Nvidia has completed its $1 billion investment in South Korean internet company Naver, taking a 4.13 percent stake that makes the chipmaker Naver’s third-largest shareholder. Naver said it issued more than 6.5 million new shares to Nvidia through a private placement after receiving 1.34 trillion won in proceeds, according to its regulatory filing. The payment closes a strategic investment agreed in July and accelerates the two companies’ joint plan to build AI factories, with Naver running the data centers and Nvidia supplying the graphics chips.
## The deal in numbers
The final terms were set on November 3, when Naver corrected its earlier disclosure. Nvidia is buying 6,558,435 shares at 204,500 won each, about 683,000 fewer than first planned because the won strengthened against the dollar, from 1,480.9 to 1,341.2 per dollar. The dollar value stayed at $1 billion, while the stake slipped from about 4.54 percent to 4.13 percent.
## What the money builds
The cash funds the AI factory business announced in June. Naver will build and operate the data centers, starting with its Gak Sejong site, while Nvidia supplies the graphics processors. The first factory, rated at 55 megawatts, starts operating in the first half of next year, growing to 200 megawatts by 2028 and eventually toward one gigawatt.
## From handshake to shareholding
The deal moved quickly once the groundwork was set. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin signed the strategic investment agreement on July 24 at Nvidia’s California headquarters. Last month Naver signed a separate $9 billion agreement with Brookfield to secure AI computing infrastructure, a step described as a precondition for attracting Nvidia’s investment.
The new shares are scheduled to list on November 27, with Nvidia’s holding locked up for one year. That lock-up signals a long-term bet rather than a quick trade, and it gives Naver a stable, deep-pocketed partner as it commits hundreds of billions of won to the AI factory build-out through 2028.
## Our Read
This is Nvidia buying distribution as much as equity. Naver is South Korea’s dominant internet company, and its AI factory gives Nvidia a showcase customer and a foothold in a market where governments increasingly want sovereign compute built at home.
A minority stake aligns the two companies without takeover scrutiny, and the one-year lock-up tells the market Nvidia intends to stay. The [Box partnership](https://geroundtable.com/box-nvidia-context-retrieval/) shows the same playbook on the software side, with Nvidia embedding its models in another company’s platform. The risk is concentration: if the factory model stalls, Nvidia owns a slice of the slowdown too.
The timing is striking. Nvidia’s shares have just suffered a [sharp sell-off](https://geroundtable.com/nvidia-9-plunge-nasdaq-correction/) as investors questioned data-center spending, yet the company is still writing $1 billion cheques for strategic stakes. That contrast is the story: Nvidia is using its balance sheet to lock in chip demand even while the market reprices the AI build-out.
## Why It Matters
Naver is not a side bet. It is Korea’s biggest internet company, and the AI factory is its attempt to sell GPU capacity at home rather than rent it from abroad. For Nvidia, the stake secures a chip buyer and a partner that understands a market it cannot serve from California alone. Success in Korea would invite repeats across Asia.
## Background
Nvidia and Naver first outlined their AI factory cooperation in June, and the investment agreement followed in July. The deal closes in a week of heavy selling across AI stocks, and as Korean challengers such as [FuriosaAI](https://geroundtable.com/furiosaai-620m-series-d-inference/) raise big rounds to take on Nvidia in inference.
Source: [Yonhap report](https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20261106010300320?section=k-biz/index) and [Chosun Biz terms](https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-it/2026/11/03/L527YUPWB5ENBKBAEMGA7YVHFU/)
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