While the domestic gaming sector struggles with marginalization in the stock market, NHN continues to show 'standalone strength' among top market capitalization stocks. The cloud business, previously criticized as a loss-making division, is acting as a catalyst for its share price amid the investment boom in artificial intelligence (AI).
On the 12th, NHN closed regular trading at 53,600 won on the Korea Exchange. Its year-to-date (YTD) return of 84.51% significantly outperformed the KRX Game TOP10 index (-13.53%), to which the stock belongs.
This trend contrasts with the sector's weakness. Among the index constituents, Krafton, ranked first by market capitalization, fell 22.89%; NC (formerly NCSoft), ranked second, rose 3.72%; Netmarble, ranked third, dropped 30.05%; and Pearl Abyss, ranked fourth, declined 14.04%. NHN holds the fifth position by market capitalization.
After hitting its daily upper limit on August 11 when it released its second-quarter preliminary earnings, NHN has shown strength diverging from the sector index. At the time, consolidated operating profit increased 164.1% year-on-year to 57.9 billion won, exceeding the consensus estimate of 42.9 billion won.
A point of focus for the securities industry was the technology segment, which accounted for 159.8 billion won out of the company's total quarterly revenue of 757.9 billion won. Revenue from this segment, led by subsidiary NHN Cloud, surged 52.9% year-on-year, driven by growth in its Graphics Processing Unit as a Service (GPUaaS) business.
Even after the sharp drop (-15.40%) on September 8 due to sudden large-scale foreign selling, NHN has retained more than half of the share price gains seen during the earnings surprise. Experts cited re-evaluation as an AI infrastructure stock as a key factor behind its strengthened downside support.
Jung Ho-yoon, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities, stated, "As demand for AI data centers gradually increases domestically, market interest in companies operating related businesses is rising." He added, "Since construction and operation take time, while most companies have yet to show results in numbers, NHN has demonstrated its revenue and profit generation capabilities to the market."
Even during a period when the concept of AI data centers was still unfamiliar, the company's business strategy, centered on winning orders for public-sector-led projects from institutional investors, is now translating into cost competitiveness.
Ahn Jae-min, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, explained, "By securing government project support to cover GPU procurement costs—the largest portion of total investment—the company holds a structural advantage where operating profit is generated immediately upon operation without the burden of large initial depreciation expenses."
Expectations are carrying over into the third-quarter earnings season. The consensus estimate for consolidated operating profit, according to FnGuide data, stands at 54 billion won, which is 95.31% higher than in the same period last year.
Lim Hee-seok, a researcher at Mirae Asset Securities, stated, "As AI compute unit prices begin to rise, a re-evaluation of multiples as an AI data center operator and upward revisions to earnings estimates for next year and beyond are expected." He added, "A key strength is that large external tenants have higher visibility into government-based demand compared to competitors."
Lee Hyo-jin, a researcher at Meritz Securities, said, "Next year will be the time when contracts begin in earnest," adding, "In a supplier's market, it is an opportunity to buy NeoCloud operators at a forward price-to-earnings ratio (PER) of 11.7 times."
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