Six affiliates, including Samsung Electronics, invested $1 billion in U.S. AI infrastructure company ‘Helix’

Six Samsung affiliates, including Samsung Electronics, will invest a total of $1 billion (approximately KRW 1.36 trillion) in Helix, an artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure specialist company established by KKR, an American global investment company.

This investment is interpreted as a move to expand the scope of business cooperation beyond the supply of core components such as semiconductors to overall AI infrastructure such as data centers, cooling, and power.

Six companies, including Samsung Electronics, Samsung C&T, Samsung SDS, Samsung SDI, Samsung Life Insurance, and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, announced on the 29th that they decided to invest a total of $1 billion in Helix Digital Infrastructure (Helix), an American AI infrastructure company.

Samsung Electronics will invest $500 million, and the remaining five affiliates will invest a total of $500 million.

Helix, whose launch was announced last June, is a company that provides integrated AI-related infrastructure, ranging from the development and operation of very large (hyperscale) data centers to power generation, transmission and distribution, optical communication networks, and networks.

It is led by Adam Selipsky, a former CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), and the dedicated management team consists of top experts in the data center and power industry. Additionally, the capabilities of KKR's 170 infrastructure experts can be utilized.

Through this investment, Samsung affiliates will participate as founding investors in Helix along with KKR, NVIDIA, U.S. power company Vistra, and Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA).

Recently, as the AI ​​industry has grown rapidly, the importance of not only data centers that process large-scale calculations, but also related infrastructure such as power and cooling to operate them stably is increasing.

In particular, Helix's strategy is to utilize its partnership with Vistra along with its own investment to secure power, which is considered a major bottleneck in building AI infrastructure.

Samsung plans to use this investment as an opportunity to seek synergy by linking the technology and business capabilities of each affiliate with Helix's infrastructure business.

In fact, Samsung affiliates have secured various business capabilities necessary to build AI infrastructure.

Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS, semiconductor) division has the ability to supply cutting-edge semiconductors, and its Device Experience (DX, finished products) division is expanding its cooling solution business through Fläkt Group, a data center air conditioning company it acquired last year.

Samsung C&T's construction division has engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) capabilities for data centers and power generation facilities, and Samsung SDS has capabilities in data center design, construction, and operation. Samsung SDS has recently been expanding its business area to include graphics processing units as a service (GPUaaS).

Samsung SDI also plans to explore additional business opportunities in the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and battery backup unit (BBU) fields, which are essential for stable power supply to data centers.

Samsung affiliates plan to seek opportunities for cooperation across AI infrastructure with Helix and global partners and actively participate in building a global AI data center ecosystem.