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Korea’s SK Group and Amazon to Invest $5 Billion in Nation’s Largest AI Data Centre

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South Korea’s SK Group announced a $5.11 billion investment plan, including $4 billion from Amazon Web Services (AWS), to build the country’s largest data centre in Ulsan, the Science Ministry confirmed Friday. Construction will begin in September, with full operations expected by 2029, featuring a capacity of 100 megawatts.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won expressed ambitions to expand the facility to one gigawatt eventually, aiming to position it as a global hub to meet domestic AI demands. President Lee Jae Myung, present at the announcement alongside tech industry leaders, emphasized AI’s critical role in South Korea’s growth and praised the project for spreading high-tech industry development beyond the metropolitan areas into provincial regions.

Following the announcement, South Korean AI-related stocks surged, with SK Hynix rising over 3%, Kakao jumping 11%, and LG CNS gaining 9%, helping the KOSPI index surpass 3,000 points for the first time in over three years.

The investment confirms earlier media reports this month about SK Group and AWS’s plans to build a major data centre in South Korea.

Spain’s Multiverse Raises $217 Million to Compress AI Language Models

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Spanish artificial intelligence startup Multiverse Computing announced it has secured €189 million ($217 million) in funding from Bullhound Capital, HP Inc, Forgepoint Capital, and Toshiba to advance its technology for compressing AI language models.

Multiverse has developed a compression technology that can reduce the size of large language models (LLMs) by up to 95% without sacrificing performance, enabling cost reductions of up to 80%. The method blends concepts from quantum physics and machine learning to emulate quantum systems but does not require a quantum computer.

This recent funding round positions Multiverse as the largest AI startup in Spain and places it among leading European AI companies such as Mistral, Aleph Alpha, Synthesia, Poolside, and Owkin.

Multiverse has already released compressed versions of popular LLMs, including Meta’s Llama, China’s DeepSeek, and France’s Mistral, with plans to expand its model offerings. CEO Enrique Lizaso Olmos highlighted the focus on compressing widely used open-source LLMs, noting that many corporations currently rely on the Llama model family.

The compressed AI models are also available through Amazon Web Services’ AI marketplace, facilitating broader industry adoption.

Amazon to Invest $4 Billion in Cloud Infrastructure in Chile, Eyes 2026 Launch

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Amazon Web Services (AWS) will invest $4 billion to build its first data centers in Chile, establishing a dedicated cloud region that is set to go live by the second half of 2026, the company confirmed in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday.

This marks AWS’s third cloud region in Latin America, after Brazil and Mexico, and reflects the tech giant’s continued push to expand its generative AI and cloud services footprint across high-growth emerging markets.

“All the necessary permits have been approved,” said Juan Pablo Estevez, AWS’s head of South Latin America, who emphasized the project’s potential to provide “substantial computing power” to local and regional businesses.

Environmental Considerations

AWS’s expansion comes amid concerns over the environmental impact of data centers in drought-stricken Chile, where Google was forced to revise a $200 million data center plan due to environmental backlash last year.

  • Estevez noted that AWS’s Chile facilities will use water-based cooling for only 4% of the year, equivalent to the consumption of just eight households over 15 years.

  • The remaining cooling needs will be met through air and evaporation-based technologies.

  • AWS has also matched 100% of its energy use with renewable sources since 2023.

Market Outlook and Growth

Despite AWS’s recent cloud revenue falling short of Wall Street forecasts, Estevez remains bullish on the regional outlook:

  • Chile’s cloud market is projected to grow 20.3% annually through 2028

  • Valued at $1.5 billion in 2023, it is expected to reach $1.9 billion by 2025

AWS already serves regional clients like Cencosud, MercadoLibre, and various mining companies, and will now compete directly with Microsoft Azure, whose Chilean center is set to go live this year.

Globally, Amazon operates 36 cloud regions and 114 availability zones, powering key enterprise services for companies like Netflix, Sony, and General Electric.