Artificial Intelligence technology collaboration initiated by Penguin Solutions, SK Telecom, and SK hynix
In a significant move to bolster Korea's AI competitiveness, Penguin Solutions, SK Telecom, and SK hynix have joined forces to develop and deliver AI data centre solutions. The collaboration was announced during CES 2025 in Las Vegas, following SKT's investment of US$200 million in Penguin Solutions in December.
The partnership reflects a shared vision of delivering a broad portfolio of high-performance AI solutions, as stated by Mark Adams, president and CEO of Penguin Solutions. This collaboration aims to overcome the limitations of memory technology and expand the global AI ecosystem.
SK hynix plans to collaborate with SK Telecom and Penguin Solutions to innovate semiconductor memory technology for AI data centres. The focus of the collaboration is to improve power efficiency and heat dissipation performance in AI data centres.
Penguin Solutions' Scyld ClusterWare software, part of the collaboration with SKT and SK hynix, expands capabilities for simplified installation, deployment, and optimization of a full-stack AI deployment. Penguin Solutions' OriginAI solution architecture, based on Scyld ClusterWare, improves utilization rates of AI compute clusters.
SKT's AI infrastructure management software, combined with Penguin Solutions' Scyld ClusterWare, offers a powerful solution to streamline the administration and optimize the availability of AI and HPC computing resources. This combined effort is aimed at establishing Korea’s AI "superhighway" by offering scalable, cloud-based GPU services to fuel AI innovation domestically.
Penguin Solutions has over 25 years of experience in AI infrastructure, with a proven track record of deploying more than 85,000 GPUs and amassing 2 billion hours of runtime data. The company has built AI factories for major tech companies, enterprises, government agencies, and academic institutions since 2017.
The collaboration specifically aims to support Korea’s sovereign AI infrastructure initiatives. SK Telecom launched the Haein GPU cluster, one of South Korea’s largest GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) platforms, featuring over 1,000 Nvidia B200 GPUs. Penguin Solutions played a key role in integrating advanced AI data centre systems for this platform, alongside SK hynix and server provider Supermicro.
The Gasan AI Data Centre (AIDC), where this system is positioned, serves as a critical node in Korea’s governmental push for proprietary AI foundation models under the Ministry of Science and ICT’s ‘Proprietary AI Foundation Model’ program. This partnership leverages Penguin Solutions’ expertise in system integration and SK hynix’s memory technologies, alongside SK Telecom’s network and AI cloud management capabilities, including their proprietary Petasus AI Cloud for flexible GPU resource allocation.
Penguin Solutions will be on display in the "Alliance Zone" of the SK Telecom booth at CES 2025, which is held at the Las Vegas Convention Center from January 7-10, 2025. Ryu Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom, stated that the collaboration lays the foundation for building globally competitive AI data centres. This partnership is a significant step towards Korea's goal of becoming a global leader in AI technology.
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Technology and artificial-intelligence are at the heart of the collaboration between Penguin Solutions, SK Telecom, and SK hynix. This partnership aims to expand the global AI ecosystem by overcoming the limitations of memory technology and developing high-performance AI solutions. [Source 1, 2, 3, 4]
With the focus on improving power efficiency and heat dissipation performance in AI data centres, SK hynix, SK Telecom, and Penguin Solutions plan to innovate semiconductor memory technology for AI data centres. [Source 1, 3]
