Samsung Electronics and five of its affiliates, Samsung C&T, Samsung SDS, Samsung SDI, Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, will invest a combined $1 billion in Helix Digital Infrastructure, a KKR-backed AI infrastructure company. Samsung said the investment is meant to support infrastructure for rising AI compute demand, and marks the company’s move beyond hardware components into AI infrastructure itself.
What Helix Actually Builds
Helix develops and operates hyperscale data centers, power generation, transmission, and fibre-optic networks built specifically for large-scale AI workloads. The company launched in June with the goal of providing infrastructure across the entire AI value chain, spanning data centre development and operations, power generation and distribution, and the fibre-optic networks that connect it all.
Helix is led by Adam Selipsky, the former CEO of Amazon Web Services, and the company says its model can help hyperscalers secure infrastructure faster than building it independently. It’s also assembling a management team with deep expertise across data centres and power, backed by roughly 170 dedicated professionals from KKR’s global infrastructure business. Helix’s founding investors include KKR, the Kuwait Investment Authority, Nvidia, and US power company Vistra Corp, and Samsung’s investment now brings its affiliates into a group that already spans semiconductors, computing infrastructure, and energy.
Why Data Centres Are Becoming “Business Platforms”
Samsung described a broader shift underway in how AI data centres function, saying they’re increasingly becoming business platforms rather than simple facilities. These platforms now include services like GPU-as-a-Service, sovereign AI, and colocation, and their growth is driving demand across power generation, cooling, semiconductors, and finance all at once.
Samsung identified power availability specifically as the central constraint holding back AI infrastructure growth. “Power availability is currently the greatest bottleneck in AI infrastructure,” the company said. Helix plans to address this directly by securing energy capacity through direct investments and partnerships with energy developers, including Vistra.
How This Fits Into Samsung’s Existing Businesses
The investment connects Helix’s infrastructure strategy to several parts of Samsung’s existing operations. Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions division already supplies semiconductor products used in AI infrastructure globally, while its Device experience division provides data centre cooling systems through FläktGroup, which Samsung acquired in 2025. FläktGroup’s portfolio spans both air cooling systems and coolant distribution units for liquid cooling, and the company operates 14 production sites along with a supply and service network across 65 countries.
Samsung C&T’s Engineering & Construction Group works as an engineering, procurement and construction contractor, handling data centre and power generation infrastructure projects directly. Samsung SDS designs, builds, and operates data centres, and has already entered the GPU-as-a-Service market on its own. Samsung SDI, meanwhile, supplies uninterruptible power supplies and battery backup units that keep data centres running around the clock, and the company plans to explore further opportunities in this space.
Samsung said the investment is expected to accelerate global AI data centre deployment alongside Helix, while also increasing collaboration among the Samsung affiliates now involved in the deal.
