Nvidia Invests $1 Billion in Naver as South Korea AI Data Center Expansion Gains Momentum

Shares of South Korean internet and cloud services company Naver surged more than 10% on Monday after the company announced that Nvidia will invest $1 billion by purchasing newly issued shares to support a major artificial intelligence (AI) data center expansion.

The investment follows a joint announcement on Friday from Naver, Nvidia, and global investment firm Brookfield outlining plans to expand Naver’s AI infrastructure in South Korea through a project valued at up to $10 billion.

Under the agreement, Naver will issue 7.2 million new shares to Nvidia at 204,500 won per share, representing a 1% discount to Friday’s closing price. Brookfield will contribute up to $9 billion as the project's capital partner, providing the bulk of the financing needed for the large-scale expansion.

The deal will make Nvidia one of Naver’s largest shareholders with a 4.5% ownership stake. 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 at 6.12%.

The expansion will take place at Naver’s GAK data center in Sejong, South Korea, and will utilize Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin and Blackwell AI chip platforms. Once completed in 2028, the facility is expected to reach 200 megawatts of capacity, significantly increasing Naver’s computing power for AI workloads.

The investment also builds on a strategic partnership announced in June, when Naver and Nvidia agreed to jointly develop gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure targeting growing demand for sovereign AI across the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, and the Middle East.

According to Naver, a one-gigawatt AI data center would provide roughly four times the maximum capacity of its current GAK Sejong hyperscale facility, enabling the deployment of hundreds of thousands of Nvidia’s latest GPUs for advanced AI applications.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has consistently advocated for countries to build and control their own AI infrastructure, arguing that sovereign AI initiatives will expand the company’s customer base beyond major U.S. cloud providers. Nvidia has continued investing aggressively across the AI ecosystem, including major stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic, reinforcing its strategy to support next-generation AI infrastructure worldwide.