Mar 19, 2026 | Posted by Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji
Shinsegae Group and Reflection AI plan to build a 250MW data center in South Korea, set to be the country’s largest sovereign AI facility.
The two companies signed an MoU in San Francisco this week, attended by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnic, outlining their intention to form a joint venture for the project.
Under the JV agreement, Shinsegae will secure a plot of land and build the data center, for which Reflection AI will be responsible for the design and operation of the equipment inside.
“The Reflection and Shinsegae Group AI factory will equip the Korean government and enterprises with fully sovereign frontier capabilities built and operated on home soil, setting a new standard in technological self-sufficiency,” a statement from the companies said.
Shinsegae Group operates department stores, as well as e-commerce, hospitality, and real estate businesses, and is apparently keen to become South Korea’s answer to Amazon and the other hyperscalers.
"The data center that we are building in partnership with Reflection AI will not only be a growth opportunity for Shinsegae, but also a pivot point for the Korean AI ecosystem," said Yongjin Chun, chairman of Shinsegae Group.
Reflection AI is building open AI models similar to China’s DeepSeek, unlike the proprietary systems of OpenAI or Anthropic. Founded by former Google DeepMind engineers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou, the company is backed by Nvidia and raised $2 billion in October 2025. Earlier this month, reports indicated it is seeking additional funding in a round valuing the company at $20 billion.
