NAVER Group is seeking more than 10 trillion won, or roughly $7.3 billion, from Brookfield Asset Management to finance the GAK Sejong sovereign AI factory project it is developing with Nvidia.
According to Korea JoongAng Daily, NAVER founder and board chairman Lee Hae-jin will travel to Canada this week to meet Brookfield executives, then continue on to Silicon Valley for a meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Funding plan and build-out schedule
NAVER announced in June that it would work with Nvidia to build an AI factory using the NVIDIA DSX platform. Under the timeline cited in the report, the first 55MW facility at GAK Sejong is scheduled to start operations in the first half of 2027, and the full project is targeted to reach 1 gigawatt in 2029.
Chain News previously documented the initial disclosure of the partnership in a June report on Nvidia and NAVER’s plan to use the DSX platform for an artificial intelligence factory.
Why Brookfield is in the picture
Brookfield Asset Management oversees more than $1 trillion in assets and has been expanding its AI infrastructure investments. The report says Brookfield and partners including Nvidia set up the $100 billion Brookfield Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund in November 2025, with a focus on AI data centers, compute infrastructure, and energy systems.
Lee Hae-jin’s North America trip
The North America trip is described as the first time NAVER’s founder has personally led capital raising for the group’s AI infrastructure push.
- Canada: meetings with Brookfield executives
- Silicon Valley: meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang
Korea JoongAng Daily said neither side has publicly disclosed the detailed agenda or the structure of any potential investment.
Scope of the NAVER-Nvidia partnership
The collaboration covers three areas.
- Next-generation HyperCLOVA X: fine-tuned from Nvidia Nemotron 3 Ultra for Korean domestic and global enterprise customers.
- Seoul World Model: built with NAVER’s proprietary street-view and spatial data on top of Nvidia Cosmos world foundation models.
- AI Agent Platform: based on a technical blueprint from Nvidia NemoClaw and expected to launch in the second half of 2026.
According to an Nvidia news release from June, NAVER also plans to export its sovereign AI capabilities to markets in Europe and the Middle East.