What the agreement entails
Naver has formalized an agreement with U.S. asset manager Brookfield to raise up to $9 billion for artificial intelligence computing infrastructure. According to The Korea Herald, the South Korean company announced the agreement in a filing submitted Tuesday to regulators, after choosing Brookfield in July as its exclusive preferred negotiating partner for twelve weeks. The transaction introduces a defined financing structure into the $10 billion project for an AI factory developed with Nvidia.
The vehicle and the access model
Under the agreement, Brookfield will establish a special-purpose vehicle provisionally named Asset Co and invest up to $9 billion to acquire graphics processing units, data centers and other AI infrastructure. Naver Cloud will access computing resources through a GPU-as-a-service contract and provide AI data center services to external clients.
The setup is designed to ease Naver's initial capital burden: Brookfield will finance the infrastructure, while Naver Cloud will pay usage fees tied to the business's revenue, with the possibility of expanding computing capacity in phases depending on demand. Despite being wholly owned by a Brookfield investment vehicle, Asset Co is expected to be included in Naver's consolidated financial statements as a subsidiary under Korean International Financial Reporting Standards, owing to the control exercised by the company.
Roles and outstanding steps
Naver will lead the AI factory business, leveraging its experience in building and managing GPU clusters and data centers. Nvidia will provide technical support, including the DSX high-performance computing platform, to improve the infrastructure's operational efficiency and competitiveness.
The agreement is also expected to bring Nvidia's planned $1 billion equity investment in Naver closer: the chipmaker would acquire new shares through a third-party allotment, becoming the company's third-largest shareholder. However, this is an expected effect that has not yet been finalized, nor has the overall closing of the transaction. The project was announced in July by Naver together with Nvidia and Brookfield.
A Naver representative said that the combination of AI technology and data center management expertise, Nvidia's advanced computing capabilities and Brookfield's infrastructure experience can make the business stable and competitive, with the aim of creating new growth opportunities in the global AI infrastructure market through a capital-light model.
To be verified
The material does not indicate closing timing, conditions precedent, fee details or the timeline for Nvidia's potential entry into the share capital; these elements remain to be verified. Brookfield, which manages over $1 trillion in assets, has large-scale technology infrastructure investments, including a semiconductor manufacturing joint venture with Intel and a partnership with Microsoft on developing renewable energy for AI infrastructure.
