Naver to invest over $690 mil. in GPU from next year

Naver's logo is displayed at the company's headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. The company announced record-high quarterly sales of 3.14 trillion won. Yonhap

Naver plans to invest at least 1 trillion won ($690 million) starting next year to secure graphics processing units (GPUs) and expand infrastructure for its artificial intelligence (AI) business, including physical AI, the company said Wednesday.

During its third-quarter earnings call, Naver CFO Kim Hee-cheol said the company’s AI services are beginning to have tangible results, and that “capital expenditures will gradually expand in line with this trend.”

“As we strengthen new businesses such as physical AI starting next year, we expect to invest around 1 trillion won solely in GPUs,” he said. “The recent agreement reached with Nvidia to secure 60,000 GPUs will also be included as part of this investment.”

During Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s visit to Korea on Oct. 31, Nvidia announced that it would supply a total of 260,000 GPUs, worth 14 trillion won, to major Korean partners, including the government, Samsung, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group and Naver Cloud. Naver agreed to secure 60,000 Blackwell GPUs, the largest allocation among the partner entities.

Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin, left, applauds during a meeting between President Lee Jae Myung, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and other Korean business leaders during Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation events in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Oct. 31. From left are Chairman Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Huang, President Lee, Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun. Yonhap

Naver plans to use the GPUs for physical AI projects, in which artificial intelligence communicates and operates within real world industrial sites and systems. The company added that the investment will not only support expansion of its physical AI businesses, but also be directly linked to its revenue model through GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS).

The company said it has been developing physical AI technologies since 2017 and created platforms such as ARC, a robot operating system, and ALIKE, an indoor positioning software. Naver said it believes these technologies, among the most advanced in the world, are currently being tested at the company’s offices.

The transition was visible in the company’s earnings in the third quarter of this year. Naver posted 3.14 trillion won in sales and 570.6 billion won in operating profit, up 15.6 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively. This was the company’s highest ever revenue and operating profit for a three-month period.

Its enterprise business posted 150 billion won in sales, up 3.8 percent from a year earlier. Naver attributed this to new revenues from its GPUaaS businesses.

“To achieve the value of on-service AI, we have focused on advancing AI integration across our services and businesses, which has led to tangible results in expanding business opportunities,” Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon said. “As the era of AI agents approaches, we will further broaden AI adoption across more areas to strengthen our core competitiveness while exploring new growth engines for global expansion.”