The presence of Naver, a national platform corporations, is coming to the fore in politics and industry at the same time. Han Seong-sook, who served as CEO for five years starting in 2017 and is now the Minister of SMEs and Startups, was nominated as a candidate for prime minister, the first woman in 20 years, and Jensen Huang, the Nvidia CEO known as the crown prince of the AI era, visited Naver's 1784 headquarters.
Naver started in 1999 as a homegrown internet search service and has grown into one of Korea's leading platform corporations with annual revenue exceeding 12 trillion won. Korea is one of the few countries in the world where Google does not hold the No. 1 spot in the search market. As of this month, Naver's domestic search market share (55%) is ahead of Google (36%).
In the meantime, Naver has faced criticism that it lost momentum amid debates over platform regulation and slowing growth. But beyond the platform, by pushing its own large language model (LLM), data centers, cloud, Digital Twin, and physical AI technologies to the fore, it is being reassessed as a core corporations in Korea's AI ecosystem.
◇ Key cabinet members emerge one after another under the Lee Jae-myung administration
Under the Lee Jae-myung administration alone, Naver has produced two Ministers and one candidate for prime minister. After Minister Han was named the administration's second prime minister nominee, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Chae Hwi-young also turned out to be a former head of NHN (formerly Naver). Ha Jung-woo, the former senior presidential secretary for AI future planning who stepped down in April, also came from Naver. As AI and digital transformation have risen as core national agendas, there is growing assessment that talent from Naver are being appointed to key policy roles.
As CEO of Naver, Minister Han is credited with developing the company from search-centered to commerce, Fintech, and global content corporations. Having proven management capabilities by running a national platform corporations, and with global business experience in Japan, the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia, Han had governance capabilities tested while serving as Minister of SMEs and Startups. Some view Han's nomination for prime minister as symbolic in that a former head of a private technology corporations has moved closer to the center of national governance. There is also an interpretation that this signals a policy shift: the platform industry is no longer merely a regulatory target but a strategic asset that underpins national competitiveness in the AI era.
Hwang Yong-sik, a professor in the business administration department at Sejong University, said, "The government's policy direction and appointments are being made in line with the great AI transition," and noted, "The role of the former Minister of Information and Communication has been elevated to a prime minister nominee in the AI era."
◇ Strategic importance highlighted as an Nvidia AI partner
Naver is showcasing an AI alliance with Nvidia, including an agreement to build a gigawatt (GW)-scale, ultra-large global AI factory. This is also the most notable alliance since the 2019 integration of Line and Yahoo Japan with SoftBank.
When CEO Huang, who visited Korea on the 5th, met with the heads of major Korean conglomerates, Naver Chair Lee Hae-jin attended in person, signaling to the outside world that Naver is one of Nvidia's key partners representing Korea in the AI era. At the Nvidia "GTC Taipei 2026" keynote held on the 1st in Taiwan, Huang also officially announced Naver Cloud as a key partner in the global AI ecosystem.
The two companies have steadily collaborated in sovereign AI, cloud, and physical AI. Before Chair Lee Hae-jin returned to management in June 2024, he met CEO Huang at Nvidia's U.S. headquarters to discuss sovereign AI issues, and in May last year, Lee and Huang also met at Nvidia's Taiwan office and agreed to cooperate in building sovereign AI in Southeast Asia.
◇ Needs to show more tangible results in the AI business
On an annual basis last year, Naver's revenue rose 12.1% year over year to 12.035 trillion won. Operating profit also increased 11.6% to 2.2081 trillion won. It was a record annual performance. But there is an assessment that Naver has yet to produce a decisive breakthrough in the AI era. Accordingly, some argue that, in line with its recently elevated standing in politics and industry, Naver must connect AI to actual revenue and global competitiveness.
Lee Kyung-jun, a professor in the business administration department at Kyunghee University, said, "It appears Naver is not trying to build AI infrastructure independently, but rather to sketch out the picture together on Nvidia's platform," and added, "If it truly intends to pursue the AI business, it will need to push ahead more independently to secure future growth."