Nvidia is acquiring a 4.5% stake in Naver (035420.KS) to become the company's third-largest shareholder. Naver will use the funds, part of a broader capital raise in the tens of trillions of won, to launch a global artificial intelligence (AI) factory construction business.
Naver said in a regulatory filing on the 27th that it had decided on a third-party allocation of new shares worth 1,480,899,838,000 won (about $1 billion). The new shares will be issued at 204,500 won each, with Nvidia as the recipient. Through the $1 billion investment, Nvidia will acquire a 4.5% stake in Naver (7,241,564 common shares), becoming the company's third-largest shareholder after the National Pension Service and BlackRock.
This marks the first time in 22 years that Naver has conducted a third-party allocation of new shares, and the first since its 2008 transfer listing to the KOSPI. Alongside this, Naver will carry out a large-scale treasury stock retirement to enhance shareholder value. At a board meeting on the 24th, Naver decided to retire 4.9 million treasury shares worth about 1 trillion won on the 3rd of next month.
The investment is part of the "AI Factory Construction Agreement" the two companies announced last month. Naver and Nvidia previously agreed last month to jointly build a gigawatt (GW)-scale, ultra-large global AI factory. Based on Nvidia's AI factory optimization platform, the "DSX Architecture," they plan to build "sovereign AI" infrastructure in countries around the world. Together with Nvidia, Naver will first operate a 55-megawatt (MW) AI factory at its Sejong data center "Gak Sejong" in the first half of 2027, then expand it in stages to 200MW in 2028 and eventually to 1GW over the long term.
To this end, Naver, in addition to Nvidia, will receive $9 billion in investment from global alternative investment firm Brookfield to jointly prepare the stable infrastructure and supply chain needed to operate a gigawatt (GW)-scale AI factory. Brookfield is a frontier investment firm in AI infrastructure fields such as data centers and renewable energy. Through the partnership, Naver will be able to secure large-scale compute infrastructure ahead of time even amid a global GPU supply shortage.
Naver Cloud, a subsidiary of Naver, is holding positive discussions with Nvidia on an "AI Compute Partnership" contract to jointly pursue the global AI factory business. Through an integrated partnership that spans technology cooperation as well as demand and capital, Nvidia is expected to participate as a joint business entity of Naver Cloud.
"The investment from Nvidia and Brookfield will be an important turning point for Naver's future growth," CEO Choi Soo-yeon said. "It is very encouraging that, starting with this investment, we have created an opportunity to rapidly enter the global AI infrastructure market through Naver's technology and infrastructure." She added, "We will swiftly complete the recruitment of AI factory clients and make this a turning point for Naver to leap forward as a major player in the global AI infrastructure field."
