Naver announced on October 27 that it has signed a computing-infrastructure contract with Brookfield, the Canadian asset manager, closing the financing piece its AI factory project has been waiting on since the summer. Under the contract, Brookfield will establish a special-purpose vehicle called Asset Co. to secure and manage AI infrastructure — graphics processing units and data centers — worth up to $9 billion by 2028.

The structure is deliberately light on Naver’s balance sheet. Asset Co. will be funded entirely by a Brookfield investment vehicle, but it will be consolidated as a Naver subsidiary because Naver’s control is recognised under Korean International Financial Reporting Standards. Naver Cloud, the group’s cloud arm, will take the computing resources from the vehicle and operate AI data-center services for external customers, paying usage fees linked to business revenue with a payment guarantee running up to eight years.

Why this signature unlocks Nvidia#

The signature matters less for the $9 billion itself than for what it triggers. When Naver, Nvidia and Brookfield outlined the project in July, Nvidia’s planned $1 billion strategic investment in Naver came with a condition: Naver had to secure at least $9 billion of committed computing-infrastructure financing, separate from Nvidia’s own money. This contract meets that condition, and Naver said it plans to swiftly complete the procedures for a third-party capital increase that would let Nvidia buy in — a stake worth about 1.5 trillion won.

That sequencing explains the timing. Naver announced its global AI factory plan on June 8 and named Brookfield as its exclusive negotiation partner for twelve weeks to formalise the contract. The July agreement set the ambition — a gigawatt-scale sovereign AI factory — and Tuesday’s contract supplies the financing leg it was missing.

Rows of GPU server racks inside a vast data center hall
AI-generated editorial illustration.

Who does what#

Operations stay with Naver. The company and Naver Cloud will lead the AI factory business, drawing on their experience building and operating large-scale GPU clusters and data centers. Nvidia’s role is on the technology side: supplying GPUs and cooperating on its next-generation high-performance computing platform, DSX, to improve how efficiently the infrastructure runs.

For customers, the pitch is production-scale AI compute without building it themselves. Naver Cloud will offer AI data-center services from the capacity Asset Co. secures — the same sovereign-AI logic behind similar national projects, but with the financing now contracted rather than merely announced.

What to watch#

Two things come next. First, the Nvidia payment procedures: Naver has promised to expedite them, and the terms it discloses will show how large a stake $1 billion actually buys. Second, demand: the infrastructure is now financed, but the project’s economics depend on customers filling it, with Naver Cloud’s revenue-linked usage fees as the mechanism that ties the two together.

Aerial view of a data center campus under construction at golden hour
AI-generated editorial illustration.

Until then, the honest summary is the contractual one: up to $9 billion of infrastructure, a financing condition met, and a $1 billion investment now cleared to proceed.

Sources: Aju Press, DigitalToday, MLex.