Hyundai approves AI data center at $6.74bn Saemangeum site

Five Hyundai Motor Group companies have approved an AI data center at the 9 trillion won ($6.74 billion) Saemangeum AI Valley in South Korea, the group said this week. Construction could start in March 2027, with official services targeted for early 2030, Data Center Dynamics reported.

Hyundai Motor, Kia, Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai E&C and Hyundai AutoEver all took part in the decision. The data center investment runs through a special purpose corporation set up for hyperscale data center and infrastructure construction; a second corporation will secure high-performance GPUs and provide related services, with Hyundai AutoEver confirming its participation in that GPU company. Full details of the planned facility were not disclosed.

For an allocator evaluating third-party capacity at the valley, the anchor user and the sponsor are the same company: Hyundai says the data center will be a supercomputing hub for its own physical AI research. That includes autonomous driving, robotics and manufacturing AI. A competing developer would be pricing against an owner that can fill its own halls.

Hyundai has previously said it aims to invest 5.8 trillion won ($4.3 billion) in data centers at Saemangeum AI Valley that could host 50,000 GPUs, set against the 9 trillion won total for the wider project. The group said it is coordinating financial support measures under a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Development Bank, Export-Import Bank of Korea and Industrial Bank of Korea.

The valley is planned at 1.1 million sqm (11.8 million sq ft) and is designed to combine AI data centers with robot manufacturing facilities, gigawatts of solar power generation, a water electrolysis plant producing clean hydrogen and an "AI Hydrogen City."

The group's Hyundai Engineering unit has previously won contracts to develop data centers in Pohang, Gunsan, Incheon and Gumi for other companies. At Saemangeum the group is the developer rather than the contractor.