Naver widens France AI ties with Europe-focused factory push
Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon, far right, speaks at the Lumière Summit in Saint -Paul-de-Vence, southern France, highlighting plans to support creators through global content investment, Monday (local time). Courtesy of Naver
Naver is seeking to deepen its artificial intelligence (AI) ties with France, proposing cooperation on AI infrastructure, industry-specific systems and cultural content during President Lee Jae Myung's visit to the country.
Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon and Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yu-won met with executives from French companies and institutions in media, information technology, energy, mobility and finance during Lee’s visit.
Choi outlined three areas for cooperation at Korea-France Business Roundtable in France on Tuesday: global AI infrastructure, industry-specific AI built around data sovereignty and security, and cultural content.
She said Naver wanted to combine France’s stable energy infrastructure with its experience in building AI ecosystems to develop AI factories that European companies and startups could use.
Naver recently announced plans with Nvidia and Brookfield to build more than 1 gigawatt of global AI factory capacity.
Choi also pointed to Naver’s work developing AI systems tailored to finance and nuclear power, including BOKI with Bank of Korea and Hy-NuRI with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power.
She said Naver could work with French companies and institutions to develop secure, trusted AI systems designed for specific industries.
In content, Choi cited Naver Webtoon’s presence in France, where it has introduced more than 70 original works and attracted more than 2 million readers.
She said Naver wanted to help creators in Korea and France bring joint projects to audiences worldwide through its global webtoon platform and ToonRadar, its AI technology for copyright protection.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.