SK Telecom (SKT) said it showed signs of recovery in the first quarter after the fallout from a hacking incident last year. Revenue and operating profit edged down from a year earlier, but sales from its AI data center business nearly doubled, and the company maintained net additions in 5G subscribers, keeping a 45.7% market share.
SKT said Thursday that on a consolidated basis it posted first-quarter 2026 revenue of 4.3923 trillion won and operating profit of 537.6 billion won. Revenue fell 1.4% from a year earlier and operating profit slipped 5.3%, but the company returned to operating profit in the 500 billion won range, boosting expectations for the second half.
Wireless revenue declined 3% to 2.5813 trillion won. Still, 5G continued to expand as a share of handset subscribers, reaching 81%. Net additions of 5G subscribers continued, and SKT’s 5G market share held steady at 45.7%.
Marketing expenses rose 7.1% from a year earlier to 740.8 billion won, but fell 3.0% from the previous quarter.
In the wireline business, revenue from fixed-line communications rose 2.2% to 295.4 billion won, supported by net additions in high-speed internet subscribers and a higher share of gigabit internet users. High-speed internet subscribers increased to 7.311 million.
Pay-TV revenue fell 1.3% to 471.9 billion won, and enterprise revenue slipped 1.7% to 274.7 billion won. IPTV subscribers totaled 6.75 million.
Against softer telecom results, the AI business helped drive the recovery. AIDC revenue rose 89.3% from a year earlier to 131.4 billion won, helped by higher utilization at new data centers and expanding sales of graphics processing unit as a service, or GPUaaS.
AI business-to-business and business-to-consumer revenue fell 10.3% to 45.0 billion won, reflecting weaker cloud revenue.
SKT said it expects demand for AI infrastructure to surge, led by global big tech companies, and plans to strengthen competitiveness across the AI data center value chain while continuing to expand its infrastructure footprint. The company also said it will step up shareholder returns and has resumed dividends that had been suspended. The first-quarter dividend is 830 won per share.
Chief Financial Officer Park Jong-seok said the first quarter was “a meaningful period” in which the company delivered results aligned with its goals for the year, including strengthening core competitiveness around customer value and restoring profitability through a streamlined AI business. “We will continue focusing on improving performance through sustained results,” he said.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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