GS Group chief vows to build AI data center tech ecosystem with startups

GS Group Chairman Heo Tae-soo said the company will expand its engagement with startups to jointly build a domestic AI data center technology ecosystem.

Speaking at the 2026 GS Ventures Tech Day held Tuesday at GS Tower in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Heo said "startup innovation can be the key to unlocking the technical bottlenecks facing AI data centers."

This year's event was organized around the theme of AI data centers. Seven startups — including six portfolio companies backed by GS Ventures — presented their technologies and explored opportunities for collaboration with GS Group affiliates.

The participating companies showcased a range of technologies spanning power stabilization to GPU cloud operations. In the power sector, Synergy introduced a solution designed to improve the stability of power supply and energy efficiency for AI data centers. Vincen unveiled a hydrogen fuel cell solution for data centers built on technology developed in the maritime and shipping industry.

In the memory chip sector, Axina presented an intelligent memory chip based on CXL (Compute Express Link) technology to ease data processing bottlenecks. On the cooling side, Coolmicro introduced a direct-to-chip liquid cooling solution that removes heat by placing a cold plate in direct contact with semiconductors, while SDT presented an immersion cooling system that dissipates heat by submerging servers in insulating coolant.

In the operations segment, Elice Group presented a modular AI data center, and Vessel AI showcased GPU cloud technology optimized for AI computing workloads.

Following the individual presentations, GS affiliate business managers and the startups held a networking session. Do Hyun-su, chief executive of GS AI Infrastructure — the dedicated subsidiary for AI data center projects — and his team also took part. GS said it plans to review technical validation and business applicability through follow-up discussions.

GS is pursuing AI data center projects to meet rapidly growing demand for AI infrastructure. The company aims to begin completing data centers in phases from 2028 in Donghae, Gangwon Province, starting at 1.2 GW and later adding another 1.2 GW to reach a total capacity of 2.4 GW.

GS Ventures, established in 2022, is GS Group's corporate venture capital arm. Through it, GS scouts startups across sectors including power and energy, semiconductors and memory chips, cooling, and cloud computing.