Naver said in a regulatory filing on Friday that Nvidia will pay 1 billion dollars (1.34 trillion won) for its equity investment on Nov. 6. The new shares are scheduled to be listed on Nov. 27.
The specific timeline for the two companies' equity-based AI alliance has been finalized after Naver met a key investment condition by signing an agreement with Brookfield to secure AI infrastructure.
The payment date and scheduled new share listing date stated in previous disclosures were Oct. 30 and Nov. 20, respectively. At that time, Naver explained that these dates represented the maximum contractual deadlines considering the fulfillment of prerequisite conditions and could be extended.
This investment involves Nvidia acquiring newly issued shares from Naver. The total acquisition amount is $1 billion, with an issue price per share of 204,500 won. The raised funds are planned to be used for new businesses related to AI factories.
The final number of shares to be issued and the amount raised in Korean won will be determined by applying the exchange rate on the 3rd of next month. A mandatory holding agreement prohibiting withdrawal or sale for one year applies to the new shares acquired by NVIDIA.
Naver and Nvidia signed a share subscription agreement on July 24 last year. At that time, Nvidia included a condition requiring Naver to secure at least $9 billion worth of computing infrastructure necessary for expanding its AI factory business, separate from the $1 billion investment.
Naver fulfilled this condition by signing a $9 billion computing infrastructure acquisition contract with Brookfield on the 27th last year.
The business structure involves a special purpose vehicle (SPV) tentatively named "AssetCo," established by Brookfield, securing infrastructure assets such as GPUs, while Naver Cloud procures computing resources to provide services to customers. Nvidia is responsible for GPU supply and technical cooperation.
An AI factory is a business that combines GPUs, data centers, power and cooling facilities, and operating software to provide AI development and operation environments to enterprises and institutional investors.
Naver plans to begin operations at a scale of 55 megawatts in the first half of next year, using its "GAK Sejong" data center as a hub, expanding to 200 MW by 2028, and ultimately reaching 1 gigawatt in the long term.
in TECH
