[Edaily Reporter Lee So-Hyun ] Kakao(035720)announced that it has decided not to fully enter the infrastructure business, such as artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and graphics processing unit (GPU) cloud services. Instead of investing massive capital in infrastructure, the company plans to focus its efforts on creating AI services based on KakaoTalk that users repeatedly use in their daily lives.

During the Q2 2026 earnings conference call on the 6th, Kakao CEO Jeong Shin-ah stated, “We thoroughly reviewed the business viability of the entire AI value chain, including the AI data center and GPU cloud markets,” adding, “We determined that the infrastructure layer is not the area where Kakao can build the strongest competitive edge in the AI era.”

Kakao has grown through business-to-consumer (B2C) services that are deeply integrated into users’ daily lives. The company explained that, even in the AI era, building services that users use every day—based on this competitive strength—is the area where Kakao excels most.

Financial burden was also cited as a reason for not entering the infrastructure business. AI data centers and GPU cloud services require not only large-scale upfront investments but also ongoing capital expenditures. The rapid generational turnover of hardware, such as GPUs and AI servers, is another factor that increases the investment burden.

CEO Jeong stated, “Considering the expansion of competitive supply, it is difficult to guarantee that the high profitability resulting from the current imbalance between supply and demand will persist over the long term,” adding, “We judge that the return on investment (ROI) we can expect in the future is not high enough relative to the financial burden we would have to bear in the short term.”

Kakao plans to allocate capital to AI models and services rather than infrastructure businesses, where capital investment itself is the core of competitiveness. The company is positioning Agent AI—which understands the context and intent of users’ conversations on KakaoTalk and connects them to actual actions such as orders, reservations, and payments—as a key growth driver.

CEO Jeong stated, “Rather than making a full-scale entry by allocating significant capital to the infrastructure layer, we will focus on everything from the model layer to the service layer to create AI services that all citizens use habitually in their daily lives, thereby enhancing our corporate value.”

Meanwhile, Kakao reported consolidated revenue of 2.0985 trillion won and operating profit of 277 billion won for the second quarter of 2026. These figures represent year-over-year increases of 9% and 36%, respectively, marking record highs for both revenue and operating profit on a quarterly basis. The operating profit margin also improved to the 13% range, up approximately 3 percentage points from the same period last year.