South Korean internet giant Naver has secured $1 billion from chipmaker Nvidia and up to $9 billion from Brookfield Asset Management to build gigawatt-scale artificial intelligence data centers in South Korea. The combined funding, announced this week, marks one of the largest capital infusions for AI infrastructure in the country.
Where the money is going
Naver plans to use the funds to construct massive AI data centers, each capable of handling the intense computing demands of large language models and other AI workloads. The facilities will be powered at the gigawatt level—a scale typically reserved for the largest hyperscale data center projects globally. No specific timeline for full deployment was provided, but the company said construction is underway.
Why Nvidia and Brookfield joined
Nvidia's $1 billion investment comes as the chip designer races to lock in demand for its graphics processing units, which are essential for training and running AI models. By funding data center construction, Nvidia ensures customers have the physical infrastructure to deploy its hardware. Brookfield's $9 billion commitment, described as an upper limit, reflects the asset manager's growing bet on AI-related real assets. The Canadian firm has been expanding its data center portfolio worldwide.
Naver's AI ambitions
Naver operates South Korea's dominant search engine and has been investing heavily in AI, including its own large language model. The company has long positioned itself as a homegrown alternative to global tech giants, and these data centers are central to that strategy. The gigawatt-scale facilities will also serve other Korean companies and potentially international clients looking for AI compute capacity outside of China and the US.
Unanswered questions
Naver did not disclose the exact location of the data centers or how the $9 billion from Brookfield will be drawn down. The company also hasn't said whether Nvidia's investment comes with any exclusivity clauses for its chips. With construction costs rising and AI demand volatile, the timeline for when these centers will be fully operational remains unclear. Naver is expected to provide more details during its next earnings call in April.
