NAVER Pins Growth on AI Factories, Agents and Logistics

NAVER has signed a five-year, 2 trillion won ($1.4 billion) contract to supply roughly 20 megawatts of AI computing capacity to a U.S. inference company. The deal, announced at the third-quarter earnings call on the 12th, is the first supply contract in the Korean platform operator's AI factory push and anchors a growth strategy built on three pillars: AI data centers, logistics and AI agents.

CEO Choi Soo-yeon said the company "will raise competitiveness not only in new businesses through the AI factory but across the core industries that span NAVER's online and offline ecosystem." The promise covers a wide front. Whether capital and margins sustain it is the open question.

What has NAVER actually secured?

The AI factory business — data centers dedicated to AI computing — runs jointly with Nvidia and Brookfield. Phase one covers 200 megawatts. The signed contract takes 20 megawatts; roughly 180 megawatts remain unsold. NAVER says it is in talks with more than 10 global AI companies over that capacity.

The company pre-emptively built liquid-cooled data centers capable of housing Vera Rubin, Nvidia's next-generation graphics processing unit platform, and argues this positions it well in future negotiations. Pre-fitting cooling is not the same as signed demand. Revenue from the first contract will be recognized only once commercial service begins in the first half of next year.

How big is the logistics bet?

NAVER is establishing a logistics subsidiary and will invest about 1 trillion won ($700 million) through 2030 to strengthen delivery infrastructure in stages. Fulfillment center operations and delivery stay with existing partners. NAVER leads the design of systems and data infrastructure.

"We will continue cooperating with existing partners on center operations and delivery, while NAVER takes the lead in designing systems and data infrastructure to build a structure in which commerce and logistics mesh more closely," Choi said. She added that shopping search and order data will let NAVER forecast demand in advance and place inventory closer to users, delivering faster shipping "with the same infrastructure."

What about the AI agent app?

NAVER plans to launch a personal AI agent app this year that integrates search, shopping, reservations and payments. The company's claimed edge is speed: connecting its own services — Place, Map, NAVER Pay — directly through application programming interfaces, without third-party intermediaries.

"Unique data such as users' searches and reviews, combined with transaction histories through NAVER Pay membership, will allow us to grasp user intent more accurately," Choi said. She also promised staged expansion of official integrations and partnerships with outside partners. No launch date more precise than "this year" was given.

Why is NAVER pushing so hard abroad?

Overseas operations are widening from digital twins (virtual replicas of physical environments) into robotics and mapping. NAVER is preparing an outdoor delivery robot service in Riyadh, targeting launch in the first half of 2027. The plan combines Nuri, a robot from NAVER Labs, with local digital twin and map data for residential complexes, then expands into a smart city service linking search, reservations, ordering and delivery through Balady Plus, a map-based daily-life service.

Choi framed the global ambition plainly: "NAVER has diverse ecosystems in Japan, the United States and Europe as well. On the strength of the competitiveness of our agent service, we will be able to expand into a global service going forward."

What do the numbers say about the core business?

Third-quarter revenue rose 10.7% year on year to 3.4724 trillion won ($2.4 billion). Operating profit fell 20.9% to 451.3 billion won ($316 million). Rising investment in AI infrastructure, content and offline businesses worsened profitability even as revenue grew. The NAVER platform division's profit margin dropped 9.7 percentage points from a year earlier.

CFO Kim Hee-chul was blunt: "given the competition and maturity of the advertising and commerce markets, recovering the profit margin to 30% will not be easy in the short term." That admission is the context for everything above. With margins at the core business under pressure, profitability in AI infrastructure and logistics is now the decisive task, not an option.