NAVER signs $9 billion compute infrastructure deal with Athens Infrastructure; NVIDIA to become its third-largest shareholder

According to Yonhap News Agency, NAVER announced on October 27 that it has signed a computing infrastructure contract worth approximately $9 billion (around 12 trillion Korean won) with global asset manager Brookfield, satisfying the prerequisites for NVIDIA's strategic investment. The process for NVIDIA to subscribe to $1 billion (approximately 1.3 trillion won) in new shares through a third-party placement is expected to be completed in the near term, upon which it will become NAVER's third-largest shareholder. This contract is part of the $10 billion global AI factory project announced by the three parties in July. Under their agreed division of labor, NAVER will oversee operations, NVIDIA will provide technical collaboration for next-generation high-performance computing platforms such as the DSX, and Brookfield will handle infrastructure financing. As a result, NAVER will not need to directly bear the substantial capital expenditures associated with data center construction and GPU procurement, allowing it to focus on AI infrastructure operations and customer acquisition.