Jensen Huang Backs Naver With $1 Billion Bet on Global AI Factory Push

Naver partners with Nvidia on AI factory buildout

Nvidia signs $1 billion strategic investment deal

Chipmaker to take 4.5% stake in Naver for joint business

Brookfield to support $9 billion in GPU and data center procurement

Naver has secured $10 billion of investment and infrastructure support from Nvidia and Brookfield Asset Management. Nvidia will acquire a 4.5% stake in Naver, while Brookfield will support procurement of $9 billion in graphics processing units and data center capacity. Naver aims to begin generating revenue next year from its global artificial intelligence factory business.

Naver said July 27 that it will issue $1 billion of new shares to Nvidia through a third-party allotment. Nvidia will invest about $1 billion to acquire 7,241,564 common shares in Naver, giving it a 4.5% stake. The payment date is Oct. 30.

The share sale is Naver's first third-party allotment in 22 years and its first since moving to South Korea's main Kospi market in 2008. The investment follows the companies' agreement announced last month to build a gigawatt-scale global AI factory.

Naver also signed a preliminary agreement with Brookfield, which manages more than $1 trillion, to secure $9 billion in GPU infrastructure and data centers. It named Brookfield its exclusive preferred negotiating partner for procuring the latest GPUs and data centers needed for an AI factory with capacity in the hundreds of megawatts.

Taken together, Nvidia's investment and Brookfield's support total $10 billion. Naver said the agreements secure both GPU supply and infrastructure procurement, two core requirements for the AI factory business.

Naver Cloud is also discussing an AI compute partnership with Nvidia to jointly pursue the global AI factory business. The arrangement would combine not only technology cooperation but also demand and capital. Naver expects Nvidia to join Naver Cloud's AI factory business as a co-participant once the talks are completed.

An AI factory combines large-scale GPU clusters and data centers to provide AI computing infrastructure to companies or countries. Naver said it has built capabilities across the sector by directly operating data centers, GPU clusters, AI platforms and its own AI models and services.

Beyond its own data centers, the company has secured GPU installation space at more than 20 sites across South Korea and is operating those facilities. Its goal is to cut the time from securing resources to launching services to less than one month. Naver said it already operates about 100,000 GPUs, the largest scale in South Korea, in large clusters and has automated resource management and recovery.

Naver also laid out a detailed timeline. It plans to start operating a 55-megawatt global AI factory in the first half of 2027 and begin recording related revenue. It aims to expand that to 200 megawatts by 2028 and then scale up to the gigawatt level. On that basis, Naver plans to target sovereign AI infrastructure demand in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.

Naver also announced a shareholder return measure. Its board approved on July 24 the cancellation of 4.9 million treasury shares on Aug. 3, valued at about $720 million.

The agreements were signed July 24 at Nvidia's headquarters in Santa Clara, California. Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin, Chief Executive Officer Choi Soo-yeon and Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang attended.

Lee said Naver's agreements with Nvidia and Brookfield give the company a chance to scale up its accumulated data center operating technology and know-how on the global stage. He added that Naver will work with companies around the world to build an AI ecosystem that respects the diversity of countries and groups.

Kim Dae-young, Hankyung.com reporter kdy@hankyung.com