Seoul: KT Corp., South Korea's major mobile carrier, announced a significant 34.5 percent drop in its second-quarter net income compared to the previous year, primarily attributed to substantial government fines following a massive data breach incident.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the company's net income for the April-June period on a consolidated basis was 480.6 billion won (approximately US$339.9 million), as detailed in its regulatory filing. The operating profit for the quarter stood at 648.3 billion won, marking a considerable 36.1 percent decrease from the previous year. The company's sales also saw a decline, falling by 10.1 percent to 6.68 trillion won.

KT Corp. attributed the sharp decline in net income to 54 billion won in government fines related to a major data breach that affected over 16,000 users. The operating profit also saw a reduction due to costs associated with a consumer compensation program. However, an improvement was noted from the previous quarter due to a recovery in its business-to-business unit.

Despite these challenges, KT's artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud business witnessed substantial growth, expanding by 22.3 percent from the previous year as more companies, particularly in the financial sector, adopted its AI-related infrastructure. "We plan to continue growth focusing on our core portfolio, while also strengthening our customer data protection and security capabilities to build customer trust and enhance corporate value," KT stated in a release.

Looking forward, KT aims to double the sales from its AI infrastructure and solution businesses by 2028, compared to the figures seen in 2025. The company also plans to secure an additional 1 gigawatt capacity in AI data centers and 90 terabits per second capacity in submarine cables by 2031. Furthermore, KT is in the final stages of completing a 250 billion-won stock buyback plan announced in February, with a completion deadline set for September 9.