Naver's Lee Hae-jin Flies to Saudi Arabia… 'Digital Currency' Expands into the Middle East

Meeting with Saudi Housing Minister

Discussion on data center construction, etc.

Naver is positioning the Middle East as a core global business arena. Lee Hae-jin, chairman (photo), visited Saudi Arabia and expanded the scope of cooperation from smart cities to digital currency and data centers, prompting assessments that its Middle East business has entered a full-scale expansion phase.

On the 20th, according to Naver and the Saudi state news agency SPA, Lee met Majid Al-Hogail, Saudi Minister of Municipal and Housing, on the 18th (local time) at 'Cityscape Global 2025' held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. At the event, Naver introduced cases of city operations based on digital twins, artificial intelligence (AI), and cloud, and the two sides are reported to have discussed expanding research and development (R&D) and technical exchanges.

Naver's push into the Middle East began when it won a contract in 2023 from the Saudi Ministry of Municipal and Housing to build a digital twin platform. In May, it established a joint venture, 'Naver Innovation', with the Saudi National Housing Company (NHC) to advance key local smart city projects. It has completed digital twin construction for three cities—Mecca, Medina, and Jeddah—and is also working on the second-phase cooperation for the 'Baladi Digital Twin Project', which aims to enhance the urban administrative platform promoted by the Saudi Ministry of Municipal and Housing.

The reason Naver is accelerating its Middle East business is the structural characteristics of the local market. Countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are regarded as executing large-scale investments in smart cities, AI, and digital administrative infrastructure to transition to a non-oil economy. With a high proportion of state-led projects, there are many opportunities for large platform businesses, and demand for data centers and cloud services is rapidly increasing. Analysts say Naver's data center operation technology and capabilities in digital twins and AI align precisely with government demand.

SPA reported that the two sides also discussed cooperation on real estate investment-based digital currency and joint development of data centers. Some suggest that, given Naver's move to reorganize Naver Financial through a stock swap with Dunamu, this discussion could be linked to an expansion of Naver's global digital financial business.

Analysts also note that following his earlier visit to Saudi Arabia as Global Investment Officer (GIO), Lee's direct leadership of the meeting this time as founder and chairman indicates the group's intention to strengthen its Middle East strategy.

Ahn Jung-hoon, reporter ajh6321@hankyung.com