Overview
- Naver reported on Friday that second‑quarter net profit rose 41.6% to 704.3 billion won while revenue climbed about 16.2% to roughly 3.38 trillion won and operating profit edged down 0.2% as AI investment weighed on margins.
- The company said AI improvements drove much of the sales lift and that AI accounted for more than 60 percent of the quarter’s advertising revenue growth.
- Naver disclosed that its AI factory partnership with Nvidia will start generating revenue in the first half of 2027, launch at 55 megawatts of capacity in 2027, expand to 100 MW by year‑end 2027 and reach 200 MW in 2028 as it aims over time for gigawatt‑scale buildout.
- Under the deal Nvidia will invest $1 billion directly in Naver and the company will operate the facility through a wholly owned subsidiary that will book the computing revenue, costs, and profit.
- To support shareholders and manage the near‑term profit hit from infrastructure spending, Naver repurchased about 4.9 million shares for roughly 1 trillion won and said it will sign multi‑year customer contracts and rely on Nvidia’s ecosystem to ease chip and financing risks.