Helix Digital Infrastructure, founded by KKR, integrates AI infrastructure services
Samsung Electronics commits $500 million; five other affiliates contribute remaining $500 million
Investment joins KKR, Nvidia, Vistra and Kuwait Investment Authority as founding backers
Samsung expands business cooperation across the full AI infrastructure spectrum
Six Samsung affiliates will invest a combined $1 billion in Helix Digital Infrastructure, a US AI infrastructure company founded by global investment firm KKR. Through the investment, Samsung aims to extend its business cooperation beyond supplying core components such as semiconductors into the broader AI infrastructure ecosystem, including data centers, cooling systems and power.
Samsung Electronics, Samsung C&T, Samsung SDS, Samsung SDI, Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Fire announced Tuesday that they had decided to invest a total of $1 billion in Helix Digital Infrastructure.
Helix, whose launch was announced in June, provides integrated AI-related infrastructure covering hyperscale data center development and operation, power generation (baseload and flexible sources), transmission and distribution infrastructure, and fiber-optic and network infrastructure.
Through Helix, hyperscalers can rapidly secure the infrastructure they need at scale to meet surging AI demand.
Helix is led by Adam Selipsky, former CEO of Amazon Web Services, and has assembled a dedicated management team of top experts from the data center and power industries. It can also draw on the capabilities of more than 170 dedicated infrastructure specialists at KKR.
The Samsung affiliates joined as founding investors in Helix alongside KKR, Nvidia, US power company Vistra and the Kuwait Investment Authority — key players driving the global AI infrastructure ecosystem.
AI data centers are evolving beyond simple capital expenditure targets into core platforms supporting a wide range of business models — GPU cloud services (GPUaaS), sovereign AI and colocation (server space leasing) among them.
The proliferation of data centers is creating a new industrial ecosystem spanning power, cooling, semiconductors and finance. The Samsung affiliates' investment reflects their determination to secure next-generation AI leadership within that ecosystem.
As AI services spread across daily life and industry, the importance of data centers capable of handling vast computational workloads — and of the power needed to keep them running reliably — is growing in tandem. If data centers are the production base of the AI era, power is the force that drives them, and the ability to secure both forms of infrastructure together is becoming a core competitive advantage underpinning AI industry growth.
Helix targets both data centers and the power infrastructure needed to operate them, putting it at the heart of the competition. To secure power supply — the biggest bottleneck in AI infrastructure — Helix plans to move quickly by combining its own investment with a partnership with Vistra, one of its investors.
The investment is expected to serve as a catalyst for Samsung affiliates to translate their component competitiveness into influence at the systems and infrastructure level.
Through this, Samsung aims to expand its standing from a component supplier in the AI ecosystem to a direct participant in building the infrastructure ecosystem.
Samsung affiliates are playing a central role in global AI infrastructure development, drawing on their capabilities across the full AI infrastructure spectrum, and plan to expand cooperation opportunities with Helix going forward.
Samsung Electronics' DS (semiconductor) division supports global AI infrastructure development by responding swiftly to shifts in global semiconductor demand and supplying cutting-edge semiconductor products.
Samsung Electronics' DX (finished products) division supplies data center cooling products and solutions — ranging from air-cooling product lines to liquid-cooling coolant distribution units (CDUs) — through Flakt Group, a data center air-conditioning subsidiary it acquired in 2025.
Flakt Group's strengths lie in the speed and flexibility to meet hyperscalers' rapid scale-up demands, backed by 14 production facilities worldwide and supply and service networks in 65 countries.
Samsung C&T's construction division is actively pursuing large-scale infrastructure projects as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor in data center development and power generation.
Samsung SDS, as an IT services company, handles data center design, construction and operation, and has recently expanded its scope to include GPUaaS. Its power usage effectiveness (PUE) technology ranks among the best in South Korea and is applied to its own data centers as well as to the construction of the National AI Computing Center.
Samsung SDI is recognized globally for its technology in uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems and battery backup units (BBUs), which are essential for running data centers that operate servers around the clock. Samsung SDI plans to secure additional business opportunities in this field, where ultra-high-output, high-capacity battery technology is the key differentiator.
Samsung Electronics and the other Samsung affiliates plan to use this investment as a springboard to work with Helix and its partners to ensure the smooth supply of global AI data center infrastructure and to continue pursuing mutual synergies.
gil@heraldcorp.com
