[Edaily Reporter Lee So-Hyun ] Naver (NAVER(035420)) will not hold its annual “DAN” conference this year, an event it has hosted every year since 2023. The conference, which has served as a platform to unveil Naver’s key artificial intelligence (AI) strategies—including HyperClova X, On-Service AI, and Agent AI—will be skipped for the first time in three years.

On the 19th, a Naver official stated, “DAN, one of the company’s major events, is not held at a fixed time but has been organized when significant issues arise,” adding, “As there are major pending issues at present, we are coordinating the timing of the event.” The official explained that the future date has not yet been determined, and the possibility of holding the event next year remains open.

DAN has served as a platform where Naver has presented its vision for technology and business direction all at once. At DAN23 in 2023, the company officially unveiled its in-house hyper-large AI, “HyperClova X,” and at DAN24 in 2024, it introduced the “On-Service AI” strategy, which applies AI to existing services such as search, shopping, and maps. At last year’s DAN25, the company prominently featured “Agent N,” which goes beyond search and recommendations to support actual user actions.

The major AI services previewed at last year’s DAN25 were implemented as actual services this year. Naver successively launched its shopping AI agent and the AI search service “AI Tab.” For AI Tab, Naver first explained the service’s direction at a separate briefing before proceeding with a beta and official launch.

This year, Naver also showed a noticeable trend of unveiling strategies by major business segment rather than holding large-scale integrated events like DAN. Naver introduced AI Tab at a separate event and also announced its large-scale AI Factory project with NVIDIA separately.

This shift is also believed to have been influenced by major pending issues both inside and outside the company. The merger between Naver Financial and Namuga Co.,Ltd has been postponed three times—from the originally planned end of June this year to the end of March next year—due to prolonged regulatory approval procedures, including the Fair Trade Commission’s review of the business combination.

Naver is also accelerating its AI Factory project as part of its push to become an AI infrastructure provider. Naver has secured a $1 billion equity investment from NVIDIA and is in discussions with global asset manager Brookfield to secure up to $9 billion in infrastructure funding. Last September, Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin and the chairman of Brookfield met in person to hold follow-up discussions.

The date set for NVIDIA to actually contribute the approximately 1.48 trillion won investment to acquire a stake in Naver is the 30th of this month. Regarding the payment schedule, a Naver official stated, “There are no unusual circumstances,” adding, “It will be completed within October.” Naver plans to begin operations at a 55-megawatt AI factory in the first half of 2027 and expand capacity to 200 megawatts by 2028.