Japan and Korea AI Infrastructure: SoftBank, Sakura, SK — 2026-09-28
Korea's AI infrastructure race widened beyond GPUs this week: NAVER Cloud committed 4,512 GPUs to a national cybersecurity AI build, Samsung SDS is deploying around KRW 5 trillion of its cash into AI data centers, and SoftBank Group raised $11.1 billion in bonds to complete its follow-on investment in OpenAI. Meanwhile, rising bond yields and a sharp KOSPI selloff are raising financing costs across both countries' data-center boom.
Japan and Korea AI Infrastructure: SoftBank, Sakura, SK — 2026-09-28
Top developments
NAVER-led consortium commits 4,512 GPUs to Korea's "AI cyber shield"
NAVER Cloud and roughly 40 partners will deploy 4,512 GPUs over a 10-month period to build two cybersecurity-focused AI models for Korea, a project backed as part of the government's public AI compute push. It matters for GPU demand planning among Korean AI DC operators, as it locks in a large multi-tenant GPU workload outside the usual hyperscaler channels.
Samsung SDS puts ~KRW 5 trillion behind AI data centers
Seoul Economic Daily profiled Samsung SDS (via Hankyung) as a "cash-rich" winner of the AI DC era, with roughly KRW 6.6 trillion in cash-like assets funding GPU rental and data-center buildouts for Samsung affiliate demand — a total push of about KRW 5 trillion. With in-group demand, revenue diversification beyond IT services looks more achievable than for standalone DC operators.
SoftBank raises $11.1 billion in record bond sale for final OpenAI tranche
Between September 22 and 24, SoftBank Group launched and priced an $11.1 billion equivalent dollar- and euro-denominated bond sale, its largest high-yield issuance, to fund the final $10 billion tranche of its $30 billion follow-on investment in OpenAI and replace bridge financing. The move ties SoftBank's Japanese corporate balance sheet directly to the US Stargate buildout — and to rising debt costs, asTreasury yield spikes are lifting the price of the entire AI infrastructure buildout, a point CNBC flagged on September 27.
Korea's infrastructure competition shifts from chips to power, memory, cooling
Korean news wire GGNews reported (September 28, citing Akamai data) that the AI investment race has moved from a GPU "chip competition" to a full "infrastructure competition" spanning memory, servers, power and cooling. This framing favors Korean suppliers of memory, power equipment and construction over pure GPU plays.
KOSPI tanks as AI-tilted exporters fall; construction stocks diverge
On September 28, KOSPI closed down 2.70% at 6,889.75 with Samsung and SK Hynix down over 5%, while the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.73%. In contrast, Financial News reported the same day that Korean construction stocks were rallying as investors repriced them around AI data-center and nuclear power projects rather than a weak housing cycle.
Local view
Chosun Ilbo reported on September 28 that Mirae Asset's Korea Investment Private Equity is building a KRW 1 trillion AI infrastructure investment platform targeting AI data centers and related power facilities. Daily Mail-affiliated Maeil Ilbo separately reported that Korea Investment Financial Group's brokerage units are expanding into data-center project finance and GPU financing, holding briefings for investors in Yeouido.males — a sign that Korean financial players are positioning as lenders, not just builders, in the AI DC cycle.
Korean-language outlet VentureSquare (September 27) reported a forecast that global data-center investment will reach a cumulative $31.6 trillion between 2026 and 2050, with roughly $12 in recurring ICT (GPU/server) spending per $1 of construction cost — arguing that operating, not building, is the bigger cost driver.
Context & numbers
- Seoul Economic Daily (September 27) reported Korea's Export-Import Bank expects the data-center AI chip market to reach $860 billion by 2030, urging policy support for late-entrant Korean AI chipmakers.
- Korea's MSIT-backed national GPU program procured roughly 13,000 GPUs for Naver Cloud, NHN Cloud and Kakao under a KRW 1.46 trillion initiative — background to this week's NAVER 4,512-GPU commitment.
- Japan's METI subsidy framework under the Economic Security Promotion Act totals up to ¥72.5 billion for five AI-compute projects including Sakura Internet and KDDI.
- Futurism reported (September 25) that an $18 billion Stargate-related data-center project tied to Oracle is struggling, signaling execution risk in the very buildout SoftBank is financing.
On the radar
- Rumor/execution risk: further signs of strain in US Stargate-linked projects (per the September 25 Futurism report) could affect SoftBank's AI-related financing costs and strategy.
- Watch Korean financial-sector participation in AI DC project finance — Mirae Asset's KRW 1 trillion platform and Korea Investment Financial Group's GPU financing push suggest a crowded lending field forming.
- Korea's Export-Import Bank advocacy for late-entrant AI chip firms may translate into new subsidy announcements worth tracking.
This content was collected, curated, and summarized entirely by AI — including how and what to gather. It may contain inaccuracies. Crew does not guarantee the accuracy of any information presented here. Always verify facts on your own before acting on them. Crew assumes no legal liability for any consequences arising from reliance on this content.
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