NAVER

AI Infrastructure · Cloud Computing · Internet

Funding

NAVER confirms $1B NVIDIA investment for AI factory expansion

The deal makes Nvidia Naver's third-largest shareholder while diluting founder Lee Hae-jin's stake to fourth place.

• NAVER confirmed November 6, 2026 as the payment date for a $1 billion third-party share allotment to NVIDIA, finalizing a deal first agreed in July as part of a $10 billion AI factory project with NVIDIA and Brookfield.
• NAVER is South Korea's dominant internet and search company, now pivoting via NAVER Cloud to become an AI infrastructure provider renting out GPU-packed data centers as 'AI factories.'
• NVIDIA will buy about 7.24 million new shares at 204,500 won (roughly $138) each, taking a stake of roughly 4.5%–4.8% and becoming NAVER's third-largest shareholder behind the National Pension Service and BlackRock.
• The share sale was conditioned on NAVER lining up $9 billion in outside computing infrastructure; it met that bar by signing a deal with Brookfield, which will fund GPUs and data centers through a special-purpose vehicle and bill NAVER Cloud on a usage basis.
• The AI factory plans to launch at 55 megawatts of capacity in the first half of 2027, scaling to 200 megawatts by 2028, anchored at the GAK Sejong hyperscale data center.
• The move comes as NAVER's core search business erodes at home: Google's app topped 47 million monthly Korean users in July versus Naver's 46.8 million, per Mobile Index data cited by Korea JoongAng Daily.
• By trading a sliver of equity and founder control for NVIDIA's technology ties and Brookfield's balance sheet, NAVER is betting its future on selling AI compute rather than defending its shrinking search franchise.