Naver Shares Skyrocket on New AI Partnership with Nvidia During CEO Visit

Naver's stock leapt sharply, climbing 9.2% to ₩279,000 today following the announcement of a major AI infrastructure partnership with Nvidia. This deal took center stage during Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's high-profile visit to South Korea.

The agreement outlines Naver's plans to deploy sovereign AI infrastructure starting at 55 megawatts and gearing up to scale towards gigawatt-level capacity using Nvidia's DSX platform. This technology facilitates rapid design and deployment of comprehensive AI platforms spanning across enterprises, broad industry applications, and government projects.

Huang highlighted the unprecedented demand for AI manufacturing capabilities, remarking that "Useful AI has arrived," and emphasized that Naver's AI factory infrastructure will serve various stakeholders from companies to developers. The Nvidia DSX platform will support Korea's ambitions for sovereign intelligence infrastructure, ranging from autonomous AI agents to large-scale AI factories.

Beyond building data centers, Naver is also fine-tuning its HyperCLOVA X large language models by integrating Nvidia's Nemotron 3 Ultra open model with proprietary data sets. This blend positions Naver as the first Korean firm joining the Nvidia Nemotron Coalition, a move that will back sovereign AI initiatives in regions such as Europe and the Middle East.

The collaboration extends to joint efforts in expanding global AI infrastructure markets across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Executives including Naver chairman Lee Hae-jin and Jensen Huang met at Naver's headquarters to hammer out concrete strategies and cooperation roadmaps aimed at penetrating these markets.

This surge is notable considering today's broader market context: the KOSPI index dropped nearly 9%, weighed down by AI sector losses and geopolitical tensions involving Iran, but Naver managed to buck that trend with its robust gains.

The Nvidia partnership comes on the heels of Huang's meetings with other industry giants like SK Hynix and Doosan, signaling a growing wave of AI infrastructure deals in South Korea's tech scene. This cluster of agreements has elevated investor enthusiasm around Korean companies exposed to AI infrastructure advancements.

For Naver, South Korea's top online search engine and co-owner of the LINE messaging app, this formalized partnership with Nvidia not only accelerates its AI ambitions but also confirms its strategic pivot towards AI innovation, underpinned by its proprietary large language models like HyperCLOVA X.