Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin, right, shakes hands with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang after signing a $1 billion strategic investment agreement at Nvidia's headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., Friday (local time). Courtesy of Naver
Nvidia has agreed to acquire a 4.5 percent stake in Naver through a $1 billion strategic investment, deepening a partnership aimed at building large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and expanding sovereign AI services.
Naver announced Monday that it had signed an agreement to issue about 7.24 million new shares to Nvidia through a third-party allotment, marking its first such share sale in 22 years and the first since its 2008 KOSPI listing.
The new shares, priced at 204,500 won ($140) each, represent a 4.5 percent stake in Naver. Payment is scheduled for Oct. 30.
Naver said it would cancel about 4.9 million treasury shares worth about 1 trillion won on Aug. 3 to offset shareholder dilution from the new share issuance. Following the cancellation, Nvidia is expected to become Naver's third-largest shareholder, behind the National Pension Service and BlackRock.
