Samsung SDS Breaks Ground on Gumi AI Data Center, with Capacity of up to 120 MW

[Financial News] Samsung SDS has broken ground in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, on a data center dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI). The facility will provide AI infrastructure that can be expanded to a capacity of up to 120 MW to meet surging demand for AI, while also supporting robot AI training and automation at manufacturing sites. The plan is to use it as key infrastructure supporting Samsung’s physical AI business.
According to Samsung SDS on the 2nd, the Gumi AI Data Center will be built on a site of about 46,281 square meters in Gongdan-dong, Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, with an initial power capacity of 60 MW. It is scheduled for completion in 2028 and has been designed to allow phased expansion to as much as 120 MW in response to future AI demand.
The groundbreaking is linked to Samsung’s investment plan for the Yeongnam region, worth about 60 trillion won, announced last July at the “Public Briefing on the Vision for the Development of Advanced Industries in the Yeongnam Region,” held at Gyeongsang National University in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province. Samsung said at the time that it planned to develop the Yeongnam region into a “global physical AI innovation cluster.” Samsung SDS described the data center groundbreaking as the first tangible result of that plan.
The Gumi AI Data Center will be built as a hyperscale data center optimized for AI services that use high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs). The plan is to strengthen power supply and cooling infrastructure needed for large-scale AI computing, and to secure a stable operating environment by providing redundancy for key equipment and establishing an emergency power system.
In particular, the center will use hybrid cooling technology that combines air cooling and liquid cooling to address heat from high-performance GPU servers. Air cooling will be used for network and storage equipment, which generate relatively less heat, while liquid cooling, which circulates coolant, will be used for high-density GPU servers. The facility is designed to accommodate ultra-high-power GPU servers in the future.
Samsung SDS will provide AI computing services using GPUs that it deploys and operates itself, while also pursuing a colocation business in which customers install and use their own GPUs. Its strategy is to meet the AI infrastructure needs of a wide range of companies with an offering that is not limited to any particular GPU or service.
In particular, the company plans to support areas requiring large-scale computing, including AI training for precision-task robots at manufacturing sites, in connection with manufacturing RX (robot transformation) initiatives being pursued by Samsung affiliates.
Last January, Samsung SDS announced that it would invest 427.3 billion won to build the Gumi AI Data Center and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on its construction with North Gyeongsang Province and Gumi City.
Samsung SDS President and CEO Lee Jun-hee said, “Samsung SDS will bring together its accumulated experience in building and operating data centers and its capabilities in cloud and AI technologies to create AI infrastructure that customers can trust and use with confidence.” He added, “We will fulfill our responsibilities and role in contributing to the development of the local economy and industrial ecosystem, while also leading AX innovation in manufacturing and industrial settings on the basis of next-generation AI infrastructure and providing customers with optimal full-stack AI services.”
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