Naver looks to Mexico as export market for AI infrastructure
Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon, left, meets Mexico's Minister of the Economy Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon in Mexico, Friday. Courtesy of Naver
Naver, the Korean tech powerhouse best known for operating the country’s dominant search engine and digital ecosystem, is expanding its global artificial intelligence (AI) push into Latin America. Company executives met with Mexican government officials and business leaders this week to explore joint initiatives aimed at building a regional AI ecosystem and accelerating industrial modernization.
Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon and other company executives visited Mexico from Thursday through Friday as members of President Lee Jae Myung’s economic delegation, the company said Tuesday.
Choi met with Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, Mexico’s economy minister, and Rosaura Ruiz Gutiérrez, minister of science, humanities, technology and innovation, as well as officials from the Agency of Digital Transformation and Telecommunications and Mexican IT company Softtek.
Choi introduced Naver’s public-sector AI transformation capabilities, sovereign AI strategy and AI factory project being developed with Nvidia and Brookfield, while proposing cooperation on Mexico’s public sector digital transformation and industrial competitiveness.
Ebrard said Mexico was expanding engagement with global AI companies, including Nvidia, and working to develop its domestic AI industry. He expressed hope that Naver could contribute to Mexico’s AI ecosystem and digital transformation.
Choi also discussed cooperation with Ruiz on Mexico’s plans to build a national high-performance computing and AI cluster, with Naver exploring potential projects in Querétaro, where more than 70 percent of Mexico’s data center infrastructure is concentrated.
Naver and local officials discussed a digital twin pilot project, according to the company.
The Mexico visit marked the Naver executives’ first trip to the country to meet government and business leaders as part of efforts to explore the market, following meetings in August with executives from Brazilian AI infrastructure companies Scala Data Centers and Tecto Data Centers and Chilean telecommunications company Entel.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.