LG Uplus CEO Hong Bum-shik was the highest-paid incumbent telecom chief executive in South Korea in the first half, receiving 1.816 billion won, while SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung took home 26.095 billion won as the chipmaker's share price climbed during the AI boom. Half-year filings released on August 14 show telecom companies tying bonuses to AI-related execution, including AX (AI transformation), AI data center expansion and trust recovery efforts after cyber incidents. Hong's package included 726 million won in salary and 1.089 billion won in bonuses, while SK Telecom CEO Jung Jae-heon's disclosed first-half total of 1.705 billion won partly reflected pay earned before he formally became CEO on March 26. KT CEO Park Yoon-young's pay was not individually disclosed because his roughly three-month tenure appears to have remained below the 500 million won disclosure threshold. Among employees, SK Telecom posted the highest average first-half pay at 88 million won, ahead of LG Uplus at 64 million won and KT at 57 million won. SK Hynix stood apart, with average employee pay of 144 million won, up 23% from a year earlier. The filings come as AI infrastructure spending accelerates, with all three telecom operators reporting double-digit growth in AI data center revenue in the second quarter, underscoring that AI performance is becoming a core metric for executive pay across telecom and semiconductor companies.