NAVER, NVIDIA, and Brookfield announced a proposed expansion of Korea\u2019s sovereign AI factory infrastructure, with planned investments to grow the initial NVIDIA DSX AI factory deployment at NAVER\u2019s GAK Sejong data center from 55 megawatts to 200 megawatts by 2028, more than tripling last month\u2019s announced buildout. NAVER intends to expand its deployment of NVIDIA AI infrastructure to 1 gigawatt over time. The announcement came during Korea President Jae Myung Lee\u2019s visit to San Francisco for the AI Summit.<\/p>\n
As part of the plan, NVIDIA intends to invest $1 billion into NAVER Corp., subject to customary closing conditions and NAVER finalizing at least $9 billion of committed financing for the project. Brookfield has entered into a nonbinding term sheet to fund up to $9 billion of that financing, with NAVER funding the remaining amounts. The 200-megawatt AI factory is expected to feature NVIDIA\u2019s Vera Rubin and Blackwell platforms, providing the compute, software, and support needed to develop and deploy AI models and applications at scale for Korea- and U.S.-based AI companies.<\/p>\n
The expansion builds on a June announcement in which NAVER committed to extending its GAK Sejong data center with NVIDIA DSX, part of a longer-term path toward gigawatt-scale sovereign AI infrastructure serving Korean enterprises, industries, government organizations, and global AI cloud customers. The NVIDIA DSX platform provides an end-to-end stack for AI factories, spanning chips, systems, software, and facilities, designed to minimize token cost and accelerate time to production, with NVIDIA DSX MaxLPS software maximizing token throughput per megawatt and NVIDIA DSX OS managing lifecycle, health automation, and multi-tenant operations across the infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The planned investment also marks a significant milestone in Brookfield\u2019s broader strategic partnership with NVIDIA, building on NVIDIA\u2019s role as a founding partner in the Brookfield Global AI Infrastructure Program. Brookfield has managed approximately $100 billion in assets under management across the AI infrastructure value chain, including data centers, compute, semiconductor manufacturing, and power generation, and has been an active investor in Korea since 2014, where it currently manages approximately $12 billion in assets across infrastructure, real estate, and energy.<\/p>\n
Beyond infrastructure, the expansion builds on NAVER and NVIDIA\u2019s collaboration on open model development for agentic and physical AI. NAVER is advancing its HyperCLOVA X models based on NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra open models using its own data and training expertise, and became the first Korean company to join the NVIDIA Nemotron Coalition. NAVER also plans to launch an AI agent platform in Korea during the second half of the year, powered by NVIDIA\u2019s Agent Toolkit software, and is developing a Seoul World Model using proprietary urban street-view and spatial modeling data built on NVIDIA Cosmos world foundation models.<\/p>\n
KEY QUOTES:<\/p>\n
\u201cNVIDIA\u2019s planned strategic investment and our infrastructure supply agreement with Brookfield have propelled NAVER\u2019s vision for the AI factory business into a robust execution phase. Leveraging the solid partnerships with our global partners, we will drive technological innovation, foster a sovereign AI ecosystem and spearhead efforts to strengthen South Korea\u2019s AI competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haejin Lee, Founder and Chairman, NAVER<\/p>\n
\u201cThe partnership will combine Brookfield\u2019s global AI infrastructure investment capabilities, NAVER\u2019s full-stack AI and data center operating expertise, and NVIDIA\u2019s accelerated computing platform to advance Korea\u2019s AI capabilities. As AI adoption accelerates across the global economy, access to trusted, sovereign and scalable AI infrastructure is becoming an increasingly important strategic priority for companies and countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sikander Rashid, Global Head of AI Infrastructure, Brookfield<\/p>\n
\u201cAI factories are the infrastructure nations need to compete and innovate in the intelligence era. Together, NAVER, NVIDIA and Brookfield are building sovereign AI infrastructure at the scale needed to fuel Korea\u2019s startups and industries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO, NVIDIA<\/p>\n