NAVER NVIDIA Investment: KRW 1.48 Trillion Deal Sends Shares Up 8.43%

The NAVER NVIDIA investment transformed the Korean internet company’s relationship with NVIDIA from a technology partnership into a strategic equity alliance.

NAVER Corporation, listed on the Korea Exchange under ticker 035420, closed the regular KRX session at KRW 225,000, up 8.43%. Trading volume reached 2.70 million shares, approximately 2.55 times its recent 20-session average.

NVIDIA plans to invest KRW 1.4809 trillion, or approximately US$1.01 billion at an indicative exchange rate near KRW 1,470 per dollar, through a private third-party share placement.

After the issuance and NAVER’s separately announced treasury-share cancellation, NVIDIA is expected to own approximately 4.5% and become NAVER’s third-largest shareholder behind Korea’s National Pension Service and BlackRock.

The announcement provides credible strategic value, but the intraday retreat from KRW 234,500 shows that investors have not removed dilution, execution and profitability risks.

NAVER NVIDIA Investment: Trading Snapshot

NAVER outperformed the KOSPI by 7.46 percentage points, making the advance clearly company-specific rather than a simple market rebound.

The NXT website displayed NAVER at KRW 229,500 shortly before the after-market close, 2.00% above the KRX close and 10.60% above the previous reference price.

NXT publicly states that its individual-stock display is delayed. This report therefore treats KRW 229,500 as the final publicly observed reference, not as an independently verified official closing print.

How the Third-Party Share Placement Works

Unlike a public rights offering, a Korean third-party allotment issues new shares directly to a selected investor.

• Investor: NVIDIA Corporation
• Total investment: KRW 1.4809 trillion
• Issue price: KRW 204,500 per share
• Payment date: October 30, 2026
• Expected listing date: November 20, 2026
• NVIDIA stake after issuance: approximately 4.4%
• Stake after NAVER’s treasury-share cancellation: approximately 4.5%

The issue price is approximately 9.1% below the July 27 KRX close.

New-share issuance creates dilution risk for existing investors. The market nevertheless reacted positively because NVIDIA is not entering as a passive financial investor.

The placement links the world’s dominant AI accelerator supplier directly to NAVER’s attempt to build a sovereign-AI infrastructure and cloud business.

Why the Treasury-Share Cancellation Matters

NAVER separately announced the cancellation of approximately KRW 1.017 trillion, or roughly US$692 million, of treasury shares on August 3.

Treasury-share cancellation permanently removes company-held shares and is generally viewed as supportive of per-share ownership metrics.

The simultaneous announcement also reduces the negative optics of issuing new shares to NVIDIA.

It does not completely eliminate dilution. The issuance and cancellation are separate transactions, and their final effect must be assessed using the completed share counts and the returns generated by the AI factory investment.

From Technology Partner to Equity Partner

NAVER and NVIDIA had already announced plans for a gigawatt-scale AI factory.

The initial roadmap called for operations to begin at 55 megawatts in 2027, expand to 100 MW during that year and reach 200 MW in 2028, with a longer-term path toward one gigawatt.

A subsequent announcement expanded the initial project from 55 MW to 200 MW.

The planned US$10 billion financing structure includes up to US$9 billion from Brookfield, US$1 billion from NVIDIA and the remaining contribution from NAVER.

The equity investment changes the relationship in three ways:

• GPU access: NVIDIA has a direct economic interest in NAVER’s infrastructure deployment.
• Capital structure: Brookfield financing may reduce the amount NAVER must fund entirely from its own balance sheet.
• Customer credibility: NVIDIA’s participation may strengthen NAVER’s ability to attract global sovereign-AI and enterprise customers.

The Deal Has Not Yet Produced Revenue

The placement is a financing and strategic-partnership event, not immediate operating revenue.

Building an AI factory requires data-center construction, power capacity, cooling systems, networking, GPUs and operating personnel.

Depreciation, interest expense and infrastructure operating costs may arrive before the project generates material profits.

Long-term value depends on four factors:

• Construction and power capacity being delivered on schedule
• Long-term customer contracts supporting high GPU utilization
• Service pricing exceeding power, financing and equipment costs
• AI infrastructure investment not materially weakening NAVER’s existing platform margins

Specific customer identities, contracted revenue and expected operating margins have not yet been fully disclosed.

The Intraday Price Action Was Less Bullish Than the Headline

NAVER opened at KRW 228,500, rallied to KRW 234,500, fell as low as KRW 219,000 and closed at KRW 225,000.

• Close above the intraday low: approximately 2.74%
• Close below the open: approximately 1.53%
• Close below the intraday high: approximately 4.05%
• Closing position within the daily range: approximately 38.7% from the low

The stock posted a large day-over-day gain but closed below its opening price and in the lower half of the session’s range.

This indicates that substantial profit-taking emerged above KRW 230,000.

Volume Confirmed That the Event Was Material

NAVER’s recent 20-session average volume was approximately 1.06 million shares.

July 27 volume reached 2.70 million shares, or approximately 2.55 times that average.

The increase gives the breakout more credibility than a low-volume rebound.

However, NAVER also jumped 11.73% on July 23 before falling 5.68% in the following session. Recent trading has been characterized by rapid reversals and elevated event-driven volatility.

Technical Position After the NAVER NVIDIA Investment

The shares have recovered above all three moving averages, confirming a clear improvement in short-term momentum.

RSI remains below the conventional overbought threshold of 70, but recent two-way volatility means the indicator should not be used as standalone confirmation.

Foreign Holdings Declined on the Rally

Public foreign-ownership data showed a decline of 206,238 NAVER shares on July 27.

Foreign ownership fell from 35.29% to 35.16% even as the share price advanced 8.43%.

The rally therefore cannot be classified as a foreign-investor accumulation event.

A final institution-specific net-flow figure was not independently consistent across publicly available sources at the publication cutoff, so this report does not publish an unverified number.

Brokerage Forecasts and Earnings Assumptions

LS Securities maintained a Buy rating and a KRW 303,000 target price in a July 3 report.

It estimated second-quarter revenue of KRW 3.4023 trillion and operating profit of KRW 561.4 billion, supported by commerce, C2C and enterprise AI growth.

The report also identified infrastructure spending and commerce marketing costs as ongoing margin risks.

Samsung Securities had maintained a more conservative KRW 260,000 target, citing slower near-term profit growth as NAVER increases spending on AI infrastructure, commerce and payments.

These targets were published before the latest equity-placement announcement or before a full earnings-model revision incorporating it.

The next meaningful signal will be whether analysts raise expected AI infrastructure revenue without proportionally increasing depreciation, interest and operating-cost assumptions.

Key Upside Drivers

• KRW 1.4809 trillion strategic investment from NVIDIA
• NVIDIA becoming NAVER’s third-largest shareholder
• KRW 1.017 trillion treasury-share cancellation
• Expansion of the initial AI factory from 55 MW to 200 MW
• Up to US$9 billion of Brookfield financing
• Potential improvement in GPU access and global customer acquisition
• Trading volume at approximately 2.55 times the recent average

Key Downside Risks

• Dilution from newly issued shares
• The gap between the KRW 204,500 issue price and market price
• Large capital requirements before revenue generation
• Higher power, equipment and financing costs
• Limited disclosure on customer contracts and project margins
• Strong intraday profit-taking above KRW 230,000
• Foreign ownership declining during the rally

Key Support Levels

First Support: KRW 219,000–220,000

This area combines the July 27 intraday low and the July 23 closing price.

Critical Support: KRW 204,500–207,500

The zone includes NVIDIA’s issue price and NAVER’s previous KRX close.

It is the most important area for assessing whether the market continues to assign a premium to the strategic deal.

Short-Term Invalidation: Below KRW 202,000

KRW 202,000 was the July 24 intraday low.

A high-volume close below this level would invalidate the immediate breakout structure.

Key Resistance Levels

First Resistance: KRW 229,500–234,500

The zone includes the final observed NXT public-screen reference and the July 27 KRX high.

Second Resistance: KRW 240,000–260,000

KRW 240,000 is a psychological level, while KRW 260,000 corresponds to the more conservative domestic brokerage target.

Medium-Term Resistance: KRW 280,000–303,000

This area overlaps NAVER’s recent annual-high region and LS Securities’ target price.

Reaching it sustainably would likely require customer-contract disclosures and upward earnings revisions.

Three Scenarios

Bull Case

NAVER holds KRW 225,000 and the observed NXT reference near KRW 229,500, then breaks above KRW 234,500 on expanding volume.

A stabilization in foreign flows and upward analyst revisions could open a test of KRW 240,000 and KRW 260,000.

Base Case

The stock remains volatile between KRW 207,500 and KRW 234,500.

Strategic-partnership optimism is repeatedly offset by dilution, capital-spending and profit-taking concerns.

This is currently the most plausible short-term scenario.

Bear Case

The shares lose KRW 219,000 and then close below KRW 207,500.

Investors could shift their focus from NVIDIA’s strategic role toward the issue price, project costs and the absence of disclosed customer economics.

Invalidation Conditions

The short-term bullish thesis would weaken materially on a volume-backed close below KRW 207,500.

A break below KRW 202,000 would invalidate the July 27 breakout structure.

The base-case range should be revised toward the bull case if NAVER closes above KRW 234,500 and subsequently establishes support above KRW 240,000.

Upcoming Milestones

• August 3, 2026: Scheduled treasury-share cancellation
• Second half of 2026: Planned launch of NVIDIA-based AI agent platform
• October 30, 2026: Scheduled NVIDIA placement payment
• November 20, 2026: Expected listing of new shares
• Construction, power and GPU-delivery milestones for the 200 MW AI factory
• Disclosure of anchor customers and contract economics
• Brokerage revisions to revenue, operating profit and target prices

Related Korean Market Analysis

For the broader Korean market conditions preceding NAVER’s event-driven rally, see:

KOSPI Holds 6,500 by a Thread: Why the Intraday Rebound Failed

Bottom Line

The NAVER NVIDIA investment is not a non-binding memorandum. It is a KRW 1.4809 trillion strategic equity-placement decision.

NVIDIA is set to become NAVER’s third-largest shareholder, while Brookfield financing supports the transition of the AI factory project from planning toward execution.

The treasury-share cancellation is also constructive for shareholder perception.

However, dilution, large upfront capital requirements, uncertain customer economics and declining foreign holdings remain material risks.

• First support: KRW 219,000–220,000
• Critical support: KRW 204,500–207,500
• Short-term invalidation: Below KRW 202,000
• First breakout: KRW 229,500–234,500
• Trend-extension confirmation: Sustained closes above KRW 240,000

The July 27 rally was supported by a genuine strategic event. Still, NVIDIA becoming a shareholder and NAVER generating attractive returns from an AI factory are not the same outcome. Customer contracts and upward earnings revisions will matter more than the next one-day price breakout.

Sources

• Newsis: NVIDIA placement, treasury-share cancellation and NAVER share-price reaction
• MK Market: NAVER KRX price and volume data
• Nextrade: NXT market and delayed individual-stock data
• Investing.com: NAVER historical KRX data
• MK Market: NAVER foreign ownership changes
• NAVER: 200 MW AI factory agreement with Brookfield and NVIDIA
• NAVER: Gigawatt-scale AI factory roadmap
• LS Securities: NAVER earnings forecast and valuation
• Samsung Securities report briefing

AI and Investment-Risk Disclosure

This report was prepared with AI assistance using publicly available KRX data, the NXT public display, official corporate releases, news reporting and brokerage research.

The individual NXT figure was taken from a delayed public screen and is identified with its observation time rather than presented as an independently verified official close.

Moving averages, RSI, average volume, percentage changes and currency conversions were recalculated from the cited data. Results may vary slightly by methodology and exchange rate.

Brokerage target prices and AI-factory forecasts depend on assumptions regarding revenue, utilization, capital costs and valuation. They do not guarantee future prices or business outcomes.

This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell or hold NAVER shares or any other financial product.