Novel glycolipid derivatives, where the substituent of the sphingosine base part is a short carbon chain alkyl group, substituted or unsubstituted cycloalkyl group, substituted or unsubstituted aryl group or substituted or unsubstituted aralkyl group and efficient synthetic methods for practical mass production of the same and intermediates useful for the synthesis of these compounds. Glycolipids having the formula (I): where R.sup.3 indicates a substituted or unsubstituted C.sub.1 to C.sub.7 linear alkyl group, substituted or unsubstituted cycloalkyl group, substituted or unsubstituted aryl group, or substituted or unsubstituted aralkyl group and R.sup.8 indicates a substituted or unsubstituted C.sub.1 to C.sub.35 alkyl group, substituted or unsubstituted aryl group or substituted or unsubstituted aralkyl group are chemically synthesized.