Naver finalizes up to $9 billion investment deal with Brookfield — Korea Herald
Naver has finalized an agreement with U.S. asset manager Brookfield for investments of up to $9 billion in computing infrastructure for a $10 billion AI factory project. The company disclosed the agreement in a regulatory filing, Korea Herald reports.
In July, Naver selected Brookfield as its exclusive preferred partner for negotiations for 12 weeks. At that time, Naver announced a global AI factory project together with Nvidia and Brookfield.
Infrastructure for AI
Brookfield will establish a special-purpose company preliminarily named Asset Co. It will invest up to $9 billion in graphics processing units, data centers and other artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Naver Cloud will gain access to computing resources under a GPU-as-a-service model and will provide AI data center services to external clients. Naver will operate the AI factory business based on its experience in building and operating graphics processing unit clusters and managing data centers.
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Nvidia will provide technical support, including through its high-performance computing platform DSX. According to the publication, this is expected to improve the infrastructure’s operational efficiency and competitiveness.
Financial model
Brookfield will finance the infrastructure, while Naver Cloud will make payments for its use linked to revenue from this business. This arrangement is expected to reduce Naver’s initial capital expenditures and allow it to gradually expand computing capacity as demand grows.
Asset Co will be wholly owned by Brookfield’s investment structure, but it is expected to be included in Naver’s consolidated financial statements as a subsidiary due to Naver’s control over the structure in accordance with Korean International Financial Reporting Standards.
The agreement may also bring closer the completion of Nvidia’s planned $1 billion investment in Naver. The chipmaker is to acquire newly issued Naver shares through a third-party allotment, which could make Nvidia the company’s third-largest shareholder.
