Nvidia makes $1 billion strategic equity investment in South Korea's Naver; Brookfield provides committed additional capital; planned AI data factory launch 2027

Nvidia will acquire a 4.5% stake in Naver through a strategic investment of $1 billion (1.48 trillion won), joining the company as a shareholder via third-party allocation capital increase. Naver's board approved the issuance of 7,241,564 common shares at a price of KRW 204,500 per share on July 24, with the announcement made on July 27. Payment is due by October 30, after which Nvidia will become Naver's third-largest shareholder, following the National Pension Service (9.25%) and BlackRock (6.12%). This marks Naver's first paid-in capital increase for third-party allocation in 22 years and the first since its KOSPI listing in 2008.

The investment supports Naver's GW-class global AI factory initiative announced last month in partnership with Nvidia. The proceeds will be deployed rapidly to acquire equipment and graphics processing units (GPUs) for the AI factory business. On July 24 (local time), Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin, CEO Choi Soo-yeon, and NAVER Cloud CEO Kim Yoo-won met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and other executives at Nvidia headquarters to sign investment contracts.

NAVER Cloud, the primary driver of Naver's AI factory expansion, is negotiating an "AI Compute Partnership" with Nvidia to advance their global AI factory collaboration jointly. The partnership encompasses technology alliances and coordinated responses to market demand and capital requirements.

To scale its infrastructure, Naver has selected Brookfield, a global investment firm, as exclusive priority negotiator to secure $9 billion for GPU infrastructure and data centers. Naver is pursuing a project financing structure whereby Brookfield would develop the infrastructure and Naver would operate it. The company plans to establish hundreds of megawatts of AI factory capacity, starting with 55 megawatts in the first half of 2027, expanding to 200 megawatts the following year, and accelerating toward 1 gigawatt long-term. Naver's existing GAK Sejong data center will be strengthened to serve as the initial base before establishing global sites.

CEO Choi Soo-yeon stated, "We will accelerate customer acquisition for the AI factory and use this as a turning point for Naver to become a major player in the global AI infrastructure sector."