Samsung and five affiliates put $1bn into KKR’s AI infrastructure firm

On Tuesday, the group said that six of Samsung’s companies are pooling their resources to make a $1bn investment in Helix Digital Infrastructure, a company that KKR set up in June specifically to build AI data centers.

Samsung Electronics is investing $500M, with the remainder allocated among its affiliates.

The companies in question are Samsung C&T, a construction firm; Samsung SDS, an IT services company; Samsung SDI, a battery manufacturer; and the insurance companies Samsung Life and Samsung Fire & Marine.

Adam Selipsky runs Helix and previously headed Amazon Web Services until 2024; the company aims to become a one-stop shop for the largest cloud and AI companies.

It involves taking care of all the aspects a large AI data center needs to go live, such as the site and power plants, grid connections, and fiber links.

KKR launched Helix with capital commitments of more than $10bn from its founding investors: KKR itself, the Kuwait Investment Authority, Nvidia and the US power company Vistra. Nvidia acts as a strategic partner, and Vistra is Helix’s preferred power supplier.

Samsung’s funds come with a sales promotion, and its announcement states what each company would provide: Samsung Electronics would make chips and cooling systems, C&T would build the sites, and SDI would provide backup batteries.

The company states that the agreement represents a shift from selling components to determining how AI infrastructure is built; it adds that power is the key constraint and that Helix intends to secure its energy supply by making direct investments and entering into arrangements with developers such as Vistra.

As KKR stated, Selipsky said the partnership would help Helix accelerate the rollout of infrastructure for hyperscalers worldwide.

The two groups are already connected. Bloomberg states that KKR has invested around $9bn in South Korea since 2009, including $820m in Samsung SDS, which is one of the companies currently supporting Helix.

KKR has also entered into a venture with SK Telecom to set up an AI data center called SK Horizon.

In August, KKR also took part in Nvidia’s $500bn financing platform for AI infrastructure, together with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield and Goldman Sachs.

Investors are currently investing heavily in companies that offer power and data centers as a single offering.

The $40 billion Aligned takeover, the largest data center deal ever recorded, was completed in July by a group led by BlackRock and Abu Dhabi’s MGX.

In Asia-Pacific, Firmus, which is supported by Nvidia, is preparing to have its shares listed on the stock market, having secured contracts with both OpenAI and Meta.