Shares of South Korean internet and cloud services giant Naver rose nearly 9 percent on Monday after the company announced that Nvidia will purchase $1 billion of newly issued Naver shares. The transaction is intended to help finance an expansion of an artificial intelligence (AI) data center.
Key terms of the deal
- Naver will issue 7.2 million new shares to Nvidia at 204,500 won per share. That price represents a 1 percent discount to Friday's closing price.
- The investment will give Nvidia roughly a 4.5 percent stake in Naver, making it one of the company's largest shareholders.
- As a project equity partner, Brookfield will provide up to $9 billion in financing.
Data-center and technical details
The expansion will be carried out at Naver's GAK data center in Sejong. The buildout will be based on Nvidia's Vera Rubin and Blackwell chip platforms. The facility's capacity is expected to reach 200 megawatts by 2028. The June agreement envisions a broader, gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure buildout both in South Korea and abroad; one gigawatt is roughly four times the current capacity of the GAK Sejong site and would be capable of accommodating several hundred thousand latest-generation Nvidia GPUs simultaneously.
Ownership context
Naver's largest shareholder remains the National Pension Service with a 9.25 percent holding, followed by BlackRock Fund Advisors with 6.12 percent. After the announced transaction, Nvidia would hold roughly a 4.5 percent stake.
Why this matters
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has previously argued that nation-states should build and oversee their own AI infrastructure. That strategy could expand Nvidia's customer base beyond major U.S. hyperscale providers. Nvidia has previously made large investments in the AI ecosystem, including $30 billion invested in OpenAI and $10 billion in Anthropic.
Market reaction
Naver's stock jumped nearly 9 percent on the announcement. The deal is expected to accelerate the Naver AI data-center expansion and establish Nvidia as a significant strategic investor in the South Korean market.
This article does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation.
