Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, is scheduled to visit Naver's '1784' building on the afternoon of June 8. This meeting marks his second engagement with Naver during his visit to South Korea, following a meeting with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo on the evening of June 5.
The Naver '1784' building serves as a space where the company's robotics, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence (AI), 5G, and cloud technologies are implemented in a real work environment. It has been utilized by global leaders and foreign dignitaries to assess Naver's AI infrastructure capabilities. Notably, it has been a focal point for discussions on smart city and digital twin collaborations in the Middle East from 2022 to 2023, and this year it is expanding its role to encompass AI semiconductor, data center, and cloud collaborations.
According to the IT industry on June 8, Jensen Huang and Naver's Board Chairman Lee Hae-jin are expected to discuss the roadmap for a global AI factory business and detailed plans for joint market entry at the Naver '1784' building. Through this collaboration, Naver aims to integrate its cloud operations and data center expertise with NVIDIA's GPU and AI infrastructure technologies to target the business-to-business (B2B) AI infrastructure market.
The '1784' building is designed as a robot-friendly facility, incorporating robotics, AI, cloud, and 5G specialized network technologies into its operations. Naver is using the building as a reference and testbed for smart buildings. In practice, autonomous robots like 'Rookie,' a robot-only elevator called 'Roboport,' and robotic arms like 'Ambidex' are operational in the work environment.
This year, the '1784' building has also expanded its role to discussions on AI semiconductors, data centers, and cloud collaborations. In March, AMD CEO Lisa Su visited '1784' as her first schedule in South Korea, where she met with Naver CEO Choi Soo-young. Naver and AMD signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to expand the AI ecosystem and collaborate on next-generation infrastructure. With Jensen Huang's visit, '1784' is emerging as a venue for global AI infrastructure collaboration discussions.
Previously, '1784' was used as a venue for high-ranking officials from the Middle East to observe Naver's digital twin and smart city technologies. In November 2022, the visit of Majed Al Hogail, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, marked the beginning of cooperation between Naver and Saudi Arabia. The following October, Naver secured a project to build a digital twin platform for five cities, including Riyadh, from the Saudi Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. The capabilities demonstrated at '1784' in robotics, AI, cloud, and digital twin technologies have translated into actual overseas projects.
In 2023, a high-level delegation from the Sharjah royal family in the United Arab Emirates, along with Abdullah bin Touk Al Mari, UAE Minister of Economy, and officials from the Dubai Future Foundation, visited the '1784' building to explore Naver's robotics, digital twin, and AI technologies and discuss potential cooperation in smart city and digital infrastructure.
Visits from international organizations and foreign government officials have continued. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), visited '1784' during her trip to South Korea in 2023 to explore possibilities for digital transformation and technological cooperation. High-ranking officials from the U.S. Department of State, Singapore's Ministry of Communications and Information, and the Austrian Parliament have also visited '1784.' The ability to observe Naver's robotics, AI, and cloud technologies in one location has been a key reason for these visits.
Naver stated, "The '1784' building is not just an office but a space for demonstrating robot services and smart building technologies in a real work environment. The data generated by over 3,000 users daily serves as the foundation for technological advancement. The technologies and solutions validated at '1784' are being expanded into collaborations with Japan's NTT Group and global smart city projects in Saudi Arabia and beyond."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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