Naver said on Monday it met key companies and government agencies in major South American countries including Brazil and Chile to discuss practical cooperation on entering the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure market. The schedule was carried out through participation in an economic delegation accompanying President Lee Jae-myung’s trip to three South American countries.

Team Naver executives, including CEO Choi Soo-yeon (최수연), Koo Dong-hyun (구동현), head of the strategic planning division, and Kim Yu-won (김유원), CEO of Naver Cloud, held relay meetings in Brazil with executives of Scala Data Centers (SDC) and Tecto Data Centers (TDC). SDC is pushing ahead with an AI data centre (AIDC) campus called “Scala AI City” with capacity of 4.75 GW. TDC is pursuing a project to build an AI-focused data centre with capacity of up to 200 MW.

Team Naver proposed a joint business model under which it would directly operate its own graphics processing units (GPUs) and AI cloud in the AIDC they are developing and sell computing resources to companies in nearby countries. It also agreed to continue detailed working-level discussions by sharing Naver’s experience in uninterrupted data centre operations and its know-how in high-efficiency liquid cooling technology.

In Chile, it met executives of Entel, the country’s biggest telecommunications company, to discuss software-as-a-service (SaaS) distribution, smart cities and GPU cluster construction projects.

It also met Chilean government officials including Carolina Rossi (카롤리나 로시), vice minister of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, and Rodrigo Duran (로드리고 두란), secretary general of the National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA), and introduced public AI solution infrastructure such as “Naver Works” and “Clova CareCall”. The Chilean government asked for Naver’s participation in a public AI transition aligned with its “Digital Government Strategy 2030” and in a sovereign AI infrastructure project based on graphics processing unit as a service (GPUaaS).

Choi said, “South America is emerging as a new hub for global AI infrastructure based on abundant energy resources and rapidly growing digital demand.” She added, “As we have identified specific opportunities for cooperation that can combine Naver’s full-stack AI technology and operational experience with local governments and major companies, we will contribute to the development of the AI industry in South America through follow-up working-level discussions.”