Lee Hae-jin and Choi Soo-yeon Head to Canada… Naver and AIDC Launch 'Investment Sales' Campaign
High-Level Meeting Expected at Canadian Headquarters
Project Financing, Rather Than Equity Investment, Is the Most Likely Option
Partnership with Brookfield for Investments in 'Data Centers and Power'
[Edaily Reporter Yun Junghoon ] Key executives from Naver (NAVER(035420)), including Chairman Lee Hae-jin—the company’s founder—and CEO Choi Soo-yeon, are visiting Canada to meet with global alternative asset manager Brookfield and others. This move is seen as an effort to attract “trillion-won” scale hardware infrastructure investment for the construction of an artificial intelligence (AI) factory.
Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, who visited Naver’s 1784 headquarters on the 8th, is answering questions from Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin and the press. (Photo by Reporter Lee So-hyun)
According to the ICT industry on the 20th, Chairman Lee and CEO Choi are scheduled to visit the Brookfield Asset Management headquarters in Toronto, Canada, early this week to meet with top-level executives. It has been confirmed that a large delegation of key executives from related subsidiaries, including Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Kim Hee-cheol, will accompany them on this trip.
The industry views this visit as an effort by Naver to go beyond mere business exchanges or the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Brookfield, aiming instead to finalize “terms” such as the specific funding amount and financing conditions.
Brookfield is a global asset management firm specializing in investments in real assets such as infrastructure, renewable energy, and data centers worldwide. It possesses the expertise required for both “large-scale power infrastructure” and “cooling systems,” which are essential for operating high-performance GPU servers.
Last month, Naver pledged to pursue a joint global AI factory project with NVIDIA. The company plans to expand its AI infrastructure business in phases, starting with the launch of a 55 MW facility in 2027. Additionally, in the long term, it will embark on building 1 GW-class infrastructure centered around “Gak Sejong.” This capacity is sufficient to accommodate hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA’s latest GPUs.
During this trip to Canada, Naver is expected to seek global investment to secure the substantial funds needed for the construction of AIDCs and AI factories. It will also be interesting to see if Chairman Lee and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang will meet again, following their meeting last month—just over a month later.
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