NVIDIA, NAVER Partner To Build Gigawatt-Scale AI Infrastructure In South Korea
(RTTNews) - NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) announced an expanded partnership with NAVER Corp. (035420.KS), which plans to scale AI factories from an initial 55 megawatts to gigawatt capacity using NVIDIA's DSX …
(RTTNews) - NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) announced an expanded partnership with NAVER Corp. (035420.KS), which plans to scale AI factories from an initial 55 m
Read Full Story at Nasdaq News →Why This Matters
This partnership marks a decisive step in transforming South Korea into a critical hub for the global AI race, positioning the country as a counterbalance to U.S. and Chinese dominance in infrastructure. By scaling AI factories to gigawatt capacity, NVIDIA and NAVER are not just expanding computational power—they're redefining the economic and technological landscape of the region, with ripple effects for semiconductor supply chains and cloud services worldwide.
Background Context
South Korea’s government has actively courted AI infrastructure investments as part of its Digital New Deal initiative, aiming to offset declining semiconductor revenues with high-value AI services. NAVER, already a dominant force in domestic cloud and search, has been racing to catch up with global hyperscalers like AWS and Alibaba, while NVIDIA’s dominance in AI chips has made it a de facto gatekeeper for next-generation data centers.
What Happens Next
Watch for regulatory scrutiny as this infrastructure expansion may trigger government reviews under South Korea’s data sovereignty laws or NVIDIA’s export controls on advanced AI hardware. Additionally, the timeline for gigawatt-scale deployment will hinge on power grid stability and cooling innovation, given South Korea’s limited land resources and high energy costs.
Bigger Picture
The collaboration signals a broader shift toward "AI nationalism," where nations prioritize domestic control over computational resources to secure economic and strategic advantages. It also underscores the growing convergence of semiconductor manufacturing, cloud computing, and national industrial policy—a trend likely to intensify as AI adoption accelerates across industries.
