Nvidia Takes 4.5% Stake in Naver With $1B AI Factory Bet
Naver shares rocketed as much as 22.89% in pre-market trading and opened up more than 10% on Monday after South Korea's largest internet company confirmed a roughly 1.5 trillion won ($1.01 billion) strategic investment from Nvidia, sending the stock to its biggest single-day pop in years.
Photo by Rômulo Queiroz on Pexels
What happened
Naver announced a third-party share allotment issuing 7.2 million new shares to Nvidia at 204,500 won each, raising about 1.4809 trillion won. Once the deal closes, Nvidia will hold a 4.5% stake in Naver, making it the company's third-largest shareholder behind only South Korea's National Pension Service and BlackRock. Payment is set for October 30, with the new shares slated to list on November 20. Local reports describe it as Naver's first third-party share issuance in 22 years — a rare move for a company of its size.
Why it matters / market reaction so far
The reaction was immediate and sharp. Naver traded as high as 255,000 won in pre-market action, up 22.89% from the prior close, before settling into a still-substantial gain of roughly 7.7% to 8.2% once regular trading opened, with shares changing hands around 223,500 won by mid-morning. That kind of pre-market-to-open fade is common when an overnight headline move meets profit-taking, but the fact that double-digit gains held into the open underscores how much investors are re-rating Naver's AI infrastructure ambitions now that Nvidia has effectively co-signed them with capital, not just a supply agreement.
Who and what is affected
The proceeds are earmarked for Naver's "AI Factory" buildout, part of a roughly $10 billion project that includes an AI data center in South Korea. Nvidia will supply the GPUs — with the facility's power capacity scaling from 55 megawatts in the first half of 2027 to 100 megawatts by the end of that year and 200 megawatts in 2028, ultimately housing around 100,000 GPUs. That kind of GPU density doesn't get built without enormous high-bandwidth memory supply, which puts Korea's memory duopoly squarely back in the frame: SK Hynix currently controls roughly 58% of the HBM market with Samsung and Micron each around 21%, a dynamic I covered in S&P Upgrades Samsung's Outlook, Names It Memory's Top Winner. Every new Nvidia-anchored AI factory announcement — Naver's included — adds another data point to the memory-shortage thesis that's been driving Samsung and SK Hynix higher even after the sharp swings detailed in Samsung, SK Hynix Sink 7-8% as Yesterday's Buyers Turn Sellers. For Nvidia, the deal is a smaller but strategically similar move to its broader pattern of taking equity stakes in AI infrastructure buyers to lock in demand for its chips.
What to watch next
The near-term signal to track is whether Naver holds its gains once the initial pop settles, or fades back as traders digest the dilution from 7.2 million new shares. Longer term, watch the October 30 payment date and November 20 listing for the new shares, along with any updates on the data center's construction timeline and GPU delivery schedule. Given Nvidia's now-established habit of pairing GPU supply deals with direct equity stakes — echoing its larger arrangements with Korean chipmakers — expect scrutiny over how many more of these strategic investments Nvidia makes across Asia's AI infrastructure buildout, and whether regulators or existing shareholders raise concerns about dilution or governance as Nvidia's influence over key suppliers and customers grows.
This is not financial advice — always do your own research before making investment decisions.
The takeaway: Nvidia buying its way into a 4.5% stake in Naver is less about the dollar amount and more about the signal — one of Asia's biggest tech companies is betting big enough on AI infrastructure that Nvidia wanted skin in the game. Whether that confidence is justified will depend on execution over the next two years, not the pop in today's stock price.
댓글
댓글 쓰기