Can a retail company like Korea's Shinsegae group succeed in AI/data centers?

Shinsegae Group is reportedly planning to build a large-scale AI data center in Korea through a partnership (MOU) with a U.S. company, Reflection AI. The goal seems to be entering the AI/cloud infrastructure space while also improving its core retail business with AI. This isn’t about building a GPT-like model from scratch, but more about owning the infrastructure and data (“sovereign AI”) so they can run AI systems tailored to the Korean market without relying entirely on foreign providers. If successful, this could give Shinsegae a meaningful cost and efficiency advantage, and potentially shift how the market values the company (from traditional retail to a tech-enabled platform).

What I’m trying to understand is whether this is realistically executable and who actually captures the value in these cases. Building and operating AI data centers requires massive power and cooling infrastructure, so it could benefit related industries (power equipment, cooling solutions), but I’m not sure how much direct upside Shinsegae itself would see versus its partners or suppliers. Curious to hear others’ thoughts.