Nvidia is taking a stake in one of South Korea's biggest internet companies. Naver said in a regulatory filing on Monday that Nvidia will acquire $1 billion of newly issued Naver shares as part of a partnership to build a new data center, according to Reuters and Channel NewsAsia.
KED Global and 조선일보 report the purchase gives Nvidia roughly a 4.5% stake in Naver, deepening what the companies have described as an "AI factory" alliance. Bloomingbit put the raise at $1.07 billion, and 조선일보 valued it at 1.5 trillion won — differences that come down to exchange rates and the exact share price. The money helps finance an AI data center already under construction in South Korea, per The Star.
Naver's stock surged on the news, according to 조선일보.
The deal did not come out of nowhere. Yahoo Finance reports that South Korean President Lee Jae Myung flew to San Francisco on July 24 for a summit with the biggest names in AI, with Nvidia's Jensen Huang and OpenAI's Sam Altman among those present. Simply Wall St frames the Naver investment as part of a broader Korean AI buildout that Nvidia is pushing toward $10 billion.
The Star describes the investment as one more entry in "a frenzy of deals" by the world's most valuable company — a pattern in which Nvidia doesn't just sell chips but takes equity in the customers buying them.
Why it matters: when a chipmaker funds the data centers that will buy its chips, it locks in demand and quietly makes itself a part-owner of the national AI infrastructure other countries are racing to build.