● AI Power Struggle

The core point we will cover today is not just simple corporate news.It is a complete guide on how telecommunication companies are trying to go beyond survival and dominate the global market within the trends of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that we pay attention to every day.In particular, I will completely uncover the true meaning of the ‘hidden data dominance war between giant IT companies and telecommunication companies,’ which other news or YouTube channels never tell you, from my perspective, so please stay focused until the end.It contains everything from how SK Telecom is trying to seize AI supremacy by taking off the label of a narrow domestic-only company, to its specific three-step pyramid strategy and the core point of its business vision.

[The core point of global expansion is AI] SK Telecom targets the overseas market with the ‘AI Pyramid’ strategy

1. The real reason the global telecommunications alliance, ‘GTAA’, united

Right now, telecommunication companies around the world are facing an immense sense of crisis and opportunity at the same time.Amidst this trend, world-class telecommunication companies such as Deutsche Telekom, e&, Singtel, and SoftBank, led by SK Telecom, have united under the name ‘Global Telco AI Alliance (GTAA)’.What they are jointly investing time and money to develop is the ‘Telco LLM (Large Language Model)’, specialized for the telecommunications industry.Why this is important is because telecommunication companies possess a massive amount of top-tier data, such as vast customer call records and data usage patterns that accumulate every day, right?However, they had a fatal weakness in that developing a cutting-edge AI model from scratch alone would cost astronomical amounts of money and lack technical experience.That is why SK Telecom took the lead and set the stage, saying, “Let’s pool our money and data together to create an AI that perfectly fits our industry!”It is a very smart strategic alliance to drastically reduce massive development costs while maximizing the efficiency of the outcome.

2. The 3-step ‘AI Pyramid’ strategy heading directly overseas

The specific weapon drawn by SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang is exactly the ‘AI Pyramid’ structure.This is a sophisticatedly designed business package not just for use in the Korean market, but to be exported directly to overseas partners.The first foundation is ‘AI Infrastructure’.It is the stage of solidly building the most foundational hardware capabilities, such as constructing data centers and designing AI semiconductors.The second middle layer is ‘AI Transformation (AIX)’.It is the process of transforming the business areas that telecommunication companies have traditionally been good at, such as telecommunications, media, and mobility, into entirely new high-value-added services by applying AI technology.The final top is ‘AI Service’.Consumer-customized touchpoint services like ‘A. (Adot)’, which we use every day on our smartphones, fall into this category.Providing this well-structured 3-step ‘Telco LLM’ package to overseas telecommunication companies completes what is called ‘AI technology export’, allowing AI services tailored to the country’s language and telecommunications environment to quickly settle locally.

3. Why specifically risk everything on ‘Global AI’?

Objectively speaking, the domestic telecommunications market in Korea has already reached saturation and is in a mature phase where it is hard to expect further explosive growth.To find new sources of revenue, they absolutely must go outside, and it just so happens that the whole world is rushing to adopt AI amidst the massive wave of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.From SK Telecom’s perspective, the ‘Telco-specialized AI’, fully packed with their long-standing telecommunications know-how, becomes the perfect weapon to conquer a blue ocean that no one has yet preempted.There is a lot of talk recently about uncertain global economic outlooks, but paradoxically, companies’ investments in expanding AI infrastructure are increasing explosively.Above all, the biggest hidden purpose is based on a fierce survival calculation to secure a strong ‘independent territory’ solely for telecommunication companies before giant big tech companies like Google or Microsoft swallow up the entire global AI ecosystem.

4. The real viewing point that others will never tell you (Exclusive Analysis)

General news or YouTube channels only talk superficially to the extent of ‘SK Telecom is good at AI, so it is advancing overseas’.However, if you are a corporate investor in your 30s tracking economic trends, you must see the true key takeaway business value hidden behind the scenes.The first hidden secret is the ‘transformation of telecommunication companies into B2B software companies’.If this Telco LLM successfully settles, telecommunication companies will be re-evaluated as global IT companies that sell AI solutions to telecommunication companies worldwide on a subscription basis, rather than just domestic companies selling monthly plans.The second is the powerful weapon of ‘data sovereignty and ironclad security’.To governments and companies around the world reluctant to hand over highly sensitive personal telecommunications data of customers to the general-purpose AI of big tech, the secure, closed AI created by the telecommunications alliance is bound to be tremendously appealing.If you read this flow of data sovereignty well, you will be able to get a clear investment hint on what kind of business model the true leading stocks among domestic and overseas AI-related stocks will shift to in the future.

5. The harsh homework to prove in the future

Of course, simply declaring it does not make everything happen, and they have now stepped onto the real testing ground where they must prove actual results.The first task to prove to the market and investors right away is showing a clear monetization model.They must not stop at simply creating smart AI technology; they must numerically prove how drastically they can reduce the operating costs of telecommunication companies’ call centers or networks in reality.Furthermore, they must provide a different level of new value that customers are willing to pay for.The second task is whether perfect localization is successful.How accurately and efficiently the Telco LLM led by SK Telecom can operate in countries with completely different cultural and linguistic textures, such as Arabic or German, is the key takeaway checkpoint that will determine the final success or failure of their global expansion.

< Summary >

• Formation of GTAA: Global telecommunication companies (Deutsche Telekom, e&, etc.) led by SK Telecom have united to drastically reduce massive costs and jointly develop telecommunications-specialized AI (Telco LLM).
• AI Pyramid Strategy: Establishing a 3-step structure of AI Infrastructure (hardware) – AIX (AI transformation of existing businesses) – AI Service (A., etc.) to export AI technology itself to overseas markets.
• The Essence of Global Expansion: It is a strategy to break through the limits of a stifled domestic market and preempt an independent AI data ecosystem solely for telecommunication companies against global big tech companies.
• Hidden core point Insight: It is the process of a telecommunication company evolving into a global B2B software company, and securing ‘data sovereignty’ armed with data security is the real differentiator from other companies.
• Future Viewing Points: Whether a clear cost reduction and new revenue creation model can be proven, and the success rate of localization perfectly blending into the languages and cultures of each country will determine the future.

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*Source: https://www.businesspost.co.kr/BP?command=article_view&num=436811