NVIDIA to Invest $1 Billion, Becoming Naver's Third-Largest Shareholder

NVIDIA will invest $1 billion, or about 1.4809 trillion won, in Naver, becoming its third-largest shareholder. Naver has formed a strategic alliance with NVIDIA through a third-party allotment rights offering for the first time in 22 years. The deal goes beyond simple technology cooperation and extends to an equity investment, raising expectations that the two companies will deepen their collaboration on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
Naver announced on the 27th that it had signed a $1 billion strategic investment agreement with NVIDIA. Under the deal, NVIDIA will acquire 7,241,564 new shares issued through the third-party allotment rights offering. Once the investment is completed at the end of October, NVIDIA will hold a 4.5% stake in Naver, making it the company’s third-largest shareholder after the National Pension Service (NPS) and BlackRock.
This is the first time in 22 years that Naver has carried out a third-party allotment rights offering, and it is also the first since its listing transfer to KOSPI. Through the investment, Naver plans to establish an AI compute partnership with NVIDIA and expand cooperation in AI computing infrastructure.
A $9 billion computing infrastructure project, worth about 13.16 trillion won, needed to build the AI Factory, is being pursued through a plan led by global alternative asset manager Brookfield. Naver has selected Brookfield as its exclusive preferred negotiating partner and is in talks to finalize a formal agreement. With Brookfield’s strengths in data centers and renewable energy, Naver expects to secure large-scale AI computing infrastructure more stably even amid the global shortage of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).
If the project moves into full swing, NVIDIA’s $1 billion investment and Brookfield’s financing will combine to drive a $10 billion AI infrastructure project. Naver plans to accelerate the development of the AI Factory based on the infrastructure it secures.
To minimize dilution of existing shareholders’ value from the investment, Naver has decided to cancel 4.9 million treasury shares worth about 100 billion won.
Naver CEO Soo Yeon Choi said, "The investments from NVIDIA and Brookfield are an important turning point for Naver’s future growth," adding, "We will use this as a milestone to emerge as a major player in the global AI infrastructure sector."
Meanwhile, the agreement was signed on the 24th local time at NVIDIA’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California, with Naver Chair of the Board of Directors Lee Hae-jin, CEO Soo Yeon Choi, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang in attendance. At the government-hosted 'K-AI Summit' in San Francisco on the same day, Lee said, "We will actively cooperate with global companies to build an AI ecosystem that respects diversity."
[email protected] Jo Yoon-ju Reporter