Nvidia, Brookfield to invest $10b in Naver

Nvidia and global alternative asset manager Brookfield will invest $10 billion in Naver, the South Korean internet giant said. Naver plans to use the funds to build an AI factory of up to 1 GW in capacity and to expand its "sovereign AI" ecosystem — one independent of any single country or corporation.

Lee Hae-jin, chairman of Naver, announced the deal Friday (local time) at an AI summit in San Francisco. "Nvidia and Brookfield have decided to make a major investment of $10 billion in Naver," Lee said. "This will be an opportunity for Naver to leap to a new level."

Lee said Naver's longstanding challenge had been scaling its accumulated knowledge and operational expertise. "Not only the capital from both companies, but their global brands and networks will be a strong opportunity to scale up Naver's know-how," he said.

Naver and Nvidia are currently pursuing an "AI factory" partnership spanning AI computing infrastructure, AI models and enterprise services.

Brookfield, a global asset manager with deep expertise in large-scale infrastructure investment including data centers and power and energy assets, is expected to provide the financing and physical infrastructure needed to support Naver's AI infrastructure expansion.

Building on the investment, Naver is expected to combine its data center design and operations technology, AI models and cloud service capabilities to expand its global AI infrastructure business.

Lee also used the occasion to outline his vision of preventing any single big-tech player from monopolizing the AI and internet ecosystem.

"The internet world Naver envisions is not one where the internet and AI are dominated and controlled by one or two groups," he said. "To preserve the world's diversity, multiple AI systems must be able to emerge and operate for each country, group and individual."

"Through this opportunity, we will do our utmost to work with like-minded companies around the world to build a world where diverse AI can coexist," he added.

Before the AI summit, Lee and other Naver executives — including CEO Choi Su-yeon, Chief Financial Officer Kim Hee-chul and Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yu-won — visited Nvidia's headquarters in Santa Clara, California, for a meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and others.

Ahead of the summit, Huang met with President Lee Jae Myung and said Naver is "Korea's leading cloud company," adding that the partnership would "support expansion not only in Korea but around the world."