KT Cloud breaks ground on Ansan AI data center, targets 1GW capacity by 2031

KT Cloud is building a large-scale AI data center in the Greater Seoul area.

The company announced Thursday that it has broken ground on the Ansan AI Data Center, a 50 MW facility it owns and operates. Starting with the Ansan project, KT Cloud aims to complete 1 gigawatt of AI data center capacity by 2031, with the centers purpose-built for high-density AI servers to meet rapidly growing demand for AI infrastructure.

The Ansan project is part of KT Cloud's "1GW AI Data Center Supply Strategy" for 2031. The company plans to accelerate the acquisition of additional data centers, beginning with the Ansan facility.

The Ansan AI Data Center will have a total floor area of approximately 36,878 square meters, with two below-ground floors and nine above-ground floors, and a total power capacity of 50 MW. Classified as hyperscale, the facility is dedicated to AI workloads and is targeted for completion in 2029. Its power, cooling and structural systems have all been purpose-designed to handle the characteristics of high-density, high-heat AI servers.

The facility will feature power infrastructure capable of delivering stable electricity to high-density AI servers, and every server room will be designed to support liquid cooling. The building will also adopt a heavy-load structural design to accommodate high-performance GPUs, including Nvidia's next-generation AI GPU, Vera Rubin.

KT Cloud will also install a high-efficiency free-cooling system to improve cooling energy efficiency. The system works by mounting cooling coils on the building's exterior walls to harness natural airflow from above, linking them to enclosed cooling towers. During cooler transitional seasons and winter, outside air is used directly for cooling. This reduces the operating load on cooling tower fans and chillers, cutting overall cooling energy consumption at the data center.

"The Ansan AI Data Center is a project that incorporates power and cooling infrastructure optimized for high-density AI servers, along with next-generation design technology," said Kim Bong-gyun, chief executive of KT Cloud. "Drawing on our accumulated experience in building and operating data centers and our in-house technical capabilities, we will deliver stable and efficient AI infrastructure."