Nvidia to become Naver's third-largest shareholder as $1b investment closes Nov. 6

Nvidia will finalize its $1 billion investment in Naver on Nov. 6, joining the company as its third-largest shareholder.

Naver has already completed a computing infrastructure agreement with Brookfield — a prerequisite for Nvidia's equity investment. With the alliance among Naver, Nvidia and Brookfield now solidified, Naver's global AI factory project is set to gain full momentum.

Naver disclosed Friday that the payment date for the investment from Nvidia has been confirmed as Nov. 6.

According to a revised regulatory filing for a third-party allotment rights offering, the payment date was moved from Friday to Nov. 6. The scheduled listing date for the new shares was also pushed back, from Nov. 20 to Nov. 27.

On Tuesday, Naver signed a $9 billion computing infrastructure agreement with Brookfield, satisfying the precondition for the investment. The deal covers infrastructure needed to expand the AI factory business and excludes funds to be raised through the rights offering.

Once the investment is finalized, Nvidia will hold a 4.54% stake in Naver, making it the third-largest shareholder. As of August, Naver's largest shareholder was the National Pension Service with 9.49%, followed by BlackRock at 7.31%.

The stake held by Lee Hae-jin, Naver's founder and board chairman — previously the third-largest shareholder — is expected to fall from 4.03% to about 3.84% following the new share issuance. The final figure, however, may vary depending on the number of shares issued, which will be determined by the exchange rate applied at the time.

The investment will be made through a third-party allotment rights offering — the first time Naver has conducted such an offering in 22 years and the first since its transfer listing to the Kospi in 2008.

The issue price per share is 204,500 won ($153), and the funds raised are to be used for new business initiatives related to the AI factory.

The planned issuance of 7,241,564 shares and the projected fundraising total of approximately 1.48 trillion won stated in the filing are provisional figures based on an exchange rate of 1,480.9 won per dollar.

Once the investment closes, Naver's global AI factory business is expected to move into full gear.

Naver and Naver Cloud will lead the AI factory project, drawing on their accumulated expertise in building large-scale in-house GPU clusters. Nvidia will provide technology collaboration centered on next-generation high-performance computing platforms, with the goal of strengthening the AI factory's technological competitiveness and improving infrastructure operational efficiency.