Korea's Data Center Spend Heads for $15.96 Billion as AI Moves Beyond Seoul
Korean data center spending stood at $5.88 Billion in 2025, and the forecast puts it at $15.96 Billion by 2035. With a CAGR of 10.5% over 2026-2035, the market grows to roughly 2.7 times its starting size within a decade. For an investor, the headline matters less than the question of where inside the country the money lands.
The geography is changing
Gyeonggi is the largest sub-national market, with 32.14% of 2025 spending, or about $1.89 Billion. Seoul follows at 29.93% and Incheon holds 7.99%. Taken together, the capital area accounted for 70.06% of the 2025 total, and the forecast has that share easing to 59.90% by 2035.
Growth rates by province point the same way. Gyeonggi grows at 9.7% and Seoul at 7.15%, while Incheon reaches 10.54%, Sejong 12.33% and Busan 13.39%. Ulsan is the fastest at 25.03% a year, from a much smaller base.
Why capacity is moving
- Limited grid headroom around the capital, combined with an energy policy that favors distributed supply, pushes new projects toward Busan, Sejong, Gangwon and Jeolla.
- An AI data center planned by SK Group and AWS in Ulsan is due to start operating by 2027.
- The Ministry of Science and ICT wants a National AI Computing Center with more than 15,000 GPUs by 2028, sited outside the Seoul Metropolitan Area.
- Naver is developing its 270 MW GAK Sejong campus, and Kakao is also building its own sites.
The practical consequence is that the date a site gets its KEPCO grid connection now matters as much as land price or network access when operators choose a location.
Denser racks, different cooling
Racks drawing more than 30 kW represented 28.06% of Korean data center spending in 2025. The forecast has them at 52.00% by 2035, so a majority of spending ends up in the high-density tiers that AI clusters need. Direct-to-chip liquid cooling is one of the cooling categories the report tracks, and it fits GPU halls in the heat and humidity of a Korean summer.
Who holds the share
The supplier list mixes domestic groups and global clouds:
| Company | Share |
|---|---|
| KT Cloud | 9.2% |
| Naver Cloud | 8.7% |
| Samsung SDS | 8.1% |
| SK Broadband | 6.8% |
| LG CNS | 5.6% |
| Amazon Web Services | 5.2% |
| Microsoft | 4.1% |
No single operator passes 10%, and the two global names sit at the bottom of this list.
Context against peers
At 10.5%, Korea grows slightly faster than the 10.0% global rate and faster than Japan at 8.5%, but below the Asia Pacific rate of 11.7%. Korea held 6.00% of Asia Pacific spending in 2025, level with Singapore and Malaysia. A midpoint estimate for 2030 is about $9.69 Billion.
For anyone sizing exposure, the sequence to follow is grid connection approvals, then the Ulsan and national GPU projects, then the shift in power density per rack.
More market notes on this blog
- Aluminum Die Casting at $78.00 Bn: A Buyer's Guide to Process, Alloy and Application
- Toy Gun Market: From $4.22 Bn to $7.89 Bn by 2035, Told Through Its Segments
- Non Dairy Yogurt Market 2026 to 2035: Oat Takes the Lead as Sales Head Toward $4.63 Billion
- GaN Chargers in 2026: Why the Small Brick Is Becoming a $12 Billion Market
Figures from the South Korea Data Center Market Size, Share and Forecast 2026-2035, published by Strategic Revenue Insights.
Cite this data
Strategic Revenue Insights (2026). South Korea Data Center Market Size, Share and Forecast 2026-2035. https://www.strategicrevenueinsights.com/industry/south-korea-data-center-market
License: CC BY 4.0. You are free to reuse these figures and charts, provided you credit Strategic Revenue Insights and link to the source report.
Embed this chart
Copy this HTML to show the chart on your own site:
<a href="https://www.strategicrevenueinsights.com/industry/south-korea-data-center-market"><img src="https://www.strategicrevenueinsights.com/reports/market-overview/south-korea-data-center-market.webp" alt="South Korea Data Center market chart" width="800"></a><br>Source: <a href="https://www.strategicrevenueinsights.com/industry/south-korea-data-center-market">Strategic Revenue Insights</a>
Comments
Post a Comment