By Reuters

(Reuters) - Shares of South Korean internet and cloud service giant Naver (035420.KS) jumped more than 10% on Monday after it said Nvidia (NVDA.O) would acquire $1 billion of its new shares to finance a project to expand an AI data centre.

The move ​underscores a deepening partnership between the two companies, which in June announced plans to build global ​AI infrastructure to tap demand for sovereign AI in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and ⁠the Middle East.

As the first step, the two firms and investment group Brookfield announced on Friday plans ​to expand Naver's AI data centre in South Korea with up to $10 billion in funding.

Naver said on ​Monday it will place 7.2 million new shares with Nvidia for 204,500 won each, or a 1% discount to its closing price on Friday, as part of the agreement. Brookfield will provide up to $9 billion in financing as ​the project's capital partner, Naver added.

With the investment, Nvidia would become one of the biggest shareholders of ​Naver, owning a 4.5% stake. The National Pension Service was the biggest shareholder of Naver with a 9.25% stake, ‌followed ⁠by BlackRock Fund Advisors with 6.12% as of end-2025.

The expansion will be built at Naver's GAK data centre in the city of Sejong in South Korea, using Nvidia's Vera Rubin and Blackwell chip platforms, and it will have a capacity of 200 megawatts by 2028.

In June, Naver and Nvidia announced an ​agreement to jointly pursue ​the development of gigawatt-scale ⁠global AI infrastructure in South Korea and overseas.

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When the deal was announced, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Naver would be 10 times larger once the ​vision was realised.

One gigawatt is about four times the maximum capacity of ​GAK Sejong, South ⁠Korea's largest hyperscale data centre operated by Naver. It represents a scale capable of accommodating hundreds of thousands of Nvidia's latest GPUs at once, Naver said.

Huang has argued that nations should build and control their ⁠own AI ​infrastructure, a strategy that could broaden Nvidia's customer base beyond ​major U.S. hyperscalers.

Nvidia has invested in AI, cloud and other companies, including a $30 billion investment in OpenAI and a $10 billion investment ​in Anthropic.

Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Additional reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Jamie Freed

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