Sejong, South Korea | EcoPulse24

NAVER, NVIDIA and Brookfield have unveiled plans to significantly expand South Korea's sovereign artificial intelligence infrastructure by scaling the country's first multi-tenant NVIDIA DSX AI Factory from 55 megawatts to 200 megawatts by 2028, while laying the foundation for a future 1-gigawatt national AI infrastructure.

Announced during Korea President Jae Myung Lee's AI Summit visit to San Francisco, the initiative represents one of the largest AI infrastructure projects announced in Asia and is intended to provide production-scale computing capacity for AI startups, enterprises, government agencies and cloud providers in both South Korea and the United States.

The expansion will be built at NAVER's GAK Sejong hyperscale data center using the NVIDIA DSX platform, with the partners positioning the project as a cornerstone of Korea's sovereign AI strategy.

More Than $10 Billion in Planned Investments

Under the proposed financing structure:

• NVIDIA plans to invest $1 billion in NAVER Corp.

• Brookfield has signed a non-binding term sheet to provide up to $9 billion in funding.

• NAVER will finance the remaining capital required for the project.

NVIDIA noted that its planned investment remains subject to customary closing conditions and NAVER securing at least $9 billion in committed financing, separate from NVIDIA's own investment. The expanded AI infrastructure is expected to provide AI innovators in Korea and the United States with production-scale computing resources for developing next-generation AI models, autonomous agents and AI-powered applications.

Accelerating Korea's Sovereign AI Strategy

NAVER intends to extend the project far beyond the current expansion, with a long-term objective of deploying 1 gigawatt of sovereign AI infrastructure capable of supporting enterprises, industrial customers, public-sector organizations and international AI cloud clients.

The company said the infrastructure will deliver full-stack AI capabilities while targeting lower operating costs through NVIDIA's integrated AI factory architecture.

Executive Comments

Haejin Lee, Founder and Chairman of NAVER

Haejin Lee said NVIDIA's planned strategic investment and Brookfield's infrastructure financing agreement have moved NAVER's AI factory vision into a strong execution phase.

He added that cooperation with global partners will accelerate technological innovation, strengthen South Korea's sovereign AI ecosystem and enhance the country's competitiveness in artificial intelligence.

Sikander Rashid, Global Head of AI Infrastructure at Brookfield

Sikander Rashid said the partnership combines Brookfield's investment capabilities, NAVER's expertise in operating hyperscale AI infrastructure and NVIDIA's accelerated computing platform.

According to Rashid, as AI adoption expands worldwide, sovereign, trusted and scalable AI infrastructure is becoming an increasingly important strategic priority for both governments and businesses.

Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA

NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang described AI factories as the infrastructure nations need to compete in the intelligence era.

He said the collaboration between NAVER, NVIDIA and Brookfield is building sovereign AI infrastructure at the scale required to power Korea's startups and industries, adding that nations and companies are now building their futures through AI infrastructure.

AI Factory to Feature NVIDIA's Latest Platforms

The 200-megawatt AI factory will incorporate NVIDIA's newest AI technologies, including:

• NVIDIA Vera Rubin

• NVIDIA Blackwell

• NVIDIA DSX Platform

• NVIDIA DSX MaxLPS

• NVIDIA DSX OS

The facility is expected to provide production-scale AI computing, software and operational support for developing and deploying advanced AI models and enterprise AI applications.

As an NVIDIA Cloud Partner, NAVER will continue operating the hyperscale AI infrastructure using NVIDIA's full-stack AI platform.

Expanding Open AI Model Development

The announcement also builds upon the companies' collaboration in developing open AI models.

NAVER plans to:

• Base its HyperCLOVA X models on NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra open models.

• Launch a new AI agent platform in Korea during the second half of the year using NVIDIA Agent Toolkit and NVIDIA NemoClaw blueprints.

• Develop a Seoul World Model using proprietary spatial and street-view data powered by NVIDIA Cosmos world foundation models.

NAVER also became the first Korean company to join the NVIDIA Nemotron Coalition, contributing to pre-training, post-training and reinforcement learning for open AI models.

Brookfield Continues Expanding AI Infrastructure Investments

Brookfield said it has built one of the industry's largest AI infrastructure investment platforms, managing approximately $100 billion in assets across AI data centers, computing infrastructure, semiconductor manufacturing and dedicated power generation.

The company also noted that it has operated in South Korea since 2014 and currently manages approximately $12 billion in infrastructure, real estate and energy assets in the country.

Project Summary

AI Technologies Included

EcoPulse24 Analysis

The announcement marks one of the most ambitious sovereign AI infrastructure initiatives globally, reflecting an accelerating race among nations to establish domestic AI computing capacity rather than relying exclusively on international cloud providers.

For NAVER, the project transforms the company from a leading internet and cloud platform into a national AI infrastructure provider capable of supporting enterprises, government agencies and AI startups through hyperscale computing resources.

For NVIDIA, the planned $1 billion investment extends its strategy beyond selling GPUs toward becoming a long-term infrastructure partner in national AI projects. By combining advanced hardware, software and AI factory architecture through the DSX platform, NVIDIA is positioning itself at the center of sovereign AI deployments worldwide.

For Brookfield, the investment reinforces its growing role as one of the world's largest financiers of AI infrastructure. With approximately $100 billion in AI-related assets under management, the firm is increasingly positioning AI data centers and digital infrastructure alongside traditional infrastructure investments.

Beyond the financial commitments, the project's strategic significance lies in its long-term vision. Expanding from 55 MW today to 200 MW by 2028, with an eventual target of 1 GW, would place South Korea among a select group of countries building national-scale sovereign AI infrastructure capable of supporting advanced model training, AI agents, industrial automation and public-sector AI services.

About NAVER

Founded in 1999, NAVER is South Korea's largest internet company and one of the world's leading technology companies. The company operates Korea's leading search engine while maintaining businesses across commerce, fintech, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and robotics.

NAVER reported KRW 12.04 trillion (US$8.18 billion) in revenue during 2025. Through TEAM NAVER, the company continues expanding its global presence across Japan, North America and Europe, while investing heavily in research and development of next-generation technologies.

About Brookfield

Brookfield is one of the world's largest investment firms, managing more than $1 trillion in assets across infrastructure, renewable power and energy transition, private equity, real estate and credit.

Operating in more than 30 countries, Brookfield invests long-term institutional capital in critical infrastructure and essential service businesses supporting economic growth, productivity and sustainable development worldwide.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the global leader in artificial intelligence and accelerated computing, providing the hardware, software and AI platforms that power next-generation computing across cloud, enterprise, scientific research and industrial applications.