Naver's shares surged over 8% during trading after the company revealed specific investment and operational structures for its artificial intelligence (AI) factory project.
As of 11:15 a.m. on August 4, Naver's stock was trading at 224,500 won, up 17,000 won (8.19%) from the previous trading day, according to the Korea Exchange.
The increase in investor sentiment is attributed to Naver's disclosure of the contract structure for its AI factory initiative, which is backed by a $1 billion equity investment from Nvidia and up to $9 billion in infrastructure investment from Brookfield.
According to reference materials released by Naver on August 3, the project is part of a larger plan announced in June to establish a total of 1 gigawatt (GW) of AI factory capacity, with the first phase targeting a 200 megawatt (MW) project.
The business structure involves Nvidia investing approximately $1 billion (about 1.4 trillion won) in equity, while Brookfield will invest up to $9 billion to establish a special purpose vehicle (SPV). This SPV will own the necessary GPU and data center facilities for the AI factory, which Naver's AI factory operator will lease to provide AI computing services to businesses and institutions.
This structure is expected to reduce Naver's initial investment burden for building large-scale AI infrastructure while ensuring a stable supply of the latest GPUs through collaboration with Nvidia. The company is also considering acquiring a minority stake in the SPV to secure stable computing resources.
Previously, on July 27, Naver announced its collaboration plan, which involves leading the acquisition and operation of data center sites while Nvidia will supply GPUs. The goal is to expand infrastructure from 55 MW in the first half of 2027 to 100 MW by the end of 2027, and ultimately to 200 MW by 2028, culminating in a GW-scale AI infrastructure.
The business hub will start with the hyperscale data center 'Gak Sejong' and plans to expand into global markets beyond the Asia-Pacific region, including Europe and the Middle East. Additionally, Naver aims to enhance operational efficiency by adopting Nvidia's next-generation data center platform 'DSX' and secure new revenue sources to meet global AI infrastructure demand.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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