Naver pulls staff from Saudi Arabia as Houthi strikes threaten $100M smart city project

Naver has been caught in the crossfire as Iran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen intensify missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabian soil.

The tech giant's projects in Saudi Arabia — including a $100 million digital twin platform — face unavoidable disruption, and most of its locally deployed staff have already begun returning to South Korea.

Because a number of domestic startups are participating in Naver's Saudi ventures, there are growing concerns that the fallout from the Middle East conflict could ripple through to Naver and other Korean companies.

Most of Naver's personnel stationed in Saudi Arabia have left or are in the process of leaving the country, according to reporting by The Herald Business on Thursday.

However, staff working on a map-based "super app" set for a December launch have remained in place. Some of those staying on are working from home, while others have relocated to neighboring countries to work remotely. Family members of locally based employees had already moved to neighboring countries or returned to South Korea before the latest escalation.

The super app is an all-in-one platform offering navigation, location search, restaurant reservations, payments, discounts and ticket purchases.

The withdrawals follow a surge in Houthi missile and drone attacks targeting the Saudi mainland. South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs raised its travel alert for all of Saudi Arabia to Level 3 — advising departure — on Tuesday.

Naver has been pushing aggressively into the Middle East market since winning a $100 million contract in 2023 from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing to build a digital twin platform.

The conflict, however, now threatens to derail those ambitions, with disruptions to Naver's Saudi operations all but certain.

Most immediately, the company's participation in next month's Cityscape Global is in doubt — and it remains unclear whether the event itself will go ahead.

Cityscape Global is the world's largest exhibition in the construction, architecture, proptech and real estate sectors. In 2024, it drew more than 172,000 visitors and over 500 exhibitors, with real estate transactions reaching approximately $61 billion. Naver had attended for two consecutive years through last year.

At last year's edition, Naver showcased real-world applications of digital twin technology, AI and cloud solutions in real estate and urban management.

A centerpiece of that presentation was the digital twin platform Naver completed in June last year covering three Saudi cities — Mecca, Medina and Jeddah — alongside proposals for expanding digital transformation in urban development and construction.

On the sidelines of that event, Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin met with Saudi Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing Majid Al-Hogail.

Naver's Saudi digital ecosystem project has drawn in a number of South Korean startups, including AI chipmaker Rebellions. If security concerns force delays on the ground, those partners will inevitably feel the impact as well.

At the LEAP 2025 conference held in Riyadh in February last year, Naver Cloud signed memorandums of understanding with a range of South Korean digital startups spanning cybersecurity, smart cities, autonomous driving, AI solutions and software development.

At the same event, Naver Cloud signed a separate MOU with Rebellions to cooperate on building sovereign AI infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and advancing the semiconductor ecosystem.

More recently, Naver Cloud joined forces with HanmiGlobal to pursue large-scale data center construction projects globally.

Under the arrangement, Naver Cloud handles infrastructure technology strategy, project architecture and service model design based on its full-stack AI capabilities, while HanmiGlobal takes charge of data center design and construction consulting, schedule and cost management, and local permitting and project execution in Saudi Arabia.

"If airstrikes and security concerns persist, there is a strong likelihood of disruptions to on-site staffing and equipment procurement," an industry official said. "For now, all we can do is closely monitor how long the situation lasts and how conditions develop on the ground."