South Korea Data Center Storage Market Size, Share & Forecast to 2035

The South Korea Data Center Storage Market is valued at USD 694.58 million in 2026 and is projected to reach USD 1.69 billion by 2035, up from USD 575.51 million in 2025, a CAGR of 11.34% from 2025 to 2035 (DC Market Insights estimate). South Korea Data Center Storage covers the arrays, file and object systems, tape libraries, storage software and storage support bought for data center halls located in South Korea. The fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) Daejeon center on 26 September 2025 changed how Korean buyers think about storage: 709 government systems went down, and the G-Drive document store was judged unrecoverable because it had no backup (Source: Ministry of the Interior and Safety). The 2025 build receipt is 1,266-1,477 MW of installed IT capacity (average 1,371 MW) × USD 0.36 million of storage spend per MW-year = USD 494.55 million, plus 74 MW of new AI capacity × USD 1.10 million = USD 80.96 million. Object storage grows fastest at 17.99% a year, and the Honam Region is the fastest region at 24.27% as Jeollanam-do campuses near Haenam take AI halls that the capital region cannot connect to the grid.

How Much Will Korean Data Centers Spend on Storage in 2026?

Korean data centers will spend USD 694.58 million on storage systems, storage software and storage services in 2026, 20.69% more than the USD 575.51 million of 2025, DC Market Insights estimates.

• Market size 2025: USD 575.51 million
• Market size 2026: USD 694.58 million
• Market size 2030: USD 1.22 billion
• Market size 2035: USD 1.69 billion
• CAGR 2025-2035: 11.34% (low case 8.05%, high case 13.05%)
• Largest storage type: All-Flash Arrays, 50% of 2025 value
• Fastest architecture: Object Storage, 17.99% CAGR
• Leading region: Capital Region, 70% of 2025 value; fastest region: Honam Region, 24.27% CAGR
• Largest province: Gyeonggi-do, USD 201.43 million in 2025
• Market leaders: Dell Technologies, NetApp and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), about 44% of external array spend together (DC Market Insights estimate)

Key Takeaways: Four Numbers Korean Storage Buyers Should Watch

• All-flash arrays take 50% of 2025 spend and 66% by 2035 because AI clusters built for the government GPU programme need flash throughput to keep graphics processing units (GPUs) busy.
• Government and Public Sector storage grows 12.24% a year because the NIRS fire forced storage-based disaster recovery by 2027 for systems in the three highest criticality grades (A1, A2 and A3).
• The Capital Region falls from 70% to 52% of value by 2035 because grid-impact rules push new halls to Sejong, Ulsan and Jeollanam-do.
• Enterprises and Financial Institutions grow only 6.75% a year because enterprises move workloads into cloud and colocation halls.

Executive Summary: South Korea Data Center Storage Market Size, 2020-2035

The South Korea Data Center Storage Market size was valued at USD 297.31 million in 2020, reached USD 575.51 million in 2025, and is anticipated to reach USD 1.69 billion by 2035, at a CAGR of 11.34% during the forecast period. Growth from 2020 to 2025 ran at 14.12% a year because installed IT capacity doubled from about 740 MW to 1,477 MW while the first AI halls started buying flash in bulk.

Attribute	Detail
Historical period	2020-2024
Base year	2025
Forecast period	2026-2035
Market size 2025	USD 575.51 million
Market size 2026	USD 694.58 million
CAGR 2025-2035	11.34%
Market size 2035	USD 1.69 billion

DC Market Insights values installed-base storage refresh and expansion at USD 494.55 million in 2025 and AI cluster storage at USD 80.96 million; by 2035 the two lines reach USD 1.39 billion and USD 293.36 million. The per-megawatt storage rate falls from USD 0.42 million in 2020 to USD 0.27 million in 2035 because each new rack carries more compute per terabyte stored and flash prices per terabyte keep falling.

What Counts as Data Center Storage in Korean Halls?

The South Korea Data Center Storage Market covers USD 575.51 million of storage equipment, software and support bought in 2025 for halls run by cloud providers, telecom operators, colocation firms, enterprises and government centers.

Included: all-flash and hybrid arrays, HDD-based systems, tape and archive libraries, Storage Area Network (SAN) and Network-Attached Storage (NAS) systems, scale-out file and object platforms, hyperconverged storage nodes, storage software (replication, snapshots, data protection) and storage support contracts.

Excluded: servers and GPUs, network switches, power and cooling (see the South Korea Data Center Market), public cloud storage subscriptions, and loose solid-state drives (SSDs) or memory chips sold by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix (an SK Group company) to server makers, which are component sales rather than data center storage systems.

How the segments fit together: each of the four segment dimensions and the five regions adds up to the same total in every year; the South Korea Data Center Market report covers the halls themselves, while the storage market counts only the arrays and software inside them; the Data Center Storage Market gives the worldwide view.

Why Do South Korea Data Center Storage Market Estimates Differ?

Published figures for South Korean data center storage run from under USD 0.5 billion to more than USD 1.5 billion for 2025 because they draw the boundary in different places; DC Market Insights puts 2026 at USD 694.58 million.

Broader definitions add the memory and SSD output of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, enterprise storage outside data center halls, and cloud storage subscription revenue. The earlier DC Market Insights edition of the South Korea Data Center Storage Market used that wider basis and came out about 2.6 times larger; this edition replaces it with a bottom-up figure of USD 575.51 million that counts only systems installed in Korean halls. Small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) that rent racks in colocation halls and buy their own arrays are in scope.

Element	In this report	Why
Storage arrays, file and object systems	Yes (USD 379.84 million hardware 2025)	Core purchase
Storage software and support	Yes (USD 195.67 million in 2025)	Bought with the arrays
SSD and memory chip exports	No	Component sales, mostly shipped abroad
Cloud storage subscriptions	No	Service revenue, not equipment
Servers, network, power, cooling	No	Covered by sibling reports

Market Drivers: What Drives Data Center Storage Demand in South Korea?

Three dated events add USD 119.07 million of storage spend between 2025 and 2026, DC Market Insights estimates: the NIRS disaster-recovery rebuild, the government GPU programme and the NAVER Corporation (NAVER), NVIDIA Corporation (NVIDIA) and Brookfield campus in Sejong.

The NIRS Daejeon fire turned backup into a legal-grade requirement

The 26 September 2025 battery fire at NIRS Daejeon burned 96 systems completely and took 709 systems offline; all 709 were restored only on 30 December 2025, about 95 days later (Source: Ministry of the Interior and Safety). The one-year NIRS recovery briefing of 2 October 2026 sets storage-based disaster recovery for grade A1 to A3 systems by 2027, a one-hour recovery target for A1 systems from a second center, off-site backup through the Gongju center and storage backup systems for all three government centers by the end of 2027. DC Market Insights estimates this programme lifts Government and Public Sector storage, 12% of 2025 value, by about a quarter across 2026 and 2027.

13,000 government GPUs need flash tiers beside them

The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) secured 13,000 GPUs with a KRW 1.46 trillion supplementary budget, with a first batch of 2,296 H200 and 2,040 B200 units hosted in NAVER Cloud, Kakao and NHN Cloud data centers, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT GPU release of 22 December 2025. MSIT targets 37,000 government GPUs by the end of 2026 and 260,000 GPUs nationally by 2030, about 500 MW of power demand (Source: MSIT 2026 work-plan briefing). At about USD 1.08 million of storage per AI megawatt, the 2026 AI line reaches USD 129.36 million.

NAVER’s Sejong AI factory grows from 55 MW to 200 MW

NAVER, NVIDIA and Brookfield agreed in July 2026 to expand the AI factory at NAVER’s GAK Sejong campus (GAK is NAVER’s name for its hyperscale data center sites) from 55 MW to 200 MW in a USD 10 billion project, according to the NAVER announcement. That single campus adds about 145 MW of AI capacity, worth roughly USD 150 million of storage at today’s per-megawatt rate (DC Market Insights estimate), and is the main reason Sejong grows 15.16% a year to USD 113.27 million by 2035.

Market Trends: How Is Korean Data Center Storage Changing?

All-flash arrays rise from 50% to 66% of Korean data center storage value by 2035 and object storage from 14% to 25%, DC Market Insights estimates, as AI and recovery workloads reshape storage tiers.

Server SSD demand from Korean suppliers points to an all-flash primary tier

Samsung Electronics said in its third-quarter 2026 results that it was meeting growing demand for server SSDs and saw surging quad-level cell (QLC) SSD demand, and SK hynix reported higher sales of 321-layer triple-level cell (TLC) enterprise SSDs (eSSDs) for data centers in the same quarter (Source: company results releases). All-flash arrays grow 14.48% a year from USD 287.75 million in 2025, while HDD-based systems grow 7.44%.

Object storage becomes the capacity and recovery tier

Object Storage grows 17.99% a year from USD 80.57 million in 2025 to USD 421.38 million in 2035 because model checkpoints, immutable backup copies and the off-site copies that NIRS now requires sit on S3-compatible capacity tiers.

Market Challenges: What Slows Storage Spending in Korean Data Centers?

Two limits keep the 2035 base case of USD 1.69 billion about USD 277 million below the high case of USD 1.96 billion, DC Market Insights estimates: grid access for new halls and falling cost per terabyte.

Grid-impact assessments slow halls in the capital region

The Distributed Energy Activation Special Act took effect on 14 June 2024 and requires grid-impact assessments for large loads, steering new data centers away from the Seoul metropolitan area (Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy). New IT capacity in the model rises from 230 MW in 2025 to 300 MW in 2026; a one-year delay to 100 MW of AI halls would push about USD 100 million of storage spend into later years.

Falling flash prices per terabyte cap spend per megawatt

The installed-base storage rate falls about 3% a year, from USD 0.36 million per MW-year in 2025 to USD 0.27 million in 2035, so spend grows 11.34% a year while installed capacity grows about 13.9% a year.

Market Opportunities: Which Korean Storage Projects Are Still Open to Suppliers?

Two pools worth about USD 640.50 million by 2035 are open to suppliers, DC Market Insights estimates.

AI cluster storage in Jeollanam-do, Ulsan and Gumi

Jeollanam-do grows 27.31% a year to USD 141.58 million by 2035: the Haenam complex plans 25 buildings of 40 MW each by 2037 (Source: Jeollanam-do provincial plan via the Korea Policy Briefing), and SK Telecom signed a memorandum with OpenAI for an AI data center in the southwest in October 2025 (Source: SK Group). Samsung SDS breaks ground on a 60 MW AI data center in Gumi in November 2026, according to its Samsung SDS third-quarter 2026 results.

Sovereign and recovery storage for regulated buyers

Government and Public Sector storage reaches USD 219.12 million by 2035. MSIT and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) will replace the dual public-cloud security certification with one NIS-led scheme from 2027 (Source: MSIT, 20 April 2026), which favours suppliers that can certify replicated storage inside Korea.

What Do Korean Operators Pay for Storage per Megawatt?

Korean data centers spend about USD 0.36 million on storage per installed megawatt a year in 2025, plus about USD 1.10 million one-off per megawatt of new AI capacity, DC Market Insights estimates.

Year	Storage spend per installed MW-year (USD million)	Storage per new AI MW (USD million)	Installed IT capacity (MW)
2020	0.42	1.22	740
2025	0.36	1.10	1,477
2030	0.31	0.99	3,278
2035	0.27	0.90	5,452

Public price anchors are thin: the Public Procurement Service does not publish storage-array unit prices, so the rates are calibrated on the installed base and on AI cluster designs where storage is about 5% to 8% of cluster cost. The rate per AI megawatt falls 2% a year as flash density rises.

Which Korean Laws and Recovery Rules Govern Data Center Storage?

Five rules decide where Korean storage is installed and how it is replicated, touching an estimated USD 253.22 million of regulated-buyer spend in 2025.

• NIRS disaster-recovery plan (October 2026): storage-based recovery for A1 to A3 systems by 2027, 13 Daejeon systems active-active by March 2027 (Source: Ministry of the Interior and Safety).
• Distributed Energy Activation Special Act (June 2024): grid-impact assessment for large new loads (Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy).
• AI Data Center Special Act (passed May 2026): a single MSIT permit window and exemption from grid-impact review for AI data centers below a set size outside the capital region (Source: Korea Policy Briefing).
• Cloud Security Assurance Program (CSAP): moves to a single NIS-led certification in 2027 (Source: MSIT).
• Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA): the Personal Information Protection Commission fined Temu KRW 1.369 billion in May 2025, including for overseas-transfer breaches (Source: PIPC).

Which Array Type Carries the Value in South Korea Data Center Storage?

All-flash arrays lead with USD 287.75 million, 50% of 2025 value, and Object Storage is the fastest architecture at 17.99% a year, DC Market Insights estimates.

By Storage Type

All-Flash Arrays rise from 50% to 66% of value because AI clusters and recovery copies need flash.

Segment	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025-2035
All-Flash Arrays	287.75	50%	1,112.44	14.48%
Hybrid Flash Arrays	126.61	22%	235.97	6.42%
HDD-Based Systems	115.10	20%	235.97	7.44%
Tape and Archive Libraries	46.04	8%	101.13	8.19%

By Architecture

Storage Area Network (SAN) keeps the largest 2025 share at 38% but grows only 8.0% a year.

Segment	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025-2035
Storage Area Network (SAN)	218.69	38%	471.94	8.0%
Network-Attached and Scale-Out File	172.65	30%	522.51	11.71%
Object Storage	80.57	14%	421.38	17.99%
Direct-Attached and Hyperconverged	103.59	18%	269.68	10.04%

By Component

Storage Software grows fastest at 13.39% a year because replication and snapshot licences rise with recovery rules.

Segment	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025-2035
Hardware	379.84	66%	1,011.31	10.29%
Storage Software	115.10	20%	404.52	13.39%
Support and Managed Services	80.57	14%	269.68	12.84%

By End User

Hyperscale and Cloud Providers grow 14.11% a year to 46% of value by 2035.

Segment	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025-2035
Hyperscale and Cloud Providers	207.18	36%	775.33	14.11%
Telecom and Colocation Operators	115.10	20%	337.10	11.34%
Enterprises and Financial Institutions	184.16	32%	353.96	6.75%
Government and Public Sector	69.06	12%	219.12	12.24%

DC Exclusive: The NIRS Fire-to-Recovery Storage Ledger

The NIRS Fire-to-Recovery Storage Ledger is a DC Market Insights model built on 9 inputs that tracks how the September 2025 fire turns into storage purchases, worth about USD 38 million across 2026 and 2027.

Date	Event	Storage consequence (DC Market Insights estimate)
26 Sep 2025	Battery fire at NIRS Daejeon; 709 systems offline	Storage hardware damaged by heat and dust
29 Sep 2025	96 burned systems to move to the Daegu center	Replacement arrays in Daegu, about USD 6 million
1 Oct 2025	G-Drive judged unrecoverable for lack of backup	Backup copy policy for document stores
18 Nov 2025	696 of 709 systems restored (98.2%)	Storage vendors repair dust-damaged arrays
30 Dec 2025	All 709 systems restored	Recovery phase closes after 95 days
2 Oct 2026	Storage-based DR for A1 to A3 by 2027; 1-hour A1 recovery	Replicated arrays at a second center, about USD 20 million
Mar 2027	13 Daejeon systems active-active	Synchronous replication licences
End 2027	Storage backup systems in all three centers	Backup and object tiers, about USD 12 million

The ledger assumes 76 grade-1 systems need active-active storage at about USD 0.25 million each and that roughly 15,000 regraded public systems shift part of their backup to the Gongju center (Source: Ministry of the Interior and Safety release of 29 September 2025 and the one-year briefing).

Regional Insights: Which Korean Region Leads Data Center Storage, and Why Is Spend Leaving the Capital Region?

The Capital Region leads with USD 402.86 million, 70% of 2025 value, while the Honam Region grows fastest at 24.27% a year, DC Market Insights estimates.

Region	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025-2035
Capital Region	402.86	70%	876.47	8.08%
Chungcheong Region	69.06	12%	269.68	14.59%
Gyeongsang Region	57.55	10%	235.97	15.15%
Honam Region	23.02	4%	202.26	24.27%
Gangwon and Jeju	23.02	4%	101.13	15.95%

Capital Region

Gyeonggi-do and Seoul hold the cloud regions and colocation campuses, but the region’s share falls to 52% by 2035 as grid-impact assessments slow new halls. Storage spend here rises from USD 402.86 million in 2025 to USD 876.47 million in 2035.

Chungcheong Region

Sejong and Daejeon carry the NAVER GAK campus and the NIRS government center, so AI and recovery storage lift the region to 16% of value. Storage spend here rises from USD 69.06 million in 2025 to USD 269.68 million in 2035.

Gyeongsang Region

The SK Group and Amazon Web Services (AWS) AI data center in Ulsan starts operating from 2027 under a 15-year partnership, and Samsung SDS builds 60 MW in Gumi. Storage spend here rises from USD 57.55 million in 2025 to USD 235.97 million in 2035.

Honam Region

Jeollanam-do’s Haenam plan of 25 buildings of 40 MW each by 2037 makes Honam the fastest storage region. Storage spend here rises from USD 23.02 million in 2025 to USD 202.26 million in 2035.

Gangwon and Jeju

Chuncheon campuses and Jeju sites add cooler-climate capacity and grow about 16% a year. Storage spend here rises from USD 23.02 million in 2025 to USD 101.13 million in 2035.

Which Korean Provinces Buy the Most Data Center Storage?

Gyeonggi-do is the largest location at USD 201.43 million in 2025, and Jeollanam-do is the fastest at 27.31% a year, DC Market Insights estimates.

Rank	Province or city	Region	2025 (USD million)	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025-2035
1	Gyeonggi-do	Capital Region	201.43	455.76	8.51%
2	Seoul	Capital Region	145.03	262.94	6.13%
3	Incheon	Capital Region	56.40	157.76	10.83%
4	Sejong	Chungcheong Region	27.62	113.27	15.16%
5	Busan and Gyeongnam	Gyeongsang Region	25.90	89.67	13.22%
6	Daejeon	Chungcheong Region	24.17	67.42	10.8%
7	Gangwon and Jeju	Gangwon and Jeju	23.02	101.13	15.95%
8	Chungcheong Provinces	Chungcheong Region	17.27	88.99	17.82%
9	Daegu and Gyeongbuk	Gyeongsang Region	17.26	66.07	14.37%
10	Ulsan	Gyeongsang Region	14.39	80.23	18.75%
11	Jeollanam-do	Honam Region	12.66	141.58	27.31%
12	Gwangju and Jeonbuk	Honam Region	10.36	60.68	19.34%

Forecast Scenarios: Where Could Korean Data Center Storage Land in 2035?

The South Korea Data Center Storage Market reaches between USD 1.25 billion and USD 1.96 billion by 2035, with a base case of USD 1.69 billion, DC Market Insights estimates.

Scenario	2035 value	CAGR 2025-2035	What has to happen
Low	USD 1.25 billion	8.05%	Grid queues delay AI halls by two years; flash prices fall faster
Base	USD 1.69 billion	11.34%	About 5,450 MW installed by 2035; AI share of new capacity 64%
High	USD 1.96 billion	13.05%	260,000 GPUs by 2030 on schedule; NIRS-style recovery rules spread to finance

Key Players and Market Share: Which Vendors Hold Korean Data Center Storage?

Dell Technologies, NetApp and Hewlett Packard Enterprise hold about 44% of external array spend in South Korea together, DC Market Insights estimates on the basis of installed systems in Korean cloud, telecom and government halls.

• Dell Technologies
• NetApp
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
• Pure Storage
• IBM
• Hitachi Vantara
• Huawei Technologies
• Lenovo
• Nutanix
• Samsung SDS
• LG CNS
• SK Telecom
• KT Cloud
• NAVER Cloud
• Commvault

Samsung SDS reported cloud revenue of KRW 796.1 billion in the third quarter of 2026, up 18%, and is preferred bidder on a data center project of more than 200 MW (Source: Samsung SDS). KT runs its Secure Public Cloud on Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty under a five-year partnership signed in September 2024 (Source: Microsoft). Korean memory makers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix supply much of the flash inside the arrays but sell components, not storage systems.

Recent Developments: What Changed for Korean Data Center Storage Since the NIRS Fire?

• In October 2026, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety set storage-based disaster recovery for grade A1 to A3 government systems by 2027 (Source: Ministry of the Interior and Safety).
• In October 2026, Samsung SDS said its 60 MW Gumi AI data center breaks ground in November (Source: Samsung SDS).
• In July 2026, NAVER, NVIDIA and Brookfield agreed to expand GAK Sejong from 55 MW to 200 MW (Source: NAVER).
• In May 2026, the National Assembly passed the AI Data Center Special Act (Source: Korea Policy Briefing).
• In December 2025, MSIT secured 13,000 GPUs with a KRW 1.46 trillion budget (Source: MSIT).
• In October 2025, Samsung, SK and OpenAI signed Stargate memoranda, including AI data center sites outside the Seoul Metropolitan Area (Source: OpenAI).

Research Methodology: How the Model Counts Korean Storage Megawatt by Megawatt

The model multiplies 16 years of installed IT capacity (about 740 MW in 2020, 1,477 MW in 2025 and 5,452 MW in 2035, 1.5% retired each year) by a storage rate per MW-year, and adds new AI megawatts (32% of 230 MW in 2025, 64% of 510 MW in 2035) times a storage rate per AI megawatt. The 2025 receipt is USD 494.55 million + USD 80.96 million = USD 575.51 million. Bound checks: (1) consistency — 2025 storage spend is 1.41 times the USD 407.96 million thermal layer in the South Korea Data Center Thermal Management Market, which uses the same capacity inputs; (2) ceiling — the 2025 total equals about 25% of Samsung SDS’s annualised cloud revenue (KRW 796.1 billion a quarter, about USD 2.3 billion a year), and storage is only one of many cloud cost lines; (3) floor — 13,000 government GPUs at about USD 75,000 per GPU cluster cost × 6% storage = USD 58.50 million, below the 2026 AI line of USD 129.36 million. Regional splits use the South Korea AI Data Center Market capacity pipeline. See our research methodology.