South Korean operator SK Telecom has been leading the pack, and a national and global level, by investing in AI start-ups to diversify its services and build a telco-specific large language model (LLM). KT Corp has never been far behind, and now LG Uplus has stepped up and is laying out plans for its own AI strategy. SKT, the most active AI investor of the South Korean MNOs, has been building investments and partnerships with various US firms over the last two years. This week, SKT invested $200 million in California-based Smart Global Holdings (SGH). The US firm designs high-performance computing systems for AI workloads which will give SKT access to a suite of advanced AI products. This includes AI…