Naver chairman meets Brookfield CEO, discusses AI data center business
Naver Board Chairman Lee Hae-jin, third from left, poses with Brookfield Asset Management CEO Bruce Flatt, second from left, during their meeting at Naver's 1784 office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. From left are Brookfield Head of Korea and Japan Park Jun-woo, Flatt, Lee and Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon. Courtesy of Naver
Naver Board Chairman Lee Hae-jin and Brookfield Asset Management CEO Bruce Flatt discussed Brookfield’s investment commitment to a 1-gigawatt artificial intelligence (AI) data center project jointly pursued by Naver and Nvidia.
Naver said Friday that Lee and Flatt met at Naver’s 1784 office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, a day earlier and held follow-up discussions on Naver’s AI Factory project.
Brookfield is a leading global alternative asset manager with more than $1 trillion in assets under management. In July, the company committed up to $9 billion to the project’s first phase, accounting for 200 megawatts.
During the meeting, Lee expressed gratitude to Brookfield for supporting Naver’s AI Factory vision through its investment decision. He said he hopes the two companies can lead the global AI infrastructure market by combining Brookfield’s accumulated expertise in infrastructure investment with Naver’s AI technologies.
In the first phase, Naver will establish a wholly owned subsidiary to operate the AI Factory, while Brookfield will set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that will directly purchase and own the physical infrastructure needed for operations, including data center equipment and graphics processing units.
The Naver subsidiary will lease computing resources from the SPV and sell the computing power to external customers, and will pay usage fees to the SPV.
The structure allows Naver to reduce its initial financial burden by avoiding large upfront purchases of equipment. Brookfield plans to continue the partnership in subsequent phases following the financing of the first phase.
Flatt thanked Naver for choosing Brookfield as the capital partner and said Brookfield will serve not only as a financial investor but also as a partner providing practical support across the business.