SK Telecom (SKT) and cloud provider Lambda agreed to upgrade one of the operator’s data centres in Seoul by deploying Nvidia GPUs to support AI cloud services by the end of the year.

The partnership with Lambda will enable SKT to expand its AI cloud services into the global market by giving enterprises access to GPU cloud services on an as-needed basis to develop or use AI services, the operator stated.

It will introduce GPU-as-a-service based on Lambda’s cloud computing platform.

Kim Kyeong-deog, head of SKT’s Enterprise Business Division, stated the tie-up will strengthen its competitiveness in AI cloud services and help to develop greater business opportunities in Korea.

Lambda CEO and co-founder Stephen Balaban added: “SKT shares in our vision to make GPU compute as ubiquitous as electricity.”

In addition to investing in Lambda earlier in the year, the operator invested in AI companies Anthropic and Perplexity as it transitions into an AI company by using the technology to redefine its core businesses.