Vertiv's modular systems will be unveiled at the Gunsan AI facility, where the two companies are collaborating from the design phase onward to optimize the power, cooling, and modular infrastructure for progressively denser GPU deployments.
kt cloud has established a strategic technology partnership with Vertiv, a leader in global critical digital infrastructure, to jointly develop the next wave of AI-ready data centers.
Under the agreement, the companies will deepen their collaboration across three pillars critical to AI infrastructure: power, cooling, and modular construction. The partnership signifies a broader transformation within the industry. As GPU clusters grow denser and more power-intensive, the data centers designed to accommodate them must evolve correspondingly, rendering the early acquisition of power and cooling technologies a critical competitive imperative.
Rather than bolting cooling and power systems onto a finished building, kt cloud and Vertiv will work together from the blueprint stage, testing how power infrastructure, liquid cooling, and modular components fit together before a single wall goes up. The goal is a facility designed natively for high-density GPU workloads, not retrofitted for them.
Cooling sits at the center of that effort. As chips become more powerful and densely integrated, conventional air cooling methods are progressively approaching their limitations. The partnership will explore liquid cooling and other high-efficiency methods, with an eye toward deploying them across future AI facilities.
The first proving ground is Gunsan, where kt cloud will deploy the Vertiv™ SmartRun modular infrastructure solution. A prefabricated system that integrates critical power, cooling, networking, and containment infrastructure into a streamlined overhead platform, Vertiv SmartRun can be installed up to 85% faster than traditional stick-built approaches. The solution helps accelerate deployment timelines, improve consistency across builds, and support the rapid scaling requirements of high-density AI environments.
The collaboration draws on capabilities kt cloud has built through its Mokdong Data Center and Gasan AI Data Center, combining that experience in constructing and operating facilities with Vertiv's global power and cooling expertise. The companies say the resulting playbook is intended to scale, a template they can apply as demand for large AI facilities grows.
"As AI infrastructure grows more integrated and power-intensive, a data center's power and cooling systems are becoming the decisive factor in how reliably and how far AI services can scale," said Kim Bong-gyun, CEO of kt cloud. "By combining Vertiv's global technology with the experience we've built constructing and operating our own data centers, we're strengthening our competitiveness in next-generation AI infrastructure and underpinning KT Group's drive toward 1GW of AI data center capacity."
"The rapid evolution of AI is reshaping the requirements for digital infrastructure, placing greater emphasis on integrated power, cooling, and modular solutions that can support increasingly dense and demanding compute environments. Our collaboration with kt cloud reflects a shared commitment to designing AI-ready data centers from the ground up, bringing together global innovation and local expertise to help accelerate deployment, improve operational efficiency, and support Korea's growing AI ambitions. We look forward to working alongside kt cloud to develop resilient, scalable infrastructure that can adapt to the evolving needs of next-generation AI workloads,” said Paul Churchill, Vice President and General Manager, Vertiv Asia.
For more information about Vertiv’s portfolio of power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions and services, visit Vertiv.com.
About Vertiv
Vertiv (NYSE: VRT) brings together hardware, software, analytics and ongoing services to enable its customers’ vital applications to run continuously, perform optimally and grow with their business needs. Vertiv solves the most important challenges facing today’s data centers, communication networks and commercial and industrial facilities with a portfolio of power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions and services that extends from the cloud to the edge of the network. Headquartered in Westerville, Ohio, USA, Vertiv does business in more than 130 countries. For more information, and for the latest news and content from Vertiv, visit Vertiv.com.
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