KT reported second-quarter consolidated revenue of 6.68 trillion won and operating profit of 648.3 billion won under K-IFRS. Revenue fell 10.1 percent and operating profit slid 36.1 percent from a year earlier. KT said profit was hurt by base effects from one-off gains last year, but improved from the first quarter on growth businesses such as data centres and real estate and stronger performance at content units.

Korea’s three telecom operators are stepping up efforts to apply their in-house capabilities to AI data centres as competition shifts from capacity expansion to operational execution. As centres scale up, heat and power consumption rise, putting cooling efficiency, stable power supply and network connectivity at the centre of competitiveness. SK Telecom is building an AI data centre unit and developing server solutions and resource-linking architecture. KT is focusing on data centre interconnection and liquid cooling. LG Uplus is combining group technologies in cooling, power and AI-based infrastructure management.