KT reported second-quarter consolidated revenue of 6.68 trillion won and operating profit of 648.3 billion won, down 10.1% and 36.1% from a year earlier, while operating profit rose 34.3% from the previous quarter and came in above market consensus of around 600 billion won. The year-over-year decline reflected a high base from large one-off real estate development gains booked in the same period last year at Seoul's Jayang-dong and Gangbuk sites, while net profit fell 34.5% to 480.6 billion won and controlling-interest net profit dropped 36.0% to 440.1 billion won. KT said wireless revenue was pressured after subscriber churn tied to penalty fee waivers and customer compensation following a personal data breach incident, though subscriber trends recovered in the second quarter and churn improved sharply from the first quarter. Growth came from AX, KT Cloud, broadband and several affiliates. Group-wide AX revenue rose 22.3% to 367.8 billion won, KT Cloud revenue increased 19.8% to 265.4 billion won, and the company said it secured 22 financial-sector AX projects in the first half while providing AICC services for four of South Korea's five major commercial banks. KT said it will continue pursuing its "AX platform company" strategy, targeting consolidated ROE of 9-10% by 2028, more than doubling AX revenue by 2028 versus last year, and securing 1GW of AIDC capacity and 90Tbps of submarine cable capacity by 2031.