently no records of prior investments.
Stock Farm Road has stated that it will invest between $10 billion and $35 billion (approximately 14 trillion to 50 trillion won) in the construction of the data center, creating about 10,000 new jobs in areas such as energy supply and storage, renewable energy production, and equipment supply. It plans to start construction this year.
According to industry sources, Stock Farm Road contacted South Jeolla Province in December of last year to propose this project. Once the location is determined, the province plans to assist in consolidating landowners with the investors to facilitate land transactions. Jeonnam Governor Kim Yeong-rok and Amin Badr-El-Din, the representative of Stock Farm Road, met on the 5th to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) outlining their mutual cooperation for the data center construction.
However, South Jeolla Province has stated that the data center construction plan has not been finalized. A provincial official noted, "Investment amounts and locations have not been confirmed." The province is expected to announce a rough investment plan for the data center on the 27th of this month.
Some observers believe that Stock Farm Road proposed the data center construction idea to create a large fund in South Korea and attract investors. Recently, as the global artificial intelligence (AI) boom has surged, funds are also flowing into data center construction.