Naver’s entry into Saudi Arabia signals that its robotics business has moved from the “proof-of-concept” stage to “commercialization.” The strategy is to fully pursue the global robotics market based on technology validated at its headquarters, “1784.” Robotics is a field Naver has been investing in as a future growth engine, to the extent that it was included among the three core areas of cooperation discussed when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited Naver’s headquarters in June this year and met with Naver Board Chairman Lee Hae-jin.
The Saudi entry also draws attention as a business move that followed Chairman Lee’s visits to Saudi Arabia in person for two consecutive years, in 2024 and last year, where he discussed expanding cooperation in smart cities, digital twins, and robotics. Naver’s push to pioneer global markets with AI factories and robotics, moving a step beyond its existing e-commerce and content businesses, appears to be gaining momentum.
According to the information technology (IT) industry on the 4th, three pillars underpin Naver’s robotics strategy: “Rookie2” for indoor use, “Nuri” for outdoor use, and “ARC Brain,” the platform that ties them together.
The first pillar is Rookie2, an indoor service robot set for commercialization within the year. Rookie2 is a next-generation model that enhances the scalability of the existing service robot “Rookie,” newly developed to respond to demand in overseas markets such as Japan and Saudi Arabia. Its most notable feature is that it is designed to operate stably not only in robot-friendly buildings like 1784, but also in general-purpose buildings such as ordinary office buildings and commercial facilities.
The technical structure has also changed. While the existing Rookie operated on a cloud basis, Rookie2 adds on-device positioning technology to its cloud foundation. It applies the latest navigation technology and sensors to enhance the robot’s ability to recognize its surroundings on its own, and it has strengthened its own intelligence to navigate stably even amid changes in communication conditions. The Rookie2 operating platform has also been advanced on the premise of general-purpose buildings. It newly applies a manager application that can efficiently manage multiple robots, as well as a disaster response mode and remote control functions.
The experience of the first commercial project in Japan was also actively reflected in the Rookie2 development process. Various requirements accumulated during actual operation—such as safety regulations required in the Japanese market, elevator integration, disaster response systems, and the LINE ordering system—were applied to the product. It was refined not as a robot for demonstration purposes but as a commercial model targeting the global market. Once Rookie2 is officially launched, it will replace the Rookie that had entered the Japanese market.
The second pillar, the outdoor-only robot Nuri, implements outdoor autonomous driving using spatial intelligence technologies such as Naver Map and digital twins. In particular, it is being developed to operate stably even in high-temperature environments like Saudi Arabia. Through this, Naver will lay the groundwork to extend delivery services that had remained indoors to the outside of buildings.
The final pillar connecting the two robots is ARC Brain. ARC Brain is an orchestration platform that connects multiple robots, elevators, access gates, and building facilities into a single system. Baek Jong-yoon, head of Naver Labs, explained, “Gathering 10 truly smart robots together does not necessarily make for a good service. You need a platform above them that oversees the robots.” He added, “No matter what form of robot emerges, there has to be an orchestration platform that connects and oversees them. Naver aims to build the platform that guards that gateway.”
In fact, Naver is pursuing the construction of a multi-robot platform that connects not only its own robots but also robots from other manufacturers, such as those used for cleaning and patrolling, to ARC Brain. To this end, Naver is also cooperating with robot manufacturing companies, and a related agreement is reportedly expected soon. The strategy is to build an open ecosystem that integrates and manages robots from various manufacturers on a single platform, rather than a closed structure that operates only a specific manufacturer’s robots. Naver is also developing humanoids in parallel, and is reviewing plans to use humanoids as a device connected to ARC Brain in the future.
The industry views this Saudi business as the first stage to validate Naver’s smart city platform, going beyond simply exporting delivery robots. In particular, since Naver has built digital twins in major Saudi cities such as Mecca and Medina, it is assessed to have the foundation to implement a smart city operating model that combines various robot services such as delivery, patrol, and facility management. With Saudi Arabia’s active urban development centered on mega-scale new cities and townhouses, as well as its aggressive adoption of AI and robotics, it is cited as a suitable market for Naver to secure its first overseas reference for integrated operation of indoor and outdoor robots and platforms. Ultimately, in that what Naver seeks to export is not individual robots but a platform that operates an entire city, the Saudi project is analyzed to become the first testing ground for gauging the success or failure of its future global smart city business.
For these reasons, the industry regards this year as the first year of Naver’s robotics business. This is because it marks the point when Naver moves beyond the stage of validating technology at 1784 to pursue the global market with products and platforms at the forefront. One industry official said, “Since Naver, through its cooperation with Nvidia, has also laid the foundation to incorporate the latest AI technologies such as ‘Cosmos’ into robot development, there is a high possibility it will expand its business beyond Asia and the Middle East to European and North American markets.”