Naver Chair Lee to Meet Brookfield as AI Funding Plan Nears

Naver executives to visit Brookfield headquarters in Canada

Naver Cloud also teams up with HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering

Naver Corp.'s top executives, including board Chair Lee Hae-jin and Chief Executive Officer Choi Soo-yeon, are set to visit Brookfield's headquarters, according to industry officials. The talks may center on large-scale investment and financing plans for Naver's artificial intelligence factory project.

Industry officials said July 20 that Lee, Choi and Chief Financial Officer Kim Hee-chul plan to visit Brookfield's headquarters in Toronto this week. It will mark the first visit to Brookfield by Lee and Choi, and executives from related affiliates are also expected to join them. A trip by a company's founder, chief executive and finance chief to meet an overseas investor together is unusual. The visit is seen as part of Naver's effort to build the foundation for its AI factory.

An AI factory is a dedicated AI facility equipped with large-scale graphics processing unit servers, ultrafast networks, and power and cooling systems. It is used to train AI models and generate answers, images and code. Because such facilities require vast sites and significant electricity, partnerships with major investors are important.

Brookfield is an alternative asset manager with $1 trillion in assets under management, investing mainly in real estate, infrastructure and commodities rather than stocks or bonds. Last year, it launched an AI infrastructure investment fund of up to $100 billion with Nvidia and the Kuwait Investment Authority.

Naver is pursuing a large-scale AI factory project with Nvidia. The company has said it plans to begin operating a 55-megawatt facility in the first half of 2027 and build a 1-gigawatt AI factory by 2029.

Industry officials expect Nvidia to supply GPUs and server technology, while Brookfield could provide funding and investment expertise for the data centers and power facilities the project requires. A Naver official said the company had nothing to confirm about the visit.

Separately, Naver is expanding the application of AI factories in industrial settings. Naver Cloud said July 20 that it will jointly build an AI and cloud environment tailored to the shipbuilding industry with HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering.

Yoo Ji-hee, Hankyung.com reporter keephee@hankyung.com