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South Korean internet and cloud services company Naver's shares surged more than 10% after the company announced that Nvidia will invest USD 1 billion by subscribing to newly issued shares to support the expansion of its artificial intelligence data centre in South Korea. The investment strengthens the companies' partnership following their recent agreement to develop sovereign AI infrastructure across multiple regions. Along with Brookfield's financing commitment, the project is expected to create one of South Korea's largest AI computing facilities, powered by Nvidia's latest chip platforms and targeted for completion by 2028.
South Korean internet and cloud services company Naver saw its shares rise by more than 10% on Monday after announcing that Nvidia will invest USD 1 billion through the purchase of newly issued shares to support the expansion of an artificial intelligence (AI) data centre in South Korea. The investment further strengthens the partnership between the two companies as they look to build large-scale AI infrastructure to meet growing demand for sovereign AI capabilities across several global markets.
The announcement follows an agreement reached by Naver and Nvidia in recent months to jointly develop gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure projects in South Korea and overseas. The partnership is aimed at addressing the increasing demand for sovereign AI, where countries develop and manage their own AI infrastructure, computing resources and data within national borders. The initiative focuses on the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the Middle East, where governments and enterprises are increasingly investing in domestic AI capabilities.
As the first phase of this collaboration, Naver, Nvidia and investment firm Brookfield recently announced plans to expand Naver's AI data centre in South Korea through a project expected to receive up to USD 10 billion in total funding. Under the arrangement, Brookfield will act as the capital partner and provide financing of up to USD 9 billion.
Naver said it will issue 7.2 million new shares to Nvidia at 204,500 won per share, representing a 1% discount to the company's previous closing price. The share placement forms part of the broader investment agreement supporting the AI data centre expansion.
Following the investment, Nvidia will hold a 4.5% stake in Naver, making it one of the company's largest shareholders. As of the end of 2025, South Korea's National Pension Service remained Naver's largest shareholder with a 9.25% stake, followed by BlackRock Fund Advisors with a 6.12% holding.
The expanded facility will be developed at Naver's GAK data centre in Sejong, South Korea. The project will deploy Nvidia's Vera Rubin and Blackwell chip platforms and is expected to reach a power capacity of 200 megawatts by 2028, significantly increasing the country's AI computing infrastructure.
The project builds on the strategic partnership announced in recent months, under which both companies agreed to jointly pursue the development of gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure in South Korea and international markets. Industry demand for AI computing capacity has continued to rise as businesses, governments and research institutions accelerate investments in generative AI applications and large language models.
Speaking when the partnership was announced, Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said the planned expansion could make Naver around ten times larger once the long-term vision is fully realised. He has consistently supported the concept of sovereign AI, stating that countries should develop and control their own AI infrastructure rather than relying entirely on external providers.
According to Naver, one gigawatt of AI infrastructure is equivalent to nearly four times the maximum capacity of GAK Sejong, currently South Korea's largest hyperscale data centre operated by the company. Such infrastructure would be capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of Nvidia's latest graphics processing units (GPUs), providing the computing power needed for advanced AI model training and deployment.
Nvidia has continued to expand its investments across the AI ecosystem through partnerships and strategic funding. The company has backed several AI and cloud technology firms, including a USD 30 billion investment in OpenAI and a USD 10 billion investment in Anthropic, reflecting its broader strategy of expanding AI infrastructure and increasing the adoption of its advanced computing platforms worldwide.
Source Reuters
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