BY COMFORT OGBOONA
Shares of South Korean technology company Naver climbed more than 10% on Monday after the company announced that U.S. chipmaker Nvidia will invest $1 billion by purchasing newly issued shares, strengthening their strategic partnership and supporting a major expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure in South Korea.
The investment marks another significant step in the companies’ growing collaboration to develop large-scale AI infrastructure aimed at meeting rising global demand for advanced computing power. The initiative is expected to support governments and businesses seeking to build sovereign AI capabilities while reducing dependence on overseas technology infrastructure.
Naver said Nvidia will purchase 7.2 million newly issued shares at 204,500 won per share, representing a discount of approximately 1% from the stock’s closing price on Friday. The share sale will provide fresh capital for the expansion of the company’s AI data center, one of the largest technology infrastructure projects currently underway in South Korea.
As part of the broader financing package, global investment firm Brookfield will contribute up to $9 billion as the project’s primary capital partner, bringing the total planned investment for the expansion to as much as $10 billion.
Following completion of the transaction, Nvidia is expected to become one of Naver’s largest shareholders with a 4.5% ownership stake. The National Pension Service remains the company’s largest shareholder with a 9.25% stake, while BlackRock Fund Advisors holds approximately 6.12%, according to the company’s shareholder records at the end of 2025.
The investment highlights Nvidia’s strategy of expanding beyond its role as a semiconductor supplier by investing directly in companies building next-generation AI infrastructure. It also reflects growing confidence in South Korea’s position as a major hub for artificial intelligence development and cloud computing.
The expanded facility will be constructed at Naver’s GAK data center in Sejong City and will incorporate Nvidia’s latest Vera Rubin and Blackwell AI computing platforms. Once completed, the upgraded facility is expected to reach a power capacity of 200 megawatts by 2028, significantly increasing its ability to support advanced AI workloads.
The two companies first announced their broader partnership in June, outlining plans to jointly develop gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure projects in South Korea and other international markets. Their long-term strategy targets growing demand across the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, and the Middle East, where governments and enterprises are investing heavily in domestic AI capabilities.
Industry analysts view the partnership as part of a broader global race to secure the computing infrastructure required for artificial intelligence. As AI models become increasingly complex, demand for powerful data centers equipped with high-performance graphics processing units continues to accelerate.
Company executives have described the current project as only the beginning of a much larger vision. Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang previously said he expects Naver’s AI infrastructure business to grow dramatically as the partnership expands, suggesting the company’s scale could increase tenfold once the long-term strategy is fully implemented.
A gigawatt-scale AI campus would represent a major leap from Naver’s existing operations. One gigawatt is roughly four times the maximum capacity of the company’s GAK Sejong facility, currently the largest hyperscale data center operated by Naver in South Korea. Infrastructure of that size would be capable of housing hundreds of thousands of Nvidia’s latest AI graphics processors, enabling the training and deployment of increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence systems.
Nvidia has consistently promoted the concept of sovereign AI, encouraging countries to develop and manage their own AI infrastructure rather than relying solely on foreign cloud providers. The approach not only enhances national control over sensitive data and computing resources but also creates new opportunities for Nvidia to expand its customer base beyond the largest U.S.-based cloud companies.
The company has paired that strategy with aggressive investments across the artificial intelligence ecosystem. In addition to supplying the processors that power many of the world’s leading AI models, Nvidia has invested billions of dollars in AI developers, cloud providers, and technology companies to strengthen its position throughout the rapidly growing AI industry.
The latest investment in Naver reinforces Nvidia’s commitment to expanding global AI infrastructure while positioning both companies to benefit from surging demand for high-performance computing, cloud services, and sovereign AI platforms in the years ahead.
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