Lee Hae-jin, chair of Naver's board, Chief Executive Choi Soo-yeon, and other top executives are set to visit global alternative asset manager Brookfield. Observers said this signals full-fledged talks on investment and financing for Naver's AI factory.
On the 20th, industry sources said Chair Lee Hae-jin, CEO Choi Soo-yeon, and Naver Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Kim Hee-cheul will visit Brookfield's headquarters in Toronto, Canada early this week. Brookfield is a global alternative asset manager investing in infrastructure, energy, real estate, private equity, and credit, with more than $1 trillion in assets under management. Recently, it launched a $100 billion (about 148 trillion won) AI infrastructure investment program covering data centers and power infrastructure.
With CFO Kim joining the trip, the industry interprets this as Naver's concrete investment talks—covering data centers, securing power infrastructure, and financing needed to build the AI factory—having effectively entered the final stage.
Naver has teamed up with Nvidia to pursue a joint project to build a gigawatt (GW)-class, ultra-large global AI factory. The two companies previously said they plan to expand overseas infrastructure to absorb global demand, starting with 55 MW in operation in the first half of 2027 as a signal flare, reaching 100 MW within the same year and 200 MW in 2028. Ultimately, they aim to build 1 GW-class infrastructure.
Regarding the visit, a Naver official said, "There is nothing we can confirm."