SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) outlined the financial impact of a cybersecurity incident and detailed its priorities for restoring telecom profitability and scaling artificial intelligence initiatives during its fiscal year 2025 earnings call. CFO Jong-suk Park, appearing for the first time in the role, said the company spent 2025 expanding operational improvements and working to monetize AI, but also went through “careful reflection” following the incident and its aftermath.
Fiscal 2025 results pressured by incident-related costs and restructuring
On a consolidated basis, SK Telecom reported revenue of KRW 17,099.2 billion, down 4.7% year-over-year. Park attributed the decline to sales of subsidiaries, a net subscriber decline following the cybersecurity incident, and the company’s “accountability and commitment program,” including tariff discounts.
Net income totaled KRW 375.1 billion, a 73% year-over-year decrease, which Park said was mainly due to penalty payments arising from the cybersecurity incident.
Dividend reduced; board targets recovery but offers no fixed commitments
Park said the financial impact of the cybersecurity incident persisted into the fourth quarter and that the company incurred substantial costs as it restructured its business portfolio. As a result, SK Telecom decided not to pay a quarterly dividend for the fourth quarter.
The board resolved to set full-year fiscal 2025 dividends per share (DPS) at KRW 1,661, inclusive of the quarterly dividends already paid. The amount is expected to be finalized after approval at the annual general shareholders meeting in March.
In response to an analyst question about 2026 dividends, management said the company’s top priority is earnings normalization and that it will “do our best to return the previous dividend payout levels.” The company also said it is considering additional shareholder value measures, including tax-free dividends, but emphasized that more specific decisions will be discussed by the board in light of performance, financial soundness, and growth investment needs as part of overall capital allocation.
Telecom business: regain trust, rebuild subscriber base, and improve profitability
Management framed 2026 as a year focused on “customer value innovation,” with an emphasis on quality, safety, and security to regain trust after the cybersecurity incident. Park said the company plans to improve products and channels and pursue operational optimization centered on customer lifetime value (LTV), with the goal of recovering fundamental competitiveness and restoring financial performance to prior levels.
During Q&A, the head of MNO Support, Byung-chan Bae, discussed the impact of a competitor’s cancellation fee waiver on the switching market. Bae said the waiver temporarily expanded the market for number portability early in the year, followed by signs of stabilization. He added that many customers who joined SK Telecom during that period appeared to be voluntary “win-back” customers returning after leaving following the cybersecurity incident.
Bae credited a customer appreciation package—citing benefits such as restoring subscription tenure and membership benefits—along with enhanced security measures as factors helping rebuild trust. He said SK Telecom plans to avoid “destructive marketing competition” aimed at short-term goals and instead focus on strengthening core competitiveness through customer value innovation. The company said it is pursuing structural changes across product offerings and market operations and plans to share more detail as preparations are completed.
For 2026, Bae said the company began the year under “rather challenging circumstances” due to a year-over-year decline in handset subscribers. While it plans to minimize revenue impact through continued subscriber recovery and initiatives to develop new customer segments, Bae said it will be difficult to return revenue to pre-incident levels due to the prolonged effects of customer attrition.
Management also emphasized profitability. Bae said the company plans to reorganize products and channels based on customer preferences, push cost efficiencies through LTV-based operational optimization, and apply AI across products, marketing, networks, and operations to improve productivity and raise returns on spending.
AI initiatives: data center scale-up, AI agents, B2B, and a foundation model effort
SK Telecom described 2025 as a year focused on building a foundation for new AI-driven growth, with plans to concentrate on areas where it believes it can deliver tangible results in 2026.
Park said AI data center (AIDC) revenue continued to post a two-digit growth trend in 2025, driven by higher utilization at the Gasan and Yangju data centers and the acquisition of the Pangyo Data Center. He added that construction of the Ulsan AIDC has been underway since September of the prior year, and that SK Telecom intends to accelerate growth by pursuing scale-up opportunities, including an additional data center in the Seoul metropolitan region.
The company also said it launched an AIDC solution business aimed at creating synergies with its data center operations, and that it plans to pursue new opportunities through in-house development and external partnerships. SK Telecom said it initiated an undersea cable business in 2025 and aims to scale it up, while also working to improve efficiency and productivity in AI agent and B2B AI businesses to produce “meaningful outcomes.”
Management said it is pursuing its own AI foundation model project, now in a second phase, to secure preferential opportunities to participate in various projects. In Q&A, AI Strategy Planning Head Dong-hui Choi said the consortium-developed “A.X K1” is described as Korea’s first hyperscale model applying more than 500 billion parameters and is trained using what the company called the largest Korean-language dataset, which he said enables higher-quality answers that reflect cultural context.
Choi said SK Telecom expects opportunities in both B2C and B2B. On the B2C side, he said the model would be deployed in ADOT, which he said has more than 10 million users, and also within the consortium through Liner to expand references. On the B2B side, he said the model would be applied to “A. Biz” for productivity improvement and could be used with manufacturing affiliates such as SK Hynix and SK Innovation, with plans to expand to consortium vertical services including KRAFTON. He also said SK Telecom aims to develop the model cost-effectively with government support and expects that, if selected as one of the top two at the end of 2026, it could gain preferential opportunities to participate in national B2C projects, industrial “AX” productivity initiatives, and public-sector system and service projects.
Anthropic stake: disclosures limited; no decisions on liquidation
Addressing investor interest in the value and potential monetization of SK Telecom’s equity stake in Anthropic, the company said confidentiality clauses prevent it from immediately disclosing precise ownership and valuation details when changes occur. Management said invested assets are periodically revalued and reflected in its business report and that the soon-to-be-released 2025 business report will include an updated stake percentage.
SK Telecom added that it is aware of market interest in a potential disposal or use of the stake for dividend funding, but said no decisions have been made and it had nothing to share on those points.
In closing remarks, Park said SK Telecom is determined to strengthen MNO fundamentals centered on customer value and restore profitability by generating AI business results, particularly driven by AI data centers, as it works to turn the crisis into an opportunity to regain customer trust.
About SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM)
SK Telecom Co, Ltd. (NYSE:SKM) is South Korea’s largest wireless carrier, offering a comprehensive range of mobile telecommunications services. The company operates 5G, 4G LTE and IoT networks, providing voice, data and messaging solutions to consumers and businesses. Beyond traditional wireless services, SK Telecom delivers fixed-line broadband, digital content platforms, cloud computing and cybersecurity offerings designed to support enterprise digital transformation and the growing demand for high-speed connectivity.
Established in 1984 as Korea Mobile Telecommunications Services, SK Telecom pioneered cellular service commercialization in South Korea and has continually expanded into new technology areas.
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