Domestic telecommunications companies are intensifying their competition to secure high-performance Graphics Processing Units (GPU). So far, the GPU procurement plans disclosed by these corporations have far exceeded double the quantity targeted by the government. Analysts suggest that the moves by telecommunications companies to secure a large number of GPUs are part of a strategy aimed at entering the 'GPU as a Service' (GPUaaS) market targeted at general corporations.
According to the industry on the 7th, domestic telecommunications companies outlined their current status and plans for GPU acquisition at the world's largest mobile exhibition, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025, held in Barcelona, Spain, this month, where they revealed they would be securing high-performance GPUs, meaning NVIDIA's 'H100' or better.
KT announced that it had secured 10,000 GPUs through Microsoft (MS), while SK Telecom revealed plans to secure a total of 60,000 GPUs. To this end, SK Telecom collaborated with the global cloud company Lambda Labs (hereafter referred to as Lambda) last year. Lambda supplies the latest GPUs from NVIDIA and provides AI cloud services as a service type GPU (GPUaaS) company, with global big-tech companies such as Intel and Microsoft among its clients.
The total amount of GPUs announced by the two companies is 70,000, which is more than double the number of GPUs (30,000) that the Ministry of Science and ICT projected to secure by 2027. According to the industry, it is known that approximately 3,000 GPUs had entered the country as of the end of last year.
At MWC 2025, LG Uplus did not mention specific GPU procurement plans, but surprisingly announced a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). This background has given weight to the speculation that LG Uplus will pursue GPU acquisition through AWS in the future.
Analysts believe that telecommunications companies are securing an excessive amount of GPUs to increase revenue through the GPUaaS (GPU subscription service) business aimed at general corporations. Lee Jong-ho, a professor at Seoul National University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, noted, "The competition among telecommunications companies to secure high-performance GPUs has started because they can create new revenue outside their telecommunications business," adding that "As telecommunications companies operate data centers and cloud businesses, synergistic effects will arise when they fully launch the GPU subscription service business."
GPUaaS is a service that allows the subscription of GPUs in a cloud environment. The strength of GPUaaS is that general corporations can utilize GPUs as long as they have an internet connection without the need to invest in their own infrastructure. For general corporations, establishing GPUs through on-premises (when businesses maintain and manage the infrastructure at their own facilities) methods incurs significant expenses, so the growth potential of the GPUaaS market is expected to be substantial. According to the market research firm Fortune Business Insights, the global GPUaaS market was valued at $4.31 billion (approximately 6.23 trillion won) in 2024, but is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 35.8%, reaching $49.84 billion (approximately 72.88 trillion won) by 2032.
Meanwhile, SK Telecom launched GPUaaS services in the domestic market last January. KT and LG Uplus are preparing to launch similar GPUaaS services.