SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) — Naver said Monday it will sell $1 billion of new shares to Nvidia in a rare third-party capital increase, turning the AI chipmaker into one of the largest shareholders of South Korea's top platform operator as the partners push ahead with a $10 billion AI factory project announced in San Francisco.
The Korean internet giant will issue 7.24 million new common shares at 204,500 won each, raising an estimated 1.48 trillion won ($1 billion) through its first third-party share placement in 22 years and its first kind since transferring to the KOSPI in 2008.
The company set the issue price at 204,500 won, representing no discount to the regulatory reference price—an uncommon feature for a strategic placement of this size. While the final number of shares may be adjusted based on the won-dollar exchange rate shortly before settlement, NVIDIA's total investment commitment remains fixed at $1 billion.
The board approved the transaction on July 24, with payment due on Oct. 30 and the new shares scheduled to begin trading on Nov. 20. The shares will be locked up for one year.
The equity investment forms the capital component of a broader $10 billion sovereign AI infrastructure initiative unveiled by Naver, Nvidia and Brookfield during President Lee Jae Myung's AI summit in San Francisco on July 24.
Under that agreement, Brookfield will provide up to $9 billion as the exclusive infrastructure capital partner, Nvidia will invest $1 billion in Naver, while the Korean company will fund the remaining amount to expand its AI factory from an initial 55 megawatts to a 200-megawatt deployment at the GAK Sejong hyperscale data center.
The expanded computing infrastructure will be built on Nvidia's DSX platform featuring Vera Rubin and Blackwell systems, providing production-scale AI computing resources for Korean and U.S. developers while laying the foundation for gigawatt-scale sovereign AI infrastructure over the longer term.
"Nvidia's strategic investment and our infrastructure supply agreement with Brookfield have propelled Naver's vision for the AI Factory business into a robust execution phase," founder and Chairman Lee Hae-jin said in the San Francisco announcement.
Once the share issuance is completed, Nvidia is expected to hold about 4.5 percent of Naver, making it the company's third-largest shareholder behind the National Pension Service and BlackRock. The stake will surpass Chairman Lee Hae-jin's roughly 3.8 percent holding, underscoring the strategic nature of the partnership.
The investment also aligns Nvidia's financial interests directly with NAVER's AI infrastructure business, moving the U.S. company beyond its traditional role as a supplier of graphics processors.
According to regulatory filing, the proceeds will be used exclusively to advance Naver's AI Factory business.
The capital increase is conditional on Naver separately securing at least $9 billion in computing infrastructure for the project, matching Brookfield's planned investment.
Naver expects to spend about 5.0 billion won this year, 692.0 billion won in 2027 and 783.8 billion won thereafter on the AI factory project, although the schedule could change depending on implementation.
Beyond the hardware deployment, the two companies last Friday agreed to deepen collaboration on open AI models, AI agents and physical AI applications using Naver's HyperCLOVA X models and Nvidia's Nemotron, Cosmos and Agent Toolkit platforms.
Naver shares on Monday gained more than 10 percent before closing up 8.43 percent at 225,000 won.
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