Nvidia will pay Naver $1 billion for a strategic equity investment on Nov. 6. Once the investment is completed, Nvidia is expected to secure about a 4.54% stake in Naver, becoming the third-largest shareholder after the National Pension Service and BlackRock.

A revised filing on Naver's rights offering on Oct. 30 showed the payment date for the third-party allotment rights offering to Nvidia was changed to Nov. 6 from Oct. 30. The planned listing date for the new shares was also adjusted to Nov. 27 from Nov. 20.

The schedule was confirmed after conditions precedent for Nvidia's equity investment were met. Naver signed a $9 billion contract on Oct. 27 with global alternative investment firm Brookfield to secure computing infrastructure. It met the condition requiring it to secure at least $9 billion worth of AI computing infrastructure excluding the funds from the rights offering.

Nvidia is investing by subscribing to newly issued Naver common shares. The total purchase price is $1 billion, and the issue price for the new shares is 204,500 won per share.

The planned number of shares to be issued listed in the filing is 7,241,564, and the planned amount to be raised in won terms is about 1.48 trillion won. This is a tentative figure calculated based on 1,480.9 won per dollar applied at the time of the July filing.

The final number of shares to be issued and the amount to be raised in won will be fixed by applying the market average exchange rate at the Seoul Money Brokerage market at around 4 p.m. on Nov. 3. Naver plans to file a revised disclosure with the confirmed number of shares and the amount to be raised.

After the investment is completed, Nvidia is expected to become Naver's third-largest shareholder after the National Pension Service and BlackRock. Based on the currently disclosed tentative number of shares to be issued, the expected stake is about 4.54%.

By contrast, the stake held by Naver founder and board chairman Lee Hae-jin (이해진) is expected to be diluted due to the new share issuance. Based on the existing stake, it is expected to fall to about 3.84%. The final stakes of Nvidia and Lee could vary depending on the number of shares to be issued, which will be fixed on Nov. 3.

The new shares Nvidia will acquire will be electronically registered as mandatory holdings with the Korea Securities Depository, restricting withdrawal and sale for 1 year. Naver plans to use the funds raised through the rights offering for new business related to its AI factory.

Earlier, Naver signed a share subscription agreement with Nvidia in July and decided to push ahead with a joint project to build a global AI factory. Brookfield will secure computing infrastructure such as GPUs and data centres, and Naver Cloud will use it to provide AI computing services to external customers. Nvidia will be responsible for GPU supply and technical cooperation.

Naver plans to start operating 55 megawatts of infrastructure in the first half of 2027 using its hyperscale data centre, Gak Sejong, in Sejong City as a hub and expand it to 200 megawatts by 2028. In the longer term, it plans to pursue the construction of a global AI factory on a 1-gigawatt scale.

With the payment schedule now confirmed, Naver has entered the execution phase of its capital cooperation with Nvidia. It plans to complete the rights offering procedures and expand its AI factory business by building computing infrastructure and securing external customers.