{"id":19822,"date":"2026-07-28T12:12:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T07:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=19822"},"modified":"2026-07-28T12:12:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T07:12:24","slug":"nvidia-plans-1b-investment-in-south-koreas-naver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=19822","title":{"rendered":"Nvidia plans $1B investment in South Korea&#8217;s Naver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/7831785195985\/2026\/upi_com\/6d1d0ac60a0d1f7abe6ee19ae304b661\/v1.5\/Nvidia-plans-1B-investment-in-South-Koreas-Naver.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>U.S. chip giant Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang (R), accompanied by Lee Hae-jin, founder and Chair of internet giant Naver Corp., acknowledge visitors during their meeting at the Naver headquarters in Seongnam, south of Seoul, South Korea, 08 June 2026. Photo by YONHAP \/ EPA<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">July 27 (Asia Today) &#8212;<\/span> Nvidia plans to invest $1 billion in South Korean technology company Naver as the companies expand a partnership to build large-scale artificial intelligence infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Naver said Monday it would issue about 7.24 million new shares to Nvidia through a private placement. The transaction would give the U.S. chipmaker a stake of about 4.5%, making it Naver&#8217;s third-largest shareholder.\n<\/p>\n<p>Payment for the shares is scheduled for Oct. 30.<\/p>\n<p>The investment would deepen a partnership announced in June to build global AI factories serving demand for sovereign AI, which refers to AI infrastructure and models operated under a country&#8217;s own laws and data controls.<\/p>\n<p>The companies previously focused on supplying graphics processing units and cooperating on technology. Nvidia&#8217;s planned equity investment would broaden the relationship into a strategic partnership involving computing infrastructure, software, customers and capital.<\/p>\n<p>Naver said Nvidia decided to invest because of the South Korean company&#8217;s full-stack AI capabilities, which include data centers, graphics processor clusters, cloud platforms, large language models and consumer services.\n<\/p>\n<p>Naver operates graphics processor infrastructure at more than 20 locations across South Korea and plans to use that experience to expand its GPU-as-a-service and sovereign AI businesses.<\/p>\n<p>Naver Cloud and Nvidia are also discussing an AI computing partnership that could include joint development of global AI factory projects.<\/p>\n<p>The companies plan to combine Nvidia computing systems with Naver&#8217;s cloud, software and AI services rather than limiting their relationship to hardware purchases.<\/p>\n<p>Nvidia said the proposed investment is subject to customary closing conditions and Naver securing at least $9 billion in committed project financing separate from Nvidia&#8217;s investment.<\/p>\n<p>Brookfield has signed a nonbinding term sheet under which the global investment firm could provide up to $9 billion for computing infrastructure. The companies are discussing a structure in which Brookfield would develop or finance graphics processor systems and data centers for Naver&#8217;s use.<\/p>\n<p>Naver&#8217;s own investment obligations have not been finalized.<\/p>\n<p>The company plans to begin operating a 55-megawatt AI factory in the first half of 2027, expand capacity to 100 megawatts by the end of that year and reach 200 megawatts in 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Its longer-term goal is to develop gigawatt-scale infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Naver plans to begin the project at its GAK Sejong data center and later pursue sovereign AI customers in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the Middle East.\n<\/p>\n<p>The company is also seeking to improve shareholder returns. Its board voted Friday to cancel about 4.9 million treasury shares valued at approximately 1.02 trillion won ($694.5 million). The shares are scheduled to be retired Aug. 3.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The investments by Nvidia and Brookfield will be an important turning point for Naver&#8217;s future growth,&#8221; Naver Chief Executive Officer Choi Soo-yeon said.<\/p>\n<p>Choi said the company would work to secure AI factory customers and establish itself as a major global AI infrastructure provider.<\/p>\n<p>Naver board Chairman Lee Hae-jin said the partnership would allow the company to take its data center technology and operating expertise to the global market.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will actively cooperate with companies around the world to create an AI ecosystem that respects the diversity of countries and communities,&#8221; Lee said.<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8212; Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>\u00a9 Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Original Korean report: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260727010009741\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260727010009741<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. chip giant Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang (R), accompanied by Lee Hae-jin, founder and Chair of internet giant Naver Corp., acknowledge visitors during their meeting at the Naver headquarters in Seongnam, south of Seoul, South Korea, 08 June 2026. Photo by YONHAP \/ EPA July 27 (Asia Today) &#8212; Nvidia plans to invest $1&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/upi_com\/7831785195985\/2026\/1\/6d1d0ac60a0d1f7abe6ee19ae304b661\/v1.5\/Nvidia-plans-1B-investment-in-South-Koreas-Naver.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}