Shares of South Korean internet and cloud computing giant Naver Corp. climbed more than 10% on Monday after the company announced that Nvidia will invest $1 billion for a 4.5% equity stake, strengthening their strategic partnership to build next-generation artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The investment forms part of a broader plan to expand Naver’s AI data center capacity in South Korea and marks another significant step in Nvidia’s global push to develop sovereign AI infrastructure beyond the United States. The transaction augments Nvidia’s growing strategy of investing directly in key ecosystem partners that can accelerate demand for its latest AI chips while helping countries build domestic AI capabilities.
Under the agreement, Naver will issue 7.2 million new shares to Nvidia at 204,500 won per share, representing a modest 1% discount to Friday’s closing price. The investment will make Nvidia one of Naver’s largest shareholders with a 4.5% stake, behind South Korea’s National Pension Service, which owns 9.25%, and BlackRock Fund Advisors with 6.12% as of the end of 2025.
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 20 (June 8 – Sept 5, 2026).
Register for Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and co-invest in great global startups.
The equity purchase follows the companies’ June announcement that they would jointly develop gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure across South Korea and international markets, targeting demand for sovereign AI in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
The sovereign AI concept, championed by Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang, encourages governments and enterprises to build AI infrastructure that allows countries to retain control over their data, computing resources and AI models rather than relying exclusively on foreign cloud providers.
The strategy has become increasingly important as governments seek greater technological independence amid intensifying geopolitical competition and stricter regulations governing data sovereignty.
Up To $10 Billion AI Infrastructure Project
The investment is part of a broader financing package announced on Friday. Alternative asset manager Brookfield will provide up to $9 billion as the project’s capital partner, bringing total planned funding for the expansion to as much as $10 billion.
The investment will support expansion of Naver’s GAK Sejong data center, currently South Korea’s largest hyperscale AI facility. The upgraded campus will deploy Nvidia’s latest Blackwell and next-generation Vera Rubin AI computing platforms and is expected to reach 200 megawatts of computing capacity by 2028.
While substantial, the project represents only the first phase of the companies’ longer-term ambitions.
Naver and Nvidia have previously outlined plans to develop gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure, a level of capacity roughly five times larger than the planned Sejong expansion and capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs for training and running advanced AI models.
Analysts see the deal as a win-win for the companies. For Nvidia, the investment extends a strategy that increasingly combines semiconductor sales with direct equity investments in major AI developers and infrastructure partners. The company has already invested heavily across the AI ecosystem, including $30 billion in OpenAI and $10 billion in Anthropic, alongside numerous investments in cloud computing, robotics and AI startups. Taking an ownership stake in Naver gives Nvidia greater exposure to Asia’s rapidly expanding AI infrastructure market while helping secure long-term demand for its latest processors.
For Naver, the partnership significantly strengthens its position in South Korea’s competitive AI industry. Unlike global cloud leaders such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, Naver has focused on building AI services tailored to Korean-language applications and domestic enterprises. Expanding its computing infrastructure allows it to compete more effectively as AI workloads become more compute-intensive.
However, the announcement is another pointer to where investors’ interest lies in the AI market. Technology companies worldwide are committing hundreds of billions of dollars to expand data centers capable of supporting generative AI applications. Hyperscale cloud providers continue to invest aggressively, while countries are increasingly seeking domestic AI infrastructure for economic and national security reasons.
Jensen Huang has repeatedly argued that AI infrastructure should become national infrastructure, comparable to electricity grids or telecommunications networks, enabling countries to retain greater control over critical digital capabilities.
“When the vision is fully realized, Naver will be 10 times larger,” Huang said when the partnership was unveiled in June, underscoring the scale of the companies’ long-term ambitions.
Investors welcomed the announcement as validation of Naver’s AI strategy and its growing importance within Nvidia’s global ecosystem. The more than 10% jump in Naver’s share price reflected expectations that Nvidia’s investment will accelerate the company’s AI expansion while enhancing its competitive position in cloud computing and enterprise AI services.