As of 10:22 a.m. on June 1, NHN shares were trading at 55,300 won, up 4,400 won (8.64%) from the previous trading day. During the session, the stock reached a new 52-week high of 59,000 won.
The recent upward trend has been steep, with NHN experiencing three consecutive days of gains. The stock jumped 10.95% on May 28 and 22.50% on May 29. Just six trading days ago, on May 22, the stock was priced at 38,200 won, marking a nearly 50% increase since then.
Market analysts believe that expectations for improved performance are now being reflected in the stock price. The existing cash cow, the web board game business, is benefiting from regulatory changes, while the AI cloud business is emerging as a new growth driver. NHN Cloud's expansion into AI data centers and GPU services is shifting market perceptions.
NHN Cloud offers Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) to both public and private sectors. Starting in the second quarter, AI-related revenues are expected to gradually reflect the government's GPU as a Service (GPUaaS) initiative, the expansion of AI agents in public institutions, the normalization of the Gwangju AI data center, and the large-scale GPU cluster project with Krafton.
Particularly noteworthy is the launch of the water-cooled AI data center in Yangpyeong at the end of March, which has marked the official start of GPU-based AI services. Song Ji-won, an analyst at Heungkuk Securities, stated, "The Yangpyeong region's GPU B200 is expected to start generating revenue in the second quarter, and this project alone could lead to approximately 300 billion won in revenue growth over the next five years."
NHN has achieved about 80% of its previous revenue guidance with only 60% of its total 7,656 GPUs, which has heightened market expectations. Considering the potential for additional sales and price increases, further upward revisions to performance forecasts are anticipated.
Analysts also assess that the growth potential in NHN's technology sector is stronger than expected. Kim Dong-woo, an analyst at Kyobo Securities, noted, "Even without contributions from the government GPU business, technology sales have grown 19.0% year-on-year based solely on existing CSP and MSP revenues. Given the expansion of public AI transitions and GPU business growth, the technology sector's growth rate is likely to accelerate further this year."
However, the recent rapid increase in stock price has raised concerns. NHN's small shareholders hold only 28.23% of the company, while the largest shareholder owns 56.8%, and treasury stock accounts for 7.11%. With relatively low circulating shares, stock price volatility may increase due to supply and demand imbalances.
Additionally, the nature of the AI cloud business entails significant initial investment costs. In the first quarter, NHN Cloud incurred 7.3 billion won in amortization expenses, falling short of market expectations for operating profit. The ongoing expansion of GPU investments may further increase cost burdens, leading to short-term fluctuations in performance.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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