TL;DR — NAVER and NVIDIA have officially announced a sovereign AI infrastructure alliance. NAVER will expand its GAK Sejong hyperscale data center using NVIDIA's DSX full-stack platform, starting at 55MW in early 2027, scaling to 100MW by year-end, and reaching 200MW in 2028 — with long-term gigawatt-scale ambitions. The infrastructure will power next-generation HyperCLOVA X models, the Seoul World Model, and agentic AI services for enterprise and government customers globally.

NAVER and NVIDIA announced in July 2026 a landmark partnership to build gigawatt-scale sovereign AI infrastructure anchored in South Korea and stretching across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. At the heart of the deal: NAVER's next-generation GAK Sejong data center in Sejong City will be outfitted with NVIDIA's DSX™ (Data Center-as-a-Service) platform, turning it into a full-stack AI factory capable of handling the world's most demanding AI workloads while keeping data within local regulatory boundaries.

What Is NVIDIA DSX?

NVIDIA DSX is not just a chip deal — it is a complete end-to-end platform covering accelerated computing hardware, high-speed networking, AI software stacks, and foundational models. Designed to let organizations rapidly design, build, and scale large AI factories, DSX has already been deployed across Europe and the Middle East with telecom carriers and national AI enterprises. NAVER's adoption of DSX at GAK Sejong brings high-density accelerated computing, energy-efficient cooling, advanced automation, and robust disaster-response capabilities under one integrated platform.

Phase 1 Launch Early 2027 — 55 MW
Phase 2 Target Late 2027 — 100 MW
Phase 3 Target 2028 — 200 MW
Long-Term Goal Gigawatt-scale (domestic + overseas)
Platform NVIDIA DSX™ Full-Stack
AI Models Next-gen HyperCLOVA X · Seoul World Model
Markets South Korea, Europe, Middle East

HyperCLOVA X and the Seoul World Model

This partnership directly accelerates NAVER's flagship AI model development. For the next generation of HyperCLOVA X, NAVER is fine-tuning NVIDIA's Nemotron 3 Ultra open model with its proprietary Korean-language data and training expertise — creating a more capable, culturally fluent model for Korean and global enterprise customers. The Seoul World Model and NAVER's agentic AI services will also be built and trained on this new infrastructure, pushing both products to new capability levels.

"Sovereign AI" means the ability to operate AI services without your data ever leaving a defined geographic or regulatory boundary. As US and Chinese cloud hyperscalers dominate the market, demand for trusted, regional alternatives has surged among governments and enterprises across Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. NAVER — with deep Korean-language expertise and a hyperscale data center operation outside the US ecosystem — is positioning itself as exactly that alternative.

A Multi-Region Alliance, Not Just One Data Center

The scope of this deal extends far beyond Sejong. NAVER already operates sovereign AI cloud services in Europe and the Middle East, and the combination of its hyperscale data center capabilities with NVIDIA DSX gives it the infrastructure muscle to serve local data-sovereignty regulations in those markets at greater scale. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang called the partnership "a milestone in building global sovereign AI infrastructure anchored in Korea."

Phase Timeline Capacity Scope
1 Early 2027 55 MW GAK Sejong DSX initial launch
2 Late 2027 100 MW Domestic expansion + overseas demand
3 2028 200 MW Accelerate Europe/Middle East sovereign cloud
Long-term TBD Gigawatt-scale Global AI factory alliance complete
NVIDIA made multiple Korea-related announcements in parallel: it also unveiled a broad AI ecosystem partnership with the South Korean government, Samsung, SK hynix, and Hyundai. SK hynix separately announced a multi-year co-development partnership for next-generation AI memory aligned with NVIDIA's Vera Rubin supercomputer and Jetson Thor robotics roadmap. South Korea is rapidly emerging as one of NVIDIA's most strategically critical partners across chips, infrastructure, and AI models.

Why This Matters

This is bigger than a data center expansion. NAVER — Korea's largest internet company — is joining forces with the world's dominant AI hardware and platform provider to offer government agencies and enterprises a credible, Asia-based sovereign AI cloud that does not route through US or Chinese hyperscalers. For Korean public institutions focused on AI sovereignty, and for enterprises across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East seeking compliant alternatives, this partnership opens a new path: world-class AI compute power with local data control.

The roadmap from 55MW to gigawatt-scale also signals that NAVER and NVIDIA see sovereign AI demand not as niche but as mainstream — and are betting that the infrastructure to serve it will be one of the defining infrastructure races of the late 2020s.

  • NAVER and NVIDIA officially announced a sovereign AI infrastructure alliance in July 2026
  • GAK Sejong data center expands using NVIDIA DSX: 55MW (early 2027) → 100MW → 200MW (2028) → gigawatt-scale
  • Next-gen HyperCLOVA X will be trained by fine-tuning NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra on NAVER's proprietary Korean-language data
  • Partnership extends across Europe and the Middle East for sovereign AI cloud services
  • Part of a broader Korea–NVIDIA ecosystem push including SK hynix memory co-development and government AI agreements