Nvidia will invest $1 billion, approximately 1.3378 trillion won, to become Naver's third-largest shareholder. Nvidia's emergence as a major Naver shareholder is expected to help the AI factory development business being pursued by the companies together with Brookfield move into full implementation.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on October 30, Naver disclosed that November 6 had been confirmed as the payment date for the investment it had agreed to receive from Nvidia. The new shares are scheduled to be listed on November 27.
Naver said it had fulfilled the prerequisite of securing computing infrastructure worth at least $9 billion, approximately 12.0402 trillion won, for expanding its AI factory business.
Following confirmation of the final number of shares to be issued on November 3, Nvidia will acquire a 4.54% stake in Naver once payment is completed on November 6.
Naver's largest shareholder is currently the National Pension Service, with a 9.49% stake, followed by BlackRock with 7.31%. Payment of the investment will make Nvidia the third-largest shareholder.
The stake held by board chair Lee Hae-jin, previously the third-largest shareholder, will be diluted from 4.03% to 3.84%.
Naver, Nvidia and Brookfield previously announced plans to jointly develop AI factories globally. As part of their business cooperation, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also visited 1784, Naver's second headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, and met with Lee and CEO Choi Soo-yeon.
On October 27, Naver also announced that it had signed an agreement with Brookfield to secure $9 billion worth of computing infrastructure. Fulfillment of the prerequisite at that time was expected to accelerate Naver's capital increase through a third-party allotment.
As the AI factory development business gets underway, Brookfield will establish a special-purpose vehicle tentatively named Asset Co and invest up to $9 billion to secure AI infrastructure, including graphics processing units (GPUs) and data centers, before providing computing power to AI factory operator Naver Cloud.
Using that infrastructure, Naver and Naver Cloud will lead the AI factory business by drawing on their accumulated capabilities in building and operating large-scale GPU clusters and their expertise in data center operations.
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Nvidia will provide technical cooperation centered on next-generation high-performance computing platforms such as DSX, contributing to the AI factories' technological competitiveness and infrastructure operating efficiency.
In particular, Team Naver plans to bring 55 MW into operation starting in the first half of 2027, expand operating capacity to 200 MW by 2028, and gradually expand the business into overseas markets with the Gak Sejong hyperscale data center as a key hub.
Original Korean article: ZDNet Korea
English brief by Korea Wind Intelligence, koreawindintel.com
