GS Group Teams With Startups to Build AI Data Center Tech Ecosystem

GS Group (078930.KS) is moving to build a technology ecosystem around its artificial intelligence data center business. The plan is to link the group's existing capabilities with startups' innovative technologies to strengthen competitiveness across the entire AI data center value chain.

GS Ventures said on the 16th that it held the "2026 GS Ventures Tech Day" on the 15th at GS Tower in Seoul's Gangnam district, with AI data centers as the theme. A total of seven startups, including six in which GS Ventures has invested, presented their technologies and explored opportunities to work with the group's affiliates.

GS Group has been identifying and investing in startups across a range of fields — power and energy, semiconductors and memory, cooling, and cloud computing — with GS Ventures at the center of those efforts. The event was designed to combine the network and investment experience the group has built up with its business capabilities to find new opportunities in AI data centers. Attendees included GS Group Chairman Hur Tae-soo and other senior executives, executives from affiliates such as GS Energy, GS Caltex, GS E&C (006360.KS), GS E&R and GS Global (001250.KS), and representatives of the participating startups.

In the power segment, Synergy showcased a solution to improve the stability and energy efficiency of power supply for AI data centers. Vinssen introduced a hydrogen fuel cell solution for data centers based on technology it has accumulated in the shipping and marine sector. In memory, Exynah presented CXL-based, or Compute Express Link, intelligent memory designed to ease data processing bottlenecks.

In cooling, Coolmicro introduced a direct-to-chip (D2C) liquid cooling solution that removes heat by attaching cooling plates directly to semiconductors, while SDT presented an immersion cooling system that cools servers by submerging them in insulating coolant. On the operations side, Elice Group presented a modular AI data center, and Vessl AI unveiled graphics processing unit (GPU) cloud technology specialized for AI computing workloads.

After the company presentations, GS affiliate business managers and the startups moved on to networking sessions. Doh Hyun-soo, chief executive of GS AI Infra, the entity dedicated to the group's AI data center business, took part along with working-level staff to discuss how the technologies could be applied and tied into the group's businesses. GS said it would review technology validation and potential business applications in follow-up talks.

GS Group is pursuing the AI data center business to meet surging demand for AI infrastructure. Starting in 2028, it will complete a 1.2-gigawatt data center in Donghae, Gangwon Province, in stages, then add another 1.2 gigawatts to expand the total to 2.4 gigawatts. The group aims to bring together its strengths in power generation, construction and large-scale infrastructure operations to deliver the stability, efficiency and scalability befitting a world-class facility.

"Startups' innovative technologies can offer a way to unlock the technical bottlenecks in AI data centers," Hur said. "We will broaden the points of contact between GS and startups and grow Korea's AI data center technology ecosystem together."